Are We In The Data Business? - Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Ask what higher ed does, and you will get as many answers as people answering. Can we think of data as the unifying link? Is the creation, manipulation, dissemination, classification, and value adding of data the connector - or organizing metaphor - for all the diverse and seemingly disconnected tasks of modern postsecondary education? What is a diploma (and a transcript) but a piece (or pieces) of data. Data on an individual that is used by someone else - an employer or another school - to determine suitability for hiring or admission. The move towards alternative credentials and reimagined transcripts are an attempt to improve that form of data. http://continuingedupdate.blogspot.com/