Innovative Learning Analytics online master’s program advances education

Artificial intelligence and data analytics are revolutionizing education — from traditional K–12 classrooms to advanced research labs — and Penn GSE’s Learning Analytics online M.S.Ed. program is perfectly timed to meet this growing demand. The program equips aspiring data scientists and educators with the skills to significantly impact various educational sectors, including schools, educational technology, and policymaking. 

The Learning Analytics program is designed for part-time and full-time students to develop measurement, analysis, and predictive modeling expertise. Students will also master advanced technologies such as generative AI, machine learning, and intelligent instruction and tutoring. 

Penn GSE Professor Ryan Baker, who also serves as the Penn Center for Learning Analytics director, says the program offers wide applications across the education sector. For instance, predictive analytics can help schools and districts identify students at risk for dropping out, enabling timely interventions. An ed-tech company can also use learning analytics to develop adaptive learning programs that tailor content to individual students’ needs, or a university can deploy data to analyze its curriculum resources. 

“Our goal is to get people with methodological tools, and also [with] the understanding of how to do … the real work in ways that are fair and don’t promote bias and don’t violate privacy,” Baker said. “There are a ton of potential applications.” 

With entry points in both the fall and spring, the program allows students to tailor their studies to fit their schedules, enabling them to apply their knowledge in their current roles immediately. 

The program enrolled 23 students in its first year, and a second-year cohort started in August. Students tune in from across the U.S., East Asia, and Europe. 

Baker said most students have worked in education in schools, policy, or government and want to burnish their data and contemporary analytics skills. They don’t need a computer science degree to participate, although Python, a high-level programming language, is necessary. 

Baker said Penn GSE’s program is a lab for new technologies. Students use intelligent tutor-based assignments, video discussion tools, and an AI assistant called JeepyTA that answers questions and gives real-time feedback as they work through ideas and assignments. There’s even a video discussion tool where students have conversations moderated by a video version of Baker. 

Baker said the program’s strengths are innovation and research. 

“The capacity of our faculty is outstanding, and we’re also very pedagogically experimental,” Baker said. “We’re not just doing lectures and programming assignments. We aren’t just teaching about learning analytics and artificial intelligence in education; we are actually using them to improve the program.” 

Learning Analytics students say their cohorts are tight-knit, and Penn GSE professors are accessible and supportive. 

“The program may be online, but the experience has been personal,” said Cesar Flores. 

Flores didn’t set out to work in education or technology. After college, he joined the family grocery business. He worked for a grocery brokerage firm, where he experimented with a new data analytics program and quickly became a one-person analytics department. 

Intrigued, Flores returned to school for a master’s in applied data sciences and worked as an adjunct professor in data analytics at Lone Star College. After joining a Dallas-based educational nonprofit, he applied to Penn GSE’s program to combine his passions for technology and education and use data to advance education. 

“I see technology as a tool that can help close the educational learning gap between students in economically disadvantaged communities and those who do not come from such communities,” Flores said. 

Students from across the Penn community can take individual courses. Mariana Riestra enrolled in Baker’s Big Data, Education, and Society class to complement her International Educational Development program and her job in alumni relations at Penn GSE. 

“Learning analytics plays an important role in maintaining a student-centered approach toward education through measuring learning growth and outcomes,” Riestra said. 

Another student, Lemar White, attends classes from Maryland, where he works for Google as the head of inclusive learning and development. White holds an MBA from Texas A&M University-Commerce and an Ed.D. from Northeastern University. He enrolled in Penn GSE’s program to burnish his data science expertise. 

“I wanted to gain the knowledge and skill set to use data effectively to make decisions about future learning experiences and learning design for Googlers,” White said. 

For his part, Baker envisions the program growing to hundreds of students learning data analytics and advanced methods for the greater good of education. 

“I want to expand the pool of people using these methods well to impact kids and adult learners,” Baker said.