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Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences Volume 18, Number 2, 2015
BIG DATA ANALYTICS THE NEXT BIG LEARNING
OPPORTUNITY
Regina Henry, Tennessee State University
Santosh Venkatraman, Tennessee State University
ABSTRACT
The relentless collection of data from user interactions in websites have introduced both a high
level of complexity, as well as a great opportunity for businesses. In addition, the trend of
connecting not just people, but also machines to the Internet, and then collecting data from these
machines via sensors would soon result in an unimaginable repository of data. This ever
increasing collection of data, also known as Big Data, will only be useful if it can be analyzed to
give useful insights into business problems, and perhaps even to make suggestions as to when
and where future problems will occur (predictive analytics) so that the problems can be avoided
or at least mitigated.
Students must be prepared take advantage for future opportunities in the field of big data
analytics. In most business programs, specifically information system as the major, core course
like database design, office applications, and basic programming are taught to learners. A
critical component missing from many undergraduate business programs are core courses
focusing on data analytics. The US Department of Labor predicts 4.4 million opportunities will
exist by 2018, working with data analytics. The imperative to include such courses in business
information systems programs exist.
Universities are beginning to notice the great interest in data analysis by organizations,
which want data driven solutions to their problems. A few major business schools such as
Arizona State University, University of Southern California, and Michigan State University have
recently embarked on specialized Business-Analytics graduate Programs, while others such as
Northwestern University has no such specialized Programs, but requires all business students to
take them. In any case, many employers such as Taco Bell (Yum Brands), General Electric (GE),
Boeing, and Walt Disney (Gellman, 2014) are asking for more employees with analytics skills to
gain insights from the enormous volumes of data that they collect.
The purpose of this article is to examine the rapidly growing field of Big Data Analytics
and to study why and how big data analytics needs to be integrated into business skill sets and
curriculum designs. The research will provide a practical framework to design and teach the
skills sets needed to solve organizational problems by analyzing the vast amounts of data that
are being generated and stored.
This paper will be prove very beneficial to IT educators and academic researchers, as
they will gain a solid understanding of why Big Data needs to be an important curriculum
component, and the benefits to students and potential employers. Business managers will also
benefit from the research as it shows them how new Big Data tools can be deployed to solve
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