Blowing Off Class? We Know

[Commentary] Tools developed in-house and by a slew of companies now give administrators digital dashboards that can code students red or green to highlight who may be in academic trouble. Handsome “heat maps” -- some powered by apps that update four times a day -- can alert professors to students who may be cramming rather than keeping up. Big Brother-esque? Perhaps. But these “big data” developments have the potential to cut the cost of higher education for students and their families, as well as for taxpayers. Colleges face no shortage of challenges these days: a skeptical public, fragile business models, stratification of students by income, and uncertainty of government financial support, to name just a few. Data solutions can’t and won’t save higher education from all of that, but they could certainly put colleges on the right path.

[Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education.]