ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors introduce two of three foundational topics related to data-intensive research in education—data and workflow. Data from digital learning environments, perhaps more than any other, have fueled data-intensive research in education. Student information systems play a key role in data-intensive research because they offer a ready source of data on educational outcomes and demographic information, which can play a role in evaluations of technology-based interventions as well as early warning system research. Data from learning management systems are often similar to one another but different from other types of educational data one could use in a data-intensive research project. First and foremost, data-intensive research involves defining and refining one or more research questions. The forerunner to data-intensive research, and therefore learning analytics and educational data mining, is a field of inquiry referred to as knowledge discovery in databases.
