Towards Big Steps Enabled by Big Data Science
Two workshops on big data in education were organized. The first workshop, held in January, focused on case studies of effective partnerships outside of education between big data producers and consumers (see below for the agenda and slides). The second workshop held in early June and focused on case studies of big data usage in education, building on insights from the first. Chris Dede from Harvard University was the intellectual lead for this effort.
These workshops were collectively designed to accomplish the following objectives.
1. To build capacity at NSF and in the field for effectively generating and using big data in education, particularly in higher education
2. To articulate the conditions for success for effective usage of big data (infrastructures; analytic methods; access, security, privacy issues; data scientists, research agendas)
3. To study models of effective partnerships between sources of big data and its consumers (researchers, practitioners, policymakers)
4. To publish a volume that describes insights from the workshops for the field, including the strengths and evolution of current work, as well as a research agenda and investment strategies.
Workshop 2: Advancing Data-Intensive Research in Education
Waterview Conference Center, 1919 North Lynn St., Arlington, VA, 22209
Workshop Report Participant List Day 1 and Day 2 of #CRADATA
Sunday, May 31, 2015
| 5:30-7:00 | Opening reception at Le Meridian Hotel, Arlington |
Monday, June 1, 2015
| 7:30-8:30 | Breakfast |
| 8:30-8:50 | Welcome from Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Assistant Director, Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) |
| 8:50-9:00 | Purposes and Processes of the Workshop Susan Singer, Division Director, Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE) Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard University |
| 9:00-10:00 | NSF’s Role in Advancing Data Science Susan Singer (DUE); Taylor Martin, Program Officer, Division of Research on Learning (EHR/DRL); Gül Kremer, Program Officer, Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE); Elizabeth Burrows, NSF AAAS Fellow, Division of Mathematical Sciences (MPS/DMS) |
| 10:00-10:15 | Break |
| 10:15-11:15 | Predictive Models based on Behavioral Patterns in Higher Education Ellen Wagner (PAR Framework); David Yaskin (Hobsons) Chair: Chris Dede, Harvard |
| 11:15-12:30 | Dialogue on Privacy, Security, and Ethics Elizabeth Buchanan (U.W. Stout); Ari Gesher (Palantir); Patricia Hammer (PK Legal); Una May O’Reilly(MIT) Chair: Anthony E. Kelly (Office of the Assistant Director, EHR/OAD) |
| 12:30-1:30 | Working Lunch (“birds of a feather” groups to discuss analytics, infrastructure, data sharing, data standards/interoperability, privacy/security/ethics, producer/consumer relationships, building human capacity, visualization…) |
| 1:30-2:45 | Integrating Data Repositories Ken Koedinger (LearnLab Datashop); Rick Gilmore (Databrary); Edith Gummer (Kauffman Foundation) Chair: Gül Kremer, Program Officer DUE |
| 2:45-3:00 | Break |
| 3:00-4:15 | MOOCs Diana Oblinger (EDUCAUSE); Piotr Mitros (edX); Andrew Ho (Harvard) Chair: John Cherniavsky, Senior Advisor, EHR |
| 4:15-5:15 | Plenary Discussion – Synthesis of the Day |
Dinner on your own – please form groups around topics of interest.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
| 7:30-8:30 | Breakfast |
| 8:30-8:45 | Summary of yesterday; framing of today |
| 8:45-10:00 | Games and simulations for training, informal post-secondary learning Matthew Berland (UW); Eric Klopfer (MIT); Valerie Shute (Florida State) Chair: Dexter Fletcher (IDA) |
| 10:00-10:15 | Break |
| 10:30-12:00 | Breakout GroupsNew forms of teaching and learning based on data-rich environments, visualization, and analytics Moderator: Susan Singer Infrastructure Moderator: Taylor Martin Producer/consumer relationships and partnerships Moderator: Chris DedeBuilding human capacity Moderators: Earnestine Easter, Program Officer, Division of Graduate Education (EHR/DGE) and Michelle Dunn, Senior Advisor for Data Science Training, Diversity, and Outreach (NIH) |
| 12:00-1:00 | Working Lunch – Sharing insights from Breakouts |
| 1:00-2:15 | The Way Forward: Integrating Insights Vijay Kumar (MIT); Jere Confrey (NCSU); George Siemens (UT-Arlington) Chair: Chris Dede |
| 2:15-2:30 | Funding Opportunities |
| 2:30-3:00 | Plenary Discussion: Closing Thoughts and Next Steps Susan Singer and Chris Dede |
Past Workshop
Agenda from the first workshop (slides are hyperlinked in blue if available).
Thursday January 29, 2015
| 8:30-8:40 | Welcome Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Assistant Director, Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) |
| 8:40-9:00 | Organizers Describe the Purposes and Processes of the Workshop Dr. Susan Singer, Division Director, Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE)Dr. Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard University Graduate School of Education |
| 9:00-9:30 | Brief introductions by Presenters and Participants |
| 9:30-11:00 | Big Data Project in Earth Sciences Mr. Viswanath Nandigam, Technical Project Manager, San Diego Super Computing Center Dr. Benjamin Cash, Research Scientist, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA), George Mason University |
| 11:00-11:15 | Break |
| 11:15-12:45 | Big Data Project in Biology NSF PO: Dr. Diane Okamuro, Plant Genome Research ProgramDr. Doreen Ware, Computational Biologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service & Adjunct Associate Professor at CSHL. Cold Spring Harbor Lab |
| 12:45-1:45 | Working Lunch (“birds of a feather” groups to discuss methods, infrastructure, policies, data standards/interoperability, privacy/security/ethics, producer/consumer relationships, building human capacity in data science…) |
| 2:00-3:30 | Big Data Project in Astronomy Dr. Lucy Fortson, Associate Professor of Physics, University of Minnesota Dr. Kirk Borne, Professor of Astrophysics and Computational Science, George Mason University |
| 3:30—3:45 | Break |
| 3:45-5:15 | Big Data Project in CISE/Health IT: From DiabeticLink to SilverLink Dr. Hsinchun Chen, Ph.D., Regents’ Professor, Thomas R. Brown Chair Professor, Director, Artificial Intelligence Lab, University of Arizona Dr. Randall A. Brown, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Network |
| 5:15-5:30 | Recap of the Day Dr. Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard University Graduate School of Education |
| 5:30 | Reception Participants are encouraged to arrange informal dinner groups |
Friday, January 30, 2015
| 8:30-8:45 | Summary of Yesterday; Framing of TodayDrs. Susan Singer and Chris Dede |
| 8:45-10:15 | Big Data Project in Computer Science and Engineering Dr. Dimitris N. Metaxas, Distinguished Professor in the Division of Computer and Information Sciences at Rutgers University Dr. Ari Kaufman, Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Computer Science Department, Director of the Center of Visual Computing (CVC), and Chief Scientist of the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook |
| 10:15-10:30 | Break |
| 10:30-11:30 | Breakouts on Cross-cutting Issues
Infrastructure Data Sharing Data standards/interoperability Privacy/security/ethics Building capacity in data sciences Producer/consumer relationships and partnerships |
| 11:30-1:00 | Methods and Analytics Analysis of numerical data: Dr. Finbarr (Barry) Sloane, PO, EHR/DRL Machine learning, analysis of non-numerical data: Dr. Piotr Mitros, Chief Scientist,edX |
| 1:00-2:00 | Working Lunch: Discussion on whats Needed in Research and in Federal Initiatives |
| 2:00-2:30 | Synthesis: Advice for Big Data Projects in Education |
