What is “Analytics”? Definition and Essential Characteristics

Abstract

There is currently a growing interest in better exploiting data from various sources to help organisations to be more effecti ve and a growing number of strategies for doing this are being developed across different industries. The term “analytics” is frequently being applied to these efforts but often without clarity as to what the word is intended to mean. This makes it di fficult to mak e sense of what is happening or to decide what to appropriate fr om other industries or research and hinders creative leaps forward in exploring how to adopt analytics. This paper, part of the CETIS Analytics Series, is aimed at strategists and innovators i n post - compulsory education sector who are grappling with these questions in the context of a single institution or the sector at large. It does so by:  considering a definition of “analytics”; and  outlining analytics in relation to research management, tea ching and learning or whole - institution strategy and operational concerns.