The potential for big data to enhance the higher education sector in Oman

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the use of big data has the potential for application in the Higher Education (HE) sector in Oman in addressing part of their current challenges. Higher Education institutions in Oman are facing challenges relate to enhancing the learning experience, improving educator effectiveness, providing appropriate and effective learning methods tailored to individual learners, harnessing insights from the learning experiences, tracking student learning process and progress, and ensuring student retention. By exploring the current landscape of big data and its applications in other sectors, this paper considers whether big data capabilities such as real time feedback and recommendations, personalized learning and continuous improvement, sentiment and behavior analytics, and improved student retention, can be considered as part of the solution to the challenges facing HE in Oman. The paper concludes that big data has the potential to provide student insight information that will help in addressing part of the challenges currently faced by HE institutions in Oman. This work is also expected to help the HE system decision makers in Oman identify potential opportunities and benefits which the big data approach could provide.