Data & Analytics Blog

Dr. Louis Slimak, Associate Provost for Curriculum and Assessment at West Virginia University (WVU), has done extensive work to overhaul the WVU’s program review process—and its culture around data more broadly—since his arrival in 2016. This blog shares Dr. Slimak's advice for implementing a data-informed program review process and his tips for other leaders embarking on large-scale data projects.

Why do some potential data users not end up using the data available to them? This blog continues our discussion of data adoption in higher education, offering 4 common reasons data isn't applied and how to counter them.

If you're struggling to get colleagues to use the reports, dashboards, and datasets you're producing, read this post to gain tips on how to encourage adoption of your data efforts.

This post, the final in our series about creating a data-informed campus, outlines how to use data to facilitate institutional effectiveness. Read the blog to learn more about 3 key functions of a higher education analytics organization.

To help U.K. higher ed leaders better understand the current IT labour market, we compared technology job postings in HE to all other sectors.

Carleton College’s Chief Technology Officer, Janet Scannell, sat down with EAB’s IT Strategy Advisory Services to share her strategies for diversifying the IT workforce. These strategies helped IT backfill half of FY22’s eight vacancies with BIPOC candidates. Read on to see three strategies that have made Carleton successful in increasing staff diversity in IT.

We surveyed higher ed leaders to identify their goals and challenges in working with data. See the results of our survey in this post!

A data-informed campus requires more than just technology; it also requires the leadership to set a clear vision for analytics and data at the institution, and qualified staff to execute that vision. This post details the structure and staff needed for a modern higher education analytics function.

To compete in today’s cutthroat IT labor market, higher ed leaders need to understand the latest labor market trends from higher ed and across industries to inform how they advertise jobs and recruit talent. Read EAB's analysis of nationwide IT job postings in higher ed and explore our five key takeaways from this data.

From tracking student success metrics to operational efficiency, data and analytics provide colleges and universities crucial information in this period of enhanced scrutiny. This blog post discusses 3 elements of tech infrastructure necessary for a data-informed campus.

Learn how to improve data reporting at your institution by paring back inefficient reports.

While colleges and universities are hyper-focused on using data to improve student experiences and outcomes and make better decisions, inefficiency and poor utilization often get in the way. See what we learned from recent data strategy audits and what you can do to improve data management at your institution.

For data and technology to truly deliver value and drive change, you need an intentional technology investment strategy. Learn 5 steps you can take to enact a tech investment strategy that supports your institution's digital transformation.

If you use data in any capacity at all, you’re already preparing to build a model. Learn the 6 steps to design a predictive model and see which steps you've already completed.

Predictive modeling in higher education offers exciting opportunities to improve decision-making. With thoughtful planning and implementation, modeling can help your institution foster equitable outcomes. Learn 4 characteristics of equitable predictive models to ensure your institution's modeling supports your equity goals.

Growing volumes of student data present an opportunity for colleges and universities to deliver bespoke experiences and interventions for the right students, at the right time. Learn about 4 new data priorities for student success analytics, and where your institution should begin.

For a decade at EAB, we’ve been helping higher education leaders understand and prioritize ways their data can support institutional transformation. Today, it continues with the acquisition of Rapid Insight, which will add a suite of direct-to-user data capabilities to support decentralized innovation within Edify—EAB’s education data platform.

Learn how to engage students, faculty, staff, and your board in conversations about cybersecurity.

A good data catalyst can champion data strategy projects across campus; use these 3 guidelines to find the right data catalyst for your work.

Universities worldwide are scrambling to strengthen their security incident response planning as cyber-attacks targeting higher education rapidly escalate.

To help executives make thoughtful recommendations on their decision-making journey, here are 5 things campus leaders must recognize before giving the green-light on a new data project

If your campus is struggling to allocate HEERF funds but has digital student experience projects on the back-burner, consider whether these two barriers to progress are stalling your efforts at innovation.

Hear from the CIO at the University of Manitoba about what he learned about risk, failure, and data’s role in organizational transformation.

Learn about our new blog where higher education leaders within and beyond IT can find insights about all aspects technology and data strategy.

Learn three guiding principles of student-centered digital change.

Learn about consumer trends relevant to higher ed—and a framework to help your campus build stamina for continuous innovation.

See three transformative changes that happen on campus when you start viewing digital transformation as an investment in growth.

Here are three reasons to put your SIS evaluation on hold—and consider a different path forward in your digital transformation strategy.

To investigate the impact of remote instruction on student success, our Academic Performance Solutions team analyzed course completion data across a cohort of 49 partner institutions.

Read the Q&A with Jason Browning, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Dixie State University to learn how DSU elevated their campus data strategy through campus partnerships.

Learn what data storytelling is and why it matters for higher education—plus three barriers that make data storytelling challenging on many campuses.

IR teams are focused on gathering and analyzing data to help their institutions track and understand the student experience. But how can teams use this data to create a meaningful student experience for all students?

Learn what data democratization is, how it can drive innovation, and three ways colleges and universities can achieve data democratization.

A university’s faculty is clearly one of its greatest assets—but also one of its largest investments. Learn three ways to reduce instructional costs per attempted student credit hour without changing instructor salaries.

Explore insights from this year's Association of Institutional Research (AIR) Forum, including how better collaboration will change campus analytics.

Ask these three questions to evaluate your data readiness to respond to COVID-19, across key principles of accessibility, quality, and agility.

Explore three principles that can help department chairs, deans, and provosts lead during uncertainty.

Explore 3 questions guiding fall semester 2020 scenario planning, and emerging trends in how colleges and universities are responding to the uncertainty.

We surveyed 90 institutional research and effectiveness leaders to learn about the coronavirus's impact on their campus.

Our experts share three insights for IR leaders from the Indiana Association of Institutional Research (INAIR) Annual Conference.

As a result of a fast transition to virtual learning due to COVID-19, IT leaders should rally campus stakeholders to assess and improve cybersecurity.

We answer five common questions about what the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) means for higher ed—and how colleges can best prepare.

Learn how your campus’s complicated technology infrastructure may be holding back strategic analytics efforts.

To use data for decision-making, campus leaders must overcome obstacles to data literacy. See tested strategies from our partner schools to build and improve data literacy.

Getting the most out of your data begins with good governance.

As the number of new technologies on campus grows, learn how a data management platform can empower IT teams by creating a holistic view of their data.

See five questions to ask about your project intake processes to uncover and correct common mistakes that compromise effective IT project evaluation.

Department leaders often don’t realize the influential role they play in the entire institution’s long-term success. To ensure institutional and departmental priorities are aligned, EAB recommends colleges and universities conduct annual department health checkups with a review of the programs within each department.

Many higher ed IT leaders are looking for ways to use digital transformation to appeal to prospective students and differentiate their institutions in a crowded market. See how Wayne State University used VR technology to bring campus to prospective out-of-state students.

See four lessons to inspire better data stewardship across campus.

To help achieve financial goals when launching new academic program, ask these program evaluation questions.

Making smarter investment decisions means using the technology evaluation process to determine the potential ROI. But the process itself is not easy. Here's four questions that can help.

Dr. Richard Wilkens, Associate Provost at Salisbury University (SU), spoke with us about how he has led SU’s efforts to create a data-informed culture. See what tips he shared to increase adoption and use of data, analyses that helped increase course completion rates, and more.

Woolf: A Borderless University was created to help scale the traditional one-on-one teaching methods used at some UK universities like Oxford and Cambridge. See what lessons tech leaders can learn from Woolf.

Learn how the University of California, San Diego and Deakin University deployed successful mobile applications that incorporate location-based services for their students and transformed the campus experience.

An annual departmental review gives academic leaders more visibility into how their decisions impact institutional strategy and also allows for more flexibility in strategic planning. Learn more, plus see which metrics you should track.

Many academic leaders are unsure how to best set faculty workload expectations and ensure that resource allocation meets demand. Our benchmarking data can help answer common faculty workload questions.

Not all small classes are purposely designed to be small. And unintentionally very small courses represent a large investment—so they’re a particularly meaningful segment to reevaluate for optimal resource allocation. See two strategies to monitor and combat unintentionally small classes.

The maximum enrollment capacity, or max cap, of a class is used to calculate fill rates. But these seven common behaviors can lead to inaccurate max caps, often resulting in bottleneck courses or underfilled courses. Learn how you can ensure accurate max caps at your campus.

In today's competitive hiring environment, having a strong employer brand is important to attract the best IT talent, including in higher ed. Creating candidate-focused job descriptions, "get to know us" job sites, and customized on-campus experiences will increase recruitment success in competitive talent pools.

Learn three outdated instructional capacity metrics and three new analyses that better reflect the new realities of higher education and the everyday experiences of students and faculty.

Avoid these common missteps colleges and universities make in academic portfolio review and in pursuit of strategic growth.

Over the past few years, administrators and academic leadership have begun to seek greater intentionality in resource allocation across campus. Learn three categories of analysis that every college or university should be pursuing to optimize ever-scarce resources.

Our latest research computing survey answers two of the questions commonly posed by research computing leaders. Learn the impact of regular consultations on research computing use and how research computing can help researchers complete analyses more efficiently.

High failure rates in critical gateway courses are one of the biggest (and often under-prioritized) obstacles to student progress in higher education. One important factor impacting completion rates? Instructor and course variation. Learn three principles to limit section variation at your college or university.

Learn five preparatory questions CIOs and their teams should think through when launching IT strategic planning initiatives.

Despite the growing buzz around possible applications of artificial intelligence (AI), creative adoption in higher ed still lags. Learn how your peers are using a problem-first approach to investment and maintain stakeholder interest.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if your college has any information relating to an EU resident, institutional procedures and policies will need to change. Here's four things you need to know on your way to compliance.

Higher education technology leaders are asking themselves ""Is virtual reality worth the investment?"" Here's two ways you can bring this sought-after technology to your campus without breaking the bank.

Blockchain is an emerging technology that has the potential to disrupt the higher education status quo. Here's six ways how.

Without accurate, meaningful, actionable data moving between campus IT systems, their utility is drastically reduced. To reframe integration as a competitive differentiator rather than an inescapable cost, IT leaders should make five integration facts clear on their campus.

Rather than have central IT play catch-up to campus demands, integration must be a campus-wide strategic priority to harness data across silos. One approach, API-led integration, is already reaping rewards in higher education.

The first 100 days are often considered a critical time for new CIOs, as they transition into their new position and assess the institution's primary needs. See how one member addressed these challenges, and why he believes the momentum of the first 100 days doesn't have to end.

Get a sneak peek at our newest study, and discover 10 questions you need to ask when evaluating your current data-informed decision practices.

Determining the right data access model for you institution requires careful consideration. Based on our conversations with forward-thinking institutions, we've compiled five key questions to ask when you're considering a role-based access model.

Review lessons from institutions that are implementing an enterprise-wide CRM solution, aiming to consolidate data within a unified system rather than siloed, function-specific applications.

Our back to school webconference series covers best practices for data governance and quality, data accessibility, and information security awareness.