Tableau whitepaper on ways universities making impact with data analytics

1. 8 Ways Universities Are
Making an Impact with Data

2. 2
Universities and colleges strive to grow and fulfill their mission of educating their
communities. Communicating the data around that mission—how many students are
graduating? What does the student population look like? Is the University managing its
finances?— is an important component of any institution’s daily life. In this era of larger data
and disparate data sources, that can be especially challenging. However, institutions that
have been able to present important data online have been able to tell their stories better
and engage with their communities in a meaningful way.
This paper presents eight ways that higher education is using analytics and data
visualization, supported by examples from real institutions. It also addresses common
issues such as keeping data up-to-date as well as appropriately private and secure.
Each image is linked to its source on the web.
1. Track enrollment trends
2. Create an interactive University Factbook
3. Attract prospective donors
4. Communicate survey results
5. Analyze space usage
6. Benchmark against peer institutions
7. Show fiscal responsibility
8. Improve communication and collegiality

3. 3
1.
Track enrollment trends
Enrollment is one of the most important types of data at a university. Enrollment
data is the key to successful planning and recruitment, and it can let you know
when demographics are changing in meaningful ways.
Oxford University shares enrollment data online to show trends in the student
population. For example, the view below shows that postgraduate study has been
rising, while undergraduate study has been relatively flat. Web visitors can slice
the data by course type, gender, fee status, domicile, and nationality.
University University Number of Students Over Time by Course Type and Division
Hold your mouse over a mark to see full details
Medical Sciences Social Sciences MPLS Humanities OUDCE No Division
2009
2010
2011
2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
Students
14K
12K
10K
8K
6K
4K
2K
0K
Students (000s)
of Oxford Student Statistics:
Trends
Click here to return to the University
of Oxford statistics page
Select a Category:
Course Type
Gender
Fee Status
Domicile
Nationality
Colour:
Undergraduate
Postgraduate Research
Postgraduate Taught
VRO
The chart shows the number of
students over time for each Divi-sion
broken down by Course
Type. Each value is based on a
snapshot taken on the 1st De-cember.
Use the Select a Category filter
to change the category of data
being shown.
These views exclude "not known"
or "information refused" values.
Further details on individual
years can be seen in the Yearly
Snapshot Summary and De-tails
Table tabs. Terms and
definitions can be found on the
Further Information tab.
Click image to view original source.

4. 4
DePaul University of Illinois also shares its enrollment data in an interactive
visualization. This makes it easy for anyone to analyze the data by type of student,
college and other factors.
Total Enrollments
Year / Term
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
10,450 5,439
Fall
10,438 5,685
10,697 5,945
11,186 6,202
11,776 6,603
12,436 6,993
13,020 7,286
14,343 7,837
14,585 7,873
14,717 7,651
14,740 7,229
14,893 7,161
15,024 7,353
15,782 7,526
16,199 7,795
16,052 8,017
16,384 7,983
16,498 7,544
16,420 7,103
25K
20K
15K
10K
5K
0K
Value to Display
Note: Label shows Fall of Academic Year. For Spring, 2013, for instance, select 2012 (which is 2012-2013)
Year / Term
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
100%
Tracking enrollment trends can be help students, faculty and staff understand
what are often fast-changing communities. Here the University of Michigan tracks
enrollment over time against historical events like the admission of women and
non-white students.
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
Fall
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
% of Total Value to Display
60.99% 31.75%
60.36% 32.87%
60.08% 33.39%
60.25% 33.41%
60.24% 33.78%
60.52% 34.03%
60.95% 34.11%
61.75% 33.74%
61.77% 33.35%
62.44% 32.46%
63.68% 31.23%
64.34% 30.93%
64.20% 31.42%
64.81% 30.91%
64.61% 31.09%
63.84% 31.88%
64.51% 31.43%
66.08% 30.22%
67.26% 29.09%
Color Bars By
Level
Value to Display
Head Count
College
All
Level
All
Gender
All
Full or Part Time
All
Term
Fall
Ethnicity
Multiple Values
Entry Type
All
Years To Display
All
Bars Colo.. Graduate
Year
1841 Women
Men
1845 Women
Men
1850 Women
Men
1855 Women
Men
1860 Women
Men
1865 Women
Men
1870 Women
Men
1875 Women
Men
1880 Women
Men
1885 Women
Men
1890 Women
Men
1895 Women
Men
1900 Women
Men
1905 Women
Men
1910 Women
Men
1915 Women
Men
1920 Women
Men
1925 Women
Men
1929 Women
Click images Men
1930 Women
to view original source.
Men
1931 Women
Men
1932 Women
Men
1933 Women
Men
1934 Women
7
67
151
384
640
1,145
34
1,021
101
970
178
1,279
229
1,102
445
1,854
644
2,127
831
2,477
859
3,112
914
1,539
3,599
4,220
2,801
5,671
4,150
5,220
4,667
5,021
6,787
2,644
6,619
2,546
2,368
6,156
5,989
2,303
2,510

5. 5
2.
Create an interactive University Factbook
Prospective students use data about tuition, class size, graduation rates and
other metrics to decide whether to apply to a school. Providing this data in an
engaging and visual way on your college’s website can make it easier for students
to understand your programs and find the right fit.
Cornell University puts its Factbook online. Here prospective students can find
information about freshman class profiles, graduation, faculty and more.
Click image to view original source.

6. 6
Brown University also presents information online where prospective students can
find it. Here they track the faculty over time, showing strong growth in number of
regular faculty.
Number of Regular Faculty by Academic Year and Division
Demographics
Select Academic Division:
All
Click icon for salary
Select Demographic for Chart:
Rank
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
Select an Additional Demographic for Table:
Sex
800
600
400
200
100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
% of Total Faculty within Year
Academic Division: All
Distribution of Faculty by Rank
Professor
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Senior Lecturer
Lecturer
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
0
630 631
662 680 689 687 682 688
713 736
Humanities
Life and Medical Sciences
Physical Sciences
Social Sciences
Composition of Faculty
This page is a profile of regular faculty starting with academic year 2004-2005. Headcounts by academic division, rank, sex, and
race/ethnicity are included. Regarding race/ethnicity, the classification of Underrepresented Minority includes the federal reporting
categories of Hispanic/Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Is-lander.
The charts and table are interactive: select demographics and hover over bars and data points to see additional details. To see par-ticular
slices of each chart, click on its legend text. For example, clicking on "Humanities" in the legend of the first chart highlights all
of the blue bars, while the others fade away. Click a second time to restore the graph to its original state. Views can be exported to
PDF using the right-pointing arrow icon at the bottom of the page.
Click image to view original source.

7. 7
3.
Attract prospective donors
Texas A&M University has a big vision for developing knowledge and providing a
high-quality education. It provides a wide variety of statistics on its web site as a
way to track progress to this mission. These types of metrics are very helpful in
development efforts. They show potential donors progress in retention and graduation
rates, and they identify the students that come from a particular area or town.
The University of California at Berkeley tracks freshman graduation rates and,
by doing so, has been able to demonstrate a large increase in the number of
students graduating in 4 years or less. Filters allow visitors to slice the data by
year, or to see results for new freshmen or transfers.
New Freshman Graduation Rates by Entry Cohort Entry Type
Entry Cohorts
1996 Fall
1997 Fall
1998 Fall
1999 Fall
2000 Fall
2001 Fall
2002 Fall
2003 Fall
2004 Fall
2005 Fall
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
% of Total Student Headcount
11%
10%
10%
8%
20%
10%
17%
6%
5%
51%
52%
25%
53%
58%
61%
61%
64%
69%
66%
71%
5%
27%
4%
30%
4%
30%
24%
26%
21%
23%
9%
8%
9%
8%
8%
4%
New Freshman
Transfer Student
Fall Only/Year Total
Fall Only
Year Total
Academic Year
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Years To Graduation
Not Yet Graduated
Grad in > 6 Years
Grad in 5.5 - 6 Years
Grad in 4.5 - 5 Years
Grad in 1 - 4 Years
Live visualization not available

8. 8
4.
Communicate survey results
Almost every institution uses surveys to understand the attitudes of its community,
especially its students. Many institutions also extensively analyze NSSE (National
Survey of Student Engagement) data. But survey data can be quite extensive and
hard to use. Using interactive data visualization lets people find their own stories
within the surveys. For example, faculty may be interested in incoming students’
attitudes on grades and majors, while administrators may follow graduating
students’ satisfaction with their education and placement opportunities.
Cornell University does a New Student Survey every year and places the results
online. This lets different members of the community get value from the survey:
2012 New Student Survey, Selected Results
This web-based survey was conducted from July 5 to August 17, 2012.
2,990 first-year students participated in the survey, yielding a response rate of 92%.
- Select questions from drop down menus above the bar charts.
- See results filtered by college by choosing from the selection on the right.
- Hover over a shaded bar (or pie slice) for more detail.
College admitted to at Cornell:
All
New
Student
Survey
home:
Coming to Cornell
How well does the statement below describe you as a student?
Getting the best grades I can is very important to me
Somewhat Quite well Very well
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Percent responding...
19%
80%
1%
How well prepared do you feel you are to do this at Cornell?
Succeed academically at Cornell
Unprepared Somewhat
prepared
Quite well
prepared
Very well
prepared
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Percent responding...
27%
58%
14%
1%
How important is it that Cornell provides you the following?
Opportunities to discover and pursue your intellectual passion
Somewhat important Very important Essential
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Percent responding...
20%
78%
2%
How important is this as you think about your own life, future?
Being well-off financially
Not important
at all
Somewhat
important
Very important Essential
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Percent responding...
15%
41% 43%
1%
Importance of...
Background
What kind of HS graduated from?
13%
12%
1% 12%
61%
High school type
Public - charter or magnet
Public - regular
Private - religious
Private - non-religious
Home school & Other
22%
32%
46%
Will loans pay for first year?
33%
17%
15%
28%
2%
4%
Political views
Taking out a loan in first year?
No, I will not have loans
Yes, I will have loans
I do not know if will have loans
Describe political views
Very liberal
Liberal
Moderate/Middle-of-the..
Conservative
Very conservative
Something else
Haven't thought that mu..
Click image to view original source.

9. 9
Here’s an example of NSSE data on the Utah State University site showing how
important certain educational activities are to undergraduates:
Question 3. In your experience at your institution during the current school year,
about how often have you done each of the following?
3a. Talked about career plans with a faculty member
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
3b. Worked with a faculty member on activities other than coursework
(committees, student groups, etc.)
3c. Discussed ideas for a course project or paper with a faculty member
3d. Discussed course topics, ideas, or concepts with a faculty member outside of class
3e. Asked a faculty member for guidance on your academic program or plans
3f. Discussed your academic performance with a faculty member
Click image to view original source.
21%
49%
22%
8%
Total = 1,845
(149)
(388)
(909)
(399)
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
12%
28%
53%
7%
Total = 1,842
(124)
(216)
(517)
(985)
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
18%
47%
30%
6%
Total = 1,840
(102)
(334)
(859)
(545)
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
14%
44%
37%
5%
Total = 1,839
(97)
(249)
(815)
(678)
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
19%
45%
28%
8%
Total = 1,845
(142)
(351)
(829)
(523)
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
15%
46%
32%
7%
Total = 1,835
(122)
(281)
(841)
(591)
View selected:
Department: All
Class level: Both
Gender: Both
Race or ethnicity: All
Enrollment Status: All
Department
All
Class Level
First - Year Students
Seniors
Both
Gender
Male
Female
Both
Race or ethnicity
All
African American/Black
American Indian/Alaskan Native
Asian/Pacific Islander
Caucasian/White
Hispanic
Other
Foreign
Multi-racial/ethnic
Enrollment Status
All
Not reported
Part-time
Full-time

10. 10
5.
Analyze space usage
Understanding how your institution is using physical space is a critical part of
functioning effectively, from planning classes to maintaining emergency plans.
Many institutions use spatial analysis to track and reduce energy usage. And
spatial analysis is necessary for planning for future growth and accommodating
changing needs, such as when an increase in engineering students leads to a
need for more lab space.
Data overlaid on a map can be an invaluable tool to help you understand areas
of pain in your current space usage and to plan new uses. In this visualization,
Purdue University tracks where students are on campus by day and time over a
number of academic periods.
Location of Students on Campus - by Day/Time
Use the below controls to show the location of students by classroom building on Purdue's campus in a given semester, on any day of the week at any time of day.
Academic Period:
Fall 2012
Day of Week:
Monday
Time of Day:
8:00:00 AM
Students Enrolled in Classes:
0
500
1,000
≥ 1,500
Live visualization not available

11. 11
6.
Benchmark against peer institutions
Because every U.S. University must report to IPEDS (The Integrated
Postsecondary Education Data System), there is a wealth of benchmarking data
to draw from.
Jon Boeckenstedt of DePaul created this visualization showing test scores,
graduation rates and Pell grants across a number of institutions. “We love to
use IPEDs data for benchmarking on several criteria because it shows us as an
extraordinarily lean organization that is also quite mission-effective.”
600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600
Calculated M+V SAT Score
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Graduation rate - Bachelor degree within 4 years, total
SAT and Graduation Rates
15 20 25 30 35
Calculated Mean ACT Composite
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Graduation rate - Bachelor degree within 4 years, total
ACT and Graduation Rates
Hover over bubble for de-tails.
Data is from IPEDS, using
2010 AY Data. IPEDS is not
adjudicated. Calculated test
score means are
(25th percentile score +
75th percentile score)/2.
Size of bubble is Rejection
Rate (1-admit rate). Color
of bubble shows percent-age
of freshmen with Pell
Grants. Color scale is cen-tered
at 35%.
Institution
Tuition Dependence
25% to 105%
Urbanization
All
Region
All
Religious affiliation
All
Sector of institution
All
Rejection Rate
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
92.8%
Freshmen with Pell %
0% 100%
Click image to view original source.

12. 12
Utah State University shares a great deal of information on its website, from
course file analysis to graduation figures and peer-institution comparisons. In this
view, it compares its institution to its peer group in terms of in-state tuition and
fees, showing that Utah State is below the average of its peers.
University of Nebraska Lincoln
University of Wyoming
Washington State University
University of Nevada Reno
Kansas State University
New Mexico State University Main Campus
Oregon State University
Utah State University
University of Idaho
Montana State University
$142,513,395
$213,211,098
$189,242,536
$164,740,289
$153,772,373
$124,115,697
State Appropriations
$109,968,600
$173,314,884
$242,579,712
$57,288,114 Average
Legend
Kansas State University
Montana State University
New Mexico State University Main Campus
Oregon State University
University of Idaho
All Numbers Taken from IPEDS Database for 2011 School Year.
Colorado State is excluded from this view due to their unique funding model.
University of Nebraska Lincoln
University of Nevada Reno
University of Wyoming
Utah State University
Washington State University
Choose Measure of Analysis
State Appropriations
Click image to view original source.

13. 13
7.
Show fiscal responsibility
In an era of climbing college tuition, students, parents and donors are interested
in how well universities manage their money. Sharing profit-and-loss statements
is helpful, but financial statements don’t tell a story. Visualizing financial data
can help stakeholders understand the bigger picture: it drives home dry financial
information.
Utah Valley University tells the story of their university through a financial
lens: how they have managed expenditures and tuition in an era of variable
appropriations from the state. This gives its community confidence that the
administration of Utah Valley is managing its financial situation responsibly in an
era of uncertain financial future for higher education.
Utah Valley University is a leader in controlling educational costs
amidst an uncertain state commitment to education.
Rising educational costs make education more chal-lenging
Headcount & FTE
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
to students nationwide. To help students and
their families, UVU is doing its part in the face of sub-stantially
less state support.
At UVU, inflation-adjusted total expenditures per
full-time-equivalent student have declined 3.8%
since 1990.
During that same time, inflation-adjusted state appro-priations
per FTE have fallen 38%. If state appropria-tions
had kept pace with inflation and enrollment
growth over the past two decades, UVU would have
received $4,392 per FTE, a difference of $49 million,
in 2010-11.
UVU Expenditures, Appropriated Revenue, & Tuition, 1990-2010 Base
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
$7,000
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
per Ann. Budget FTE
per FTE
per Student
Total
Inflation
Constant (2010) Dollars
Current Dollars
Measure Names
Appropriations
Expenditures
Tuition & Fees
Click image to view original source.

14. 14
8.
Improve communication and collegiality
Boeckenstedt says that there is one very important reason to share data, beyond
even insight and decision-making. “The more information you can push to people,
the more you engender a sense of transparency. You establish more trust and
collegiality.”
Sharing data can help build a culture of collaboration. Sharing data can lead to
sharing ideas and working together. Debates about whose information is correct
go away, and people can come together to work on a solution using a common
baseline of data.
Challenges
Of course, there are several challenges when using data in higher education.
Allan Walker, Business Intelligence Analyst at Utah State University (USU)
discussed their rollout of university-wide visualizations. Their challenges were
similar to those faced by many others in the sector.
CHALLENGE: SOLUTION:
DISPARATE DATA - Many institutions
face the problem of too much data coming
from too many data sources—enrollment
systems, graduation databases, learning
management, survey data, course
information and more.
USU uses a technology stack including
both Tableau Desktop and Server to
blend the various data sources together.
This gave them the capability to view the
information in summaries by department.
KEEPING DATA UP TO DATE - Another
challenge is keeping data fresh.
USU uses a combination of live
connections and automatically refreshed
extracts to make sure data is current.
Different systems may be updated on
different schedules, but their dashboards
and reports are all as up-to-date as the
underlying data.
KEEPING DATA PRIVATE - Finally,
security and privacy are a concern at most
universities. While you may want to share
aggregate trends, other data like student
grades and faculty pay must stay private.
This requires a system where people
must authenticate and have assigned
permissions for what they can access.
USU uses use Tableau Server, which
requires each user to authenticate to see
certain data. They can also choose to
present certain dashboard to the public,
without any authentication required.

15. 15
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