Stephen Downes

Just because it's 'data' doesn't mean you have good grounds for anything. "Higher education student support champion" Edward Peck argues that "there is a relatively small number of data points required to deliver insights into student engagement and wellbeing, and that these are likely being collected by HEPs already." I have my doubts that a "small number" is sufficient, and I guess it depends a lot on what is meant by "insights". I think that we've learned over the last few years is that you need massive data sets to draw meaningful conclusions, and even then, there's still a lot of bias and error built in. When dealing with complex systems like humans and education, a small number of data points will almost invariably leads to error and misrepresentation.