2015 – Data and Graphs

08Sep 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Shapes

I think I'm the anti-Buzzfeed. Instead of giving my blog post a title like "These 5 Shapes Can Predict Your Success in Life" or "The One Shape the IRS Doesn't Want You To Know About", I go with the most obscure and non-descript title I can..."Shapes". That's why I'm not in Marketing. On the bright side, though, there is a secondary meaning to the red, white, and blue 'shapes' logo at the top of the blog. Read (or skip) to the end to find out what it is. OK...on to the blog post. The meaning behind 'shapes' has to do with charts, visualizations, and storytelling. If you've read my posts before, you know that I'm a bit of a data nerd. My personal affinity/skillset around data is visualizations. I enjoy…

16Aug 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

How Accurate is Your Model?

Analytics, Models

[caption id="attachment_1308" align="alignright" width="401"] https://pixabay.com/en/darts-dart-board-bull-s-eye-game-102919/[/caption] Since we deal with predictive models, one common question we get is "how accurate is your model"? First of all, I need to say that we LOVE to get that question. It signifies that the institution has some level of buy in -- that they aren't just taking our expertise on faith. Unlike the quality of brake pads, we don't want you to take our word for it. When responding to this question, though, there's a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, I want to give an answer. I hate evasive responses to questions, so I want to make sure I give a clear, concise response. On the other hand, there is a lot of nuance in the response. It depends on what the…

15Jul 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Do You Want the Plumbing or the Sink?

Architecture

Here at Blue Canary, we've made a reference to being a 'Data Janitor' on more than one occasion. There was this article/tweet from back in March: We've always called ourselves data janitors...great to see it highlighted. Thanks for the find, @johncwhitmer ! — Mike Sharkey (@mjshark) March 25, 2015 ...and also a mention on my last blog post about 'Free like kittens vs. free like beer'. So, in the spirit of our somewhat self-deprecating janitorial duties, I figured I dedicate a whole blog post to it. Here goes. The reference started out as a joke with a few of us in the company. We would be working on a predictive model or some complex data analysis problem, and then read an article about how data scientists are the hot, up-and-coming,…

22Jun 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Kittens vs. Beer

Analytics

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="342"] Credit: http://imgur.com/a/7ooe0[/caption] You've heard of the saying "it's free like kittens, not free like beer"? I love it...it's a great way of telling someone that "free" may not be the kind of free they are thinking about. In our role with higher ed data and analytics, we come across numerous ways of getting at data and analyzing the results to help improve student success. One core concept that we keep coming back to is that nothing is free (free like beer, that is). There are definitely ways of doing things more efficiently, but in the end, you have to pay the piper in some way (free like kittens). So, where does the kitten/beer schism come into play? Turns out, there are many misconceptions about where the work is and…

26May 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Don’t Hype Analytics

Analytics

What if you could know someone's GPA just by simply looking at their phone? That's the first line spoken in this Dartmouth College video about their StudentLife study. The problem with that line is that it starts to look like hype. Like marketing. Like a Buzzfeed clickbait article (apologies to Buzzfeed...it appears they are trying to go legit...I'll say it looks more like a Clickhole article). I wanted to write this post to do two things: Commend the Dartmouth team on the work they've been doing Warn them not to add to the mountains of hype surrounding analytics and predictive modeling in ed tech The description of the study is wonderful. They say: StudentLife is the first study that uses passive and automatic sensing data from the phones of a…

15Apr 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Regression vs. Machine Learning (ad infinitum)

Analytics, Models

I didn't invent statistics nor did I invent machine learning. I'm not a published expert in either field. However, I was on Jeopardy, so that's got to give me some street cred to be able to talk about the two techniques. The discussion usually boils down to this -- regression is a more "pure" form of data analysis (where the causal relationship between the data and the outcomes are more clearly related) while machine learning is a more brute force approach to prediction (and other analyses). I wanted to put my position out there and see what does or doesn't resonate with colleagues. There's a great Stack Exchange thread on this topic where many folks have chimed in with their take on the two approaches. I've done a bit of…

05Mar 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

No…Learning Is Not Like Madden

Analytics, Learning

I've previously written about sports analytics and parallels to learning analytics in higher ed. So I was obviously excited to see this FiveThirtyEight article -- a behind-the-scenes writeup of the data behind player ratings in the Madden NFL video game. With the 'gamification' thread that's picked up steam in higher ed over the last few years, it makes sense to keep an eye out for connections like this. While there are definitely learnings between the gaming space and the learning space, there are also vast gaps that should not be glossed over. Let me point out a few ways that learning is not like the Madden NFL game. 1. It's REALLY HARD (if not impossible) to simulate a learner .Let's unpack this statement by first talking about how Madden simulates players.…

22Jan 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

Yes, I actually read the Tableau Online EULA

Analytics

I signed up for Tableau Online this week. To understand why this was sort of a big deal for me, let me give you some background. First, I love Tableau. I've been a heavy user for over 5 years now. If you do any sort of data wrangling, I urge you to give it a try. While Excel is and has always been a great tool for exploring data, Tableau is in a whole different league. It allows you to view/experience/feel/flip/play with data in so many ways with so little effort. That's a huge advantage when you are trying to understand the story behind a data set. The biggest tradeoff I've always claimed about Tableau is that it's a great analyst tool (for exploring data), but it's a poor enterprise…

20Jan 2015 by Mike Sharkey No Comments

I, for one, welcome our new analytics overlords

Analytics

Before I get into this post, I want to make sure that everyone gets the tongue-in-cheek nature of the post title and image, so please check the meme reference if you're not sure. Now that I've got my implicit disclaimer out of the way, let's start by talking about sports analytics. I'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to sports analytics. It's a mashup of two of my true passions. I'm the data nerd who plays fantasy baseball and fantasy football every year. I haven't been to the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, but I'm sure I'll make it some day. I'm a runner and I chart out my race times year over year. I have a wi-fi enabled scale that tracks my weight. If the Arizona Diamondbacks' Director of Analytics…