3 Ways RAGASEDU’s New Integrate Software Platform Can Help Your Campus Navigate The New Data Frontier
A recent Research Brief, “The New Data Frontier,” published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, identified the inability of colleges and universities to utilize student data in positively impacting retention, progression, and graduation numbers as a still lingering issue in higher education. COVID only exacerbated the issues as “many students, fatigued by digital interaction, became less responsive to inquiries from administrators” (p.6). One University administrator reflecting on student disengagement at their institutions pointed out that “the proportion of students getting D’s and F’s in core curriculum course or withdrawing from those courses rose to 20 percent or 25 percent from 10 percent or 15 percent” (p. 6) during the COVID years.
As this previous statement indicates, in colleges and universities, there is no shortage of student data. In fact, higher education institutions gather and retain an enormous amount of information on students. Most, if not all, colleges or universities have multiple database software platforms that contain various components of student data and administered by different offices across a campus.
The two primary software platform types that colleges and universities utilize to store student data are an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that stores personal data, such as home address, billing information, high school GPA, financial aid, housing, food service, etc., and a Learning Management System (LMS) that contains a student’s academic schedule, performance records, etc. These two systems house the majority of data on students maintained on campuses. Other ancillary software programs supplement both the ERP and LMS to track student learning, activities, and engagement. Some of these software platforms can be add-ons into an ERP or LMS, while others maybe a completely standalone system.
Therefore, the real issue is not a lack of data on students in our institutions but the overall ease of access, effective operational usage, and inability to merge the data in a timely and actionable format. In her Chronicle of Higher Education article, The Puzzle of Student Data, Taylor Swaak quotes Loralyn Taylor, Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics at Ohio University, as saying, “We have a lot more”, data, but “that doesn’t mean it’s better. It actually makes it harder for institutions to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of what’s actually useful.”
RAGASEDU has developed a solution for colleges and universities that builds a data bridge between the ERP and LMS, as well as other third-party systems, and our software puts the student information into a user-friendly, real-time, and actionable dashboard called Integrate. There are three key ways that RAGASEDU’s Integrate software platform can help navigate the New Data Frontier that colleges and universities are facing.
First, data from the various software platforms across the campus have been merged into a single source dashboard. This accomplishes several objectives: (1) quick access, (2) customize view depending on specific administrator/staff function and responsibilities, (3) single source login and (4) no longer having to learn multiple software platforms to access the data. However, as Ms. Swaak points out, “[f]lashy tech alone won’t ensure success. Experts say student-data collection and analysis done in the absence of a supportive campus culture, data-defining governance boards, faculty data-literacy training, and transparency, among other things can actually do more harm to students than good”. The Integrate single source dashboard allows the entire campus to view the exact same data. The Integrate single source dashboard then allows a campus to develop simplified policies and procedures across campus that governs data usage.
Second, one of the institutional challenges that Ms. Swaak identified in her article was data reliability. Integrate is the single source of data aggregation, which means everyone has agreed on the data fields from any platform and everyone is seeing the same data so there is no question about its reliability. When administrators and staff pull reports from multiple separate platforms, the data gathered can provide accurate outputs from the fields queried from a single platform; however, when aggregated with data from another platforms, the reports can present a conflicting and even inaccurate reflection of the historical and current student data. When all users know that everyone can view the same data, it ensures a sense of confidence and reliability for online and printed reports. In a survey conducted as part of The New Data Frontier Brief, 19% of the senior college administrators indicated that decentralized/siloed data collection was the second highest obstacle to the digital transformation of the campus. The Integrate software platform removes these barriers of siloed data.
Third, the Integrate dashboard data updates in real-time. That means no more delay in getting the needed data by having to request Institutional Research or person/s in your division or department to write queries and run reports. Requesting reports and running them takes time… sometimes too much time, and then data is old, useless, and unreliable. The queries and reports put together two to three days ago provide only a snapshot in time and may no longer reflect the actual needs at the time of review. When data is not current, turning that data into an actionable outcome becomes much more challenging. The survey in The New Data Frontier indicated the top reason that campuses are not able to transform digitally is the “trouble turning data into action”. If everyone on the campus can now see the DFW rates in real-time, teams can take immediate action to intervene with those students. Also, Integrate removes the barrier of no longer waiting for that single snapshot report of DFW rates, the trends or predictive components are readily available for those that need to take action.
As Martin Kurzwell, Vice President for Educational Transformation at Ithaka S+R, makes clear, “[i]t is almost always a human problem that prevents an institution from fully realizing the potential benefits of using data to help students.” RAGASEDU through Integrate helps to minimize as many barriers as possible to navigating The New Data Frontier for faculty, staff and administrators in maximizing and utilizing student data to its fullest potential. As one of The New Data Frontier surveys indicates, the top six institutional areas where greater data insights is needed in order are: academic advising, admission and recruiting, post-graduate attainment, career services, teaching/curriculum development, and student areas. While there are other areas across campus where data can inform the decision-making process, each of these areas are student-centric and can have the greatest impact on retention, progression, and graduation. Sometimes institutions believe that if everyone on campus is doing their job, the process and desired outcomes of retention, progression, and graduation goals can simply happen organically, but in reality they must be thoughtful and intentional.
According to Stephen Ambrose’s historical recounting of the Lewis and Clark epic journey through the newly acquired Louisiana Territory from 1804-1806 in Undaunted Courage, the team used important principles to successfully navigate their journey that can be applied today to The New Data Frontier that lay ahead for colleges and universities: (1) there was a directive to support the endeavor of exploring the new frontier, (2) there was a clear goal to survey the new frontier and reach Pacific coast destination (3) there was a plan to achieve the goal based on the information they currently knew, (4) there was a commitment from all those involved in the exploration, (5) they were willing to be adaptable, utilizing the information and data they gathered along the way to adjust their plans and inform their decision-making as to the most advantageous route to take, (6) they took advantage of resources and support they received along the journey, and (7) the Lewis and Clark team was relentless in their pursuit of the goal. Like the Lewis and Clark expedition into an unknown Louisiana Territory, colleges and universities must implement some of the same strategies across the campus in confronting The New Data Frontier.
Don’t get lost in the wilderness. Let Integrate help your institution navigate The New Data Frontier by removing barriers and obstacles caused by inaccessible, unreliable, and non-actionable data. Like a compass, having all the data you need right at your fingertips can lead to the transformational destination for your institution and make all the difference for affecting student outcomes and achieving institutional goals.
References
- The New Data Frontier – Student Success Efforts Transition Out of the Pandemic Era, Research Brief, The Chronicle of Higher Education; August 2022
- Taylor Swaak, The Puzzle of Student Data: Key Strategies for Using Critical Information, Responsibility, The Chronicle of Higher Education; August 2022
- Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2002
