Transforming education with Data and Experimentation

By Hector Ceballos, Director of the Living Lab & Data Hub, Institute for the Future of Education

At the heart of the Institute for the Future of Education (IFE), the Living Lab & Data Hub is pushing boundaries in how we approach learning and teaching. It’s not just about integrating technology into education; it’s about using data to transform how we understand student learning, the effectiveness of teaching strategies, and the future of education itself.

The Intersection of AI and Education

The Living Lab & Data Hub emerged with a bold mission: to integrate Learning Analytics into education, utilizing artificial intelligence to improve both teaching and learning. Our aim is to collect and analyze data generated by students and teachers in real-world educational contexts. By applying machine learning, we gain the ability to predict and intervene at crucial moments—before students fall behind or disengage.

Through an open science philosophy, we’ve gathered more than 25 years of anonymized academic data. This treasure trove of information is not only accessible to our own researchers but to educators and collaborators worldwide. We’ve created an environment where cutting-edge educational technologies (EdTech) can be tested in real-life classroom settings—what we call the Living Lab. This allows us to evaluate their true impact on student learning, while the Data Hub fuels data-driven research.

The Motivation Behind the Initiative

When we first set out to establish the Living Lab & Data Hub, there was a gap—an absence of open educational data. Without this, AI experts were turning their attention to other fields. We saw this as a missed opportunity for education, and it fueled our desire to provide the necessary data for AI to be leveraged in our domain. We wanted to enable researchers to apply data science and machine learning to develop predictive models and gain insights that could directly impact how students learn and how teachers teach.

In addition, we recognized the importance of experimentation. Real-world research requires real-world settings, and this is where Tec de Monterrey’s classrooms come into play. These classrooms are now serving as living laboratories, where educators and researchers collaborate on safe and ethical experiments to test innovative educational technologies and pedagogical methods. The integration of data and experimentation has become a driving force for international collaboration and high-impact research at the IFE.

Data-Driven Learning: Enhancing Outcomes

To make this vision a reality, we gained access to Tec’s institutional databases. By curating customized datasets, we launched research calls focused on critical educational phenomena such as student dropout, academic performance, and competency development. The result? More than 10 scientific papers published on student dropout alone, revealing a variety of factors beyond just academics—like student mobility, and participation in extracurricular activities—that influence their decision to leave university.

Furthermore, we are pushing the boundaries of learning analytics by incorporating physiological and neurological data into our research. Through portable devices, we are now able to measure student engagement, concentration, and other cognitive indicators during classes. The insights we gain from these new data sources will allow us to better understand what motivates students and how we can tailor teaching approaches to improve learning outcomes in real-time.

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Navigating Challenges and Ensuring Ethical Use

With great data comes great responsibility. Ensuring data privacy was one of our foremost challenges. We implemented secure protocols for anonymizing and depersonalizing all data to protect our community while advancing research. Furthermore, ethical considerations go beyond privacy when it comes to experiments involving physiological and neuronal data. We’ve made it a priority to ensure that every experiment is safe, ethical, and designed to benefit the participants.

Incorporating data-driven approaches also requires overcoming resistance. Through a comprehensive study, conducted in partnership with UNAM and UdG, we explored the expectations and concerns of students and educators regarding Learning Analytics. Interestingly, we found that both groups welcome the use of data if it leads to more personalized feedback and better academic recommendations. In parallel, our EdTech Marketplace allows professors to experiment with AI-driven technologies that have been validated by our team, demystifying their potential and easing the transition into data-driven education.

Real-World Impact and Future Vision

We’ve also demonstrated the power of real-time data collection. In one experiment, we collected neurological and physiological data from 41 participants as they answered a test. With machine learning models, we were able to accurately distinguish between high and low concentration levels with an 92% accuracy—proving that educational technologies like portable EEG devices can make a significant impact.

Looking ahead, the Living Lab & Data Hub continues to evolve. By working with an international advisory board and contributing to leading journals and conferences, we remain at the forefront of Learning Analytics research. Our ongoing commitment to open data and innovation ensures that the future of education is brighter, more personalized, and more effective for students around the world.

As we move forward, the intersection of data, AI, and education will play an even more vital role in shaping the way we teach and learn. The Living Lab & Data Hub is proud to be a part of this exciting journey, helping to pave the way for a new era in education.

Visit our website for more info: https://ifelldh.tec.mx/