Stanford explores case for code of ethics to tackle big data's deluge in higher ed

As college students click, swipe and tap through their daily lives – both in the classroom and outside of it – they’re creating a digital footprint of how they think, learn and behave that boggles the mind.

“We’re standing under a waterfall, feasting on information that’s never existed before,” said Mitchell Stevens, a sociologist and associate professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE). “All of this data has the power to redefine higher education.” To Stevens and others, this massive data is full of promise -- but also peril. The researchers talk excitedly about big data helping higher education discover its Holy Grail: learning that is so deeply personalized that it both keeps struggling students from dropping out and pushes star performers to excel. Yet, at the same time, they worry that the data will be misused, sold or stolen. Consider, for example, what might happen if data show that students who fit a certain profile struggle in a core course. Could those students be prevented from taking the class or pushed down a different path just because the data say they should? So earlier this summer, researchers at Stanford and Ithaka S+R, a nonprofit education consulting firm, brought together 70 representatives – mostly from academia, but also from government, leading nonprofits and the commercial education technology industry – to discuss some of the hot-button issues surrounding big data in higher education. The ideas that came out of that meeting, and a similar one that took place two years ago, form the basis of a new Stanford-hosted website, “Responsible Use of Student Data in Higher Education.” The site launched Sept. 6.