Before their partnership with EAB, institutional research at UTU was largely compliance-driven. Data management and governance were siloed, leading to inconsistent data accuracy and widespread frustration. UTU set out to become a more data-informed organization, appointing Jason Browning to a new cabinet-level Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness position.
UTU partnered with EAB to implement Edify, an education data platform, as a data management platform to organize data and facilitate access to reliable information. In addition to implementing the Edify platform on campus, Jason’s team also implemented data governance best practices with EAB’s guidance, building the culture and technical infrastructure to support data-informed decisions.
UTU’s student data now flows through Edify, and other data sources are being integrated into the platform (e.g., HR, finance). By connecting Edify to Tableau and RStudio, Jason’s team is growing UTU’s analytical capacity, shifting from an environment of snapshots and manually-updated data to interactive visualizations and analyses that can automatically update as data is refreshed.
Existing Data Efforts Fall Short
Ineffective Processes Lead to Inconsistent Data and Widespread Frustration
Pursuing a Better Way
UTU’s president created a cabinet-level position for institutional effectiveness to guide the University’s transformation into a data-informed organization.
Creating an Accessible and Aggregated Data Set
In addition to creating a central data repository, UTU recognized that to truly improve data use across campus, they also needed to make data more accessible to end-users.
Using Edify's Quad model, UTU is aggregating data from across their siloed environments and translating them into common-language definitions, markedly reducing the need for joins across multiple tables or systems.
Powering Visualization and Analytic Capabilities with Edify
Progress and vision of the Edify-Utah Tech University partnership
Results so far
A single source of truth
- UTU Banner Student and Slate admissions data is flowing into Edify
- Data lives in PostgreSQL and connects to UTU's data tools—Tableau and RStudio
Near-term roadmap
More data, more connections
- Enter HR, finance, LMS, and other data in Edify
- Conduct higher-order analyses across all lines of business to surface efficiency opportunities
Future vision: Powering a data-informed campus
- Provide validated data across campus
- Enable leaders to make truly data-informed decisions, improving resource allocation and student progress
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