Big data analytics in education: Prospects and challenges

Summary form only given. Big data, a widely used buzzword that describes a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data primarily originated from the social media and Web 4.0, has been consistently evolved over the last couple of years through innovation of algorithms and applications for the processing of data. Big data is characterized from the context of volume, velocity and veracity and encompasses different challenges including analysis of data, capture and data curation, efficient storage, transfer and visualization of data along with the privacy and security of data. The analytics defines the process of examining data sets containing a variety of data types to uncover hidden patterns and enable meaningful interpretation for representations and thereafter the applications. This paper will describe the nascent field of big data analytics in education with discussion on prospects and challenges way forward. The paper also intends to focus on research and development issues for educationist and practitioners of big data analytics.