One of the most amazing aspects of eLearning in today's world is that it is constantly evolving. Thanks to emerging technologies and improved instructional design models, the possibilities are endless for the future of eLearning. A concept that has been a hot topic amongst the eLearning community recently is “big data”. But what, exactly, is big data, and how does it benefit the eLearning industry?
What is Big Data?
Big data, in terms of the eLearning industry, is the data that is created by learners while they are taking an eLearning course or training module. For example, if an employee is interacting with a training module centered around company policies, his/her progress, assessment results, social sharing, and any other data being produced during the eLearning course is “big data”. The Learning Management System, the eLearning Authoring Tool, social media, multimedia, etc, that have been set by the organization or the eLearning professionals, collect the data.