Cultivating a Data Culture in Higher Education

Cultivating a Data Culture in Higher Education
Author: Kristina Powers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-05-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1351694510

Higher education institutions have experienced a sharp increase in demand for accountability. To meet the growing demand by legislators, accreditors, consumers, taxpayers, and parents for evidence of successful outcomes, this important book provides higher education leaders and practitioners with actionable strategies for developing a comprehensive data culture throughout the entire institution. Exploring key considerations necessary for the development of an effective data culture in colleges and universities, this volume brings together diverse voices and perspectives, including institutional researchers, senior academic leaders, and faculty. Each chapter focuses on a critical element of managing or influencing a data culture, approaches for breaking through common challenges, and concludes with practical, research-based implementation strategies. Collectively, these strategies form a comprehensive list of recommendations for developing a data culture and becoming a change agent within your higher education institution.

Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges

Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges
Author: Brad C. Phillips
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2020-10-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1682531260

Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz offer a research-based model and actionable approach for using data strategically at community colleges to increase completion rates as well as other metrics linked to student success. They draw from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics to show how leaders and administrators can build good habits for engaging with data constructively. At the core of their approach is a strategic effort to help administrators and faculty identify leading indicators that they can affect and monitor before student failure occurs. The book also helps educators make better use of common sources of data, clarify problems to be solved, match research-based interventions to problems, and evaluate results. The authors incorporate strategies for college personnel to engage with data more effectively by integrating student stories into presentations and embedding these discussions into existing meetings and routines. Three case studies from Long Beach City College, Southwestern College, and Odessa College further illustrate how this approach was implemented as part of comprehensive reform efforts. Based on two decades of experience working with colleges across the country, Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges promises to be a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about information use in education to improve student outcomes.

You Are a Data Person

You Are a Data Person
Author: Amelia Parnell
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000978699

Internal and external pressure continues to mount for college professionals to provide evidence of successful activities, programs, and services, which means that, going forward, nearly every campus professional will need to approach their work with a data-informed perspective.But you find yourself thinking “I am not a data person”.Yes, you are. Or can be with the help of Amelia Parnell.You Are a Data Person provides context for the levels at which you are currently comfortable using data, helps you identify both the areas where you should strengthen your knowledge and where you can use this knowledge in your particular university role.For example, the rising cost to deliver high-quality programs and services to students has pushed many institutions to reallocate resources to find efficiencies. Also, more institutions are intentionally connecting classroom and cocurricular learning experiences which, in some instances, requires an increased gathering of evidence that students have acquired certain skills and competencies. In addition to programs, services, and pedagogy, professionals are constantly monitoring the rates at which students are entering, remaining enrolled in, and leaving the institution, as those movements impact the institution’s financial position.From teaching professors to student affairs personnel and beyond, Parnell offers tangible examples of how professionals can make data contributions at their current and future knowledge level, and will even inspire readers to take the initiative to engage in data projects.The book includes a set of self-assessment questions and a companion set of action steps and available resources to help readers accept their identity as a data person. It also includes an annotated list of at least 20 indicators that any higher education professional can examine without sophisticated data analyses.

How Colleges Use Data

How Colleges Use Data
Author: Jonathan S. Gagliardi
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2022-12-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1421445204

What does a culture of evidence really look like in higher education? The use of big data and the rapid acceleration of storage and analytics tools have led to a revolution of data use in higher education. Institutions have moved from relying largely on historical trends and descriptive data to the more widespread adoption of predictive and prescriptive analytics. Despite this rapid evolution of data technology and analytics tools, universities and colleges still face a number of obstacles in their data use. In How Colleges Use Data, Jonathan S. Gagliardi presents college and university leaders with an important resource to help cultivate, implement, and sustain a culture of evidence through the ethical and responsible use and adoption of data and analytics. Gagliardi provides a broad context for data use among colleges, including key concepts and use cases related to data and analytics. He also addresses the different dimensions of data use and highlights the promise and perils of the widespread adoption of data and analytics, in addition to important elements of implementing and scaling a culture of evidence. Demystifying data and analytics, the book helps faculty and administrators understand important topics, including: • How to define institutional aspirations using data • Equity and student success • Strategic finance and resource optimization • Academic quality and integrity • Data governance and utility • Implicit and explicit bias in data • Implementation and planning • How data will be used in the future How Colleges Use Data helps college and university leaders understand what a culture of evidence in higher education truly looks like.

Data Driven

Data Driven
Author: DJ Patil
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2015-01-05
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1491925477

Succeeding with data isn’t just a matter of putting Hadoop in your machine room, or hiring some physicists with crazy math skills. It requires you to develop a data culture that involves people throughout the organization. In this O’Reilly report, DJ Patil and Hilary Mason outline the steps you need to take if your company is to be truly data-driven—including the questions you should ask and the methods you should adopt. You’ll not only learn examples of how Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook use their data, but also how Walmart, UPS, and other organizations took advantage of this resource long before the advent of Big Data. No matter how you approach it, building a data culture is the key to success in the 21st century. You’ll explore: Data scientist skills—and why every company needs a Spock How the benefits of giving company-wide access to data outweigh the costs Why data-driven organizations use the scientific method to explore and solve data problems Key questions to help you develop a research-specific process for tackling important issues What to consider when assembling your data team Developing processes to keep your data team (and company) engaged Choosing technologies that are powerful, support teamwork, and easy to use and learn

Building a Data Culture

Building a Data Culture
Author: Gary W. Griffin
Publisher: Apress
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-12-03
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9781484299654

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, organizations face an ever-increasing volume of data that holds immense potential for driving business success. However, many businesses struggle to harness this potential due to a lack of understanding and effective utilization of data within their culture. This book is a comprehensive guide that unveils the transformative power of data and provides actionable insights to cultivate a data-driven organizational culture. The book emphasizes data strategy and data governance's pivotal role in cultivating a mature data culture using practical insights, frameworks, and best practices. This approach ensures robust data culture structures that uphold data integrity, accessibility, and accountability. These structures operate on the people, processes, and technology through analytics, literacy, governance, process management, and data inventory management. The authors introduce the groundbreaking Usage and Flow Data Culture Model, a unique framework that enables organizations to evaluate and reshape their data culture based on distinct cultural types: Preservationist, Protectionist, Traditionalist, and Progressive. Each culture type is carefully dissected, revealing associated challenges and opportunities, uncovering suitable strategies in the process. Developing a worthy data culture necessitates a shift in mindset and the development of relevant skills across the organization. Building a Data Culture is your roadmap to fostering data literacy, promoting data-driven decision-making, and cultivating a data-driven mindset. What You'll Learn Assess your organization's current data culture Identify cultural strengths and weaknesses within your organization Develop a data governance program Define data policies and standards and establish decision-making processes Who This Book is For Professionals and leaders across various industries who are interested in building a data culture within their organizations. The typical reader may have a background in data management, analytics, business intelligence, or technology, but the book is designed to be accessible to a wide range of readers with varying levels of expertise.

The Analytics Revolution in Higher Education

The Analytics Revolution in Higher Education
Author: Jonathan S. Gagliardi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000981428

Co-published with and In this era of “Big Data,” institutions of higher education are challenged to make the most of the information they have to improve student learning outcomes, close equity gaps, keep costs down, and address the economic needs of the communities they serve at the local, regional, and national levels. This book helps readers understand and respond to this “analytics revolution,” examining the evolving dynamics of the institutional research (IR) function, and the many audiences that institutional researchers need to serve.Internally, there is a growing need among senior leaders, administrators, faculty, advisors, and staff for decision analytics that help craft better resource strategies and bring greater efficiencies and return-on-investment for students and families. Externally, state legislators, the federal government, and philanthropies demand more forecasting and more evidence than ever before. These demands require new and creative responses, as they are added to previous demands, rather than replacing them, nor do they come with additional resources to produce the analysis to make data into actionable improvements. Thus the IR function must become that of teacher, ensuring that data and analyses are accurate, timely, accessible, and compelling, whether produced by an IR office or some other source. Despite formidable challenges, IR functions have begun to leverage big data and unlock the power of predictive tools and techniques, contributing to improved student outcomes.

Cultivating a culture of experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning

Cultivating a culture of experimentation in higher-education teaching and learning
Author: Robert Kordts
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2021-12-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3755719576

As indicated by the diversity of the authors' physical locations, COVID and emergency-remote teaching affected Higher-Education-Institutions at a nearly global scale. Authors in this issue come from European countries (Switzerland, Germany), North America (the USA) as well as the southern hemisphere (South Africa). Given the breadth of COVID-related (change) experiences, the insights presented in this issue can be relevant to many HEIs across the globe, notwithstanding their cultural and institutional specificities. In addition, and of high relevance to us, the articles collected here focus both on different positions or roles (students, faculty, management) as well as on different levels of teaching and learning in higher education. While most contributions focus on the student experience during COVID, others investigate faculty/instructors' perspectives including faculty development. Yet another group takes a more systemic, institutional point of view. It could be argued that higher-education research takes up a multi-level perspective when exploring change and the new normal.

Data Driven

Data Driven
Author: Hilary Mason
Publisher:
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2015
Genre: Data mining
ISBN: 9781491921197

Succeeding with data isn't just a matter of putting Hadoop in your machine room, or hiring some physicists with crazy math skills. It requires you to develop a data culture that involves people throughout the organization. In this O'Reilly report, DJ Patil and Hilary Mason outline the steps you need to take if your company is to be truly data-driven-including the questions you should ask and the methods you should adopt. You'll not only learn examples of how Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook use their data, but also how Walmart, UPS, and other organizations took advantage of this resource long.

Wendell Berry and Higher Education

Wendell Berry and Higher Education
Author: Jack R. Baker
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2017-06-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0813169046

Why the university should focus on community: “An enlightening interpretation of Wendell Berry’s philosophy for the pursuit of a holistic higher education.” —Publishers Weekly Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on education has received comparatively little attention. Yet Berry has been eloquently unmasking America’s cultural obsession with restless mobility for decades, arguing that it causes damage to both the land and the character of our communities. The education system, he maintains, plays a central role in this obsession, inculcating in students’ minds the American dream of moving up and moving on. Drawing on Berry’s essays, fiction, and poetry, Jack R. Baker and Jeffrey Bilbro illuminate the influential thinker’s vision for higher education in this path-breaking study. Each chapter begins with an examination of one of Berry’s fictional narratives and then goes on to consider how the passage inspires new ways of thinking about the university’s mission. Throughout, Baker and Bilbro argue that instead of training students to live in their careers, universities should educate students to inhabit and serve their places. The authors also offer practical suggestions for how students, teachers, and administrators might begin implementing these ideas. Baker and Bilbro conclude that institutions guided by Berry’s vision might cultivate citizens who can begin the work of healing their communities—graduates who have been educated for responsible membership in a family, a community, or a polity.