The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

A quick read of this article will inform you that it is not just in assessment and learning outcomes that the world is turning to data and more data; although you will learn in SCUP's new book, A Guide to Planning for Change, about the immense importance of information analytics. From this article:

At the petabyte scale, information is not a matter of simple three- and four-dimensional taxonomy and order but of dimensionally agnostic statistics. It calls for an entirely different approach, one that requires us to lose the tether of data as something that can be visualized in its totality. It forces us to view data mathematically first and establish a context for it later. . . . This is a world where massive amounts of data and applied mathematics replace every other tool that might be brought to bear. Out with every theory of human behavior, from linguistics to sociology. Forget taxonomy, ontology, and psychology. Who knows why people do what they do? The point is they do it, and we can track and measure it with unprecedented fidelity. With enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.