Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

Here's your SCUP Link to 7 Things You Should Know About Analytics (PDF)

This is part of the series of excellent brief summaries about Things You Should Know, published by the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). They're all good resources, even better than Wikipedia   ;-0

Analytics tools provide statistical evaluation of rich data sources to discern patterns that can help individuals at companies, educational institutions, or governments make more informed de- cisions. In commercial usage, analytics software may evaluate data mined from purchasing records to allow a web-based retailer to suggest products that might interest customers or allow a search engine to target ads based on an individual’s location and demo- graphic data. Colleges and universities can harness the power of analytics to develop student recruitment policies, adjust course catalog offerings, determine hiring needs, or make financial deci- sions. In a teaching and learning context, data from such sources as the learning management system, college application forms, and library records can be used to build academic analytics pro- grams that use algorithms to construct predictive models that can identify students at risk for not succeeding academically.