Along with the enhancement of the education informationization, more and more educational data has been collected, analyzed and applied. Big Data will promote a revolutionary change on teachers, students, university management and even the entire education system, leading to the deconstruction and reconstruction of education principles and education forms. Consequently how to utilize learning analysis and educational data mining technology, transform the online learning data into information in action, explore the underlying value of data, to improve the teaching and learning, will undoubtedly have a positive theoretical and practical significance. The paper first interprets characteristics and technology of education data, then analyzes the multiple challenges higher education being faced with in the era of Big Data; finally in terms of teaching, learning and management these three aspects excavates the direction of higher education reform under the background of Big Data: transforming it from traditional modes to intelligentization.