SCUP board member Linda Baer, formerly of MnSCUP and now with the Gates Foundation, explains Action Analytics - background and potential - to SCUP's board of directors.

Part 1 of 4:

Part 2 of 4:

Part 3 of 4

Part 4 of 4

Ohio University wanted to get started with analytics (business intelligence) but didn't have much money. This Campus Technology magazine case study explains how they did it and what they learned:

Also working to give input and feedback to Wykoff's team was a committee of various users. That committee, which has met weekly for a year and continues to meet and give input, includes representatives from budgeting, finance, the registrar, the bursar, and other academic personnel. As the group gains an understanding of just what BI solutions can do, Wykoff said, excitement is building. "There's starting to be a little line [of people] saying, "How can we get on the BI list and be next?'"

One lesson Wykoff offered as the project moves into its second year is this: Delivering the right data to end users through BI is an iterative process. "Once [users] see the data, they're going to ask a different set of questions [than the first time around], or realize some assumptions," she noted. That makes BI different from a more traditional software development project, in which user needs are researched, then a system is installed, modified, and left to run.

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.