University Business - November/December 2011 - (Page 49)

Participation in group tours at Tartleton State University has grown significantly, as least in part because of the more targeted and personal communications that business intellience solutions allow. The solutions are also helping campus leaders understand more about class rank, class loads, and how they relate to overall student success. information and ask more questions. It’s a shift from a backlog in developing reports, but we remedy it by empowering people.” Data in Real Time The power of these business intelligence tools is in drilling down to the granular level which shows the impact of student performance and success, as well as the institution’s efficiency. When John Fritz, assistant VP of instructional technology and new media at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, didn’t have the information he needed from Blackboard Analytics, he just created his own dashboard. While Blackboard did include reports, Fritz was the only one who could see them. He conducted research and learned that, the more students interacted in the learning management system, the better they performed. He built a dashboard dubbed “Check My Activity Tool” that allowed students to monitor their activity in the learning management system. It also gave decision makers information to consider when thinking about how a LMS can help drive student performance. “In the last three years, we’ve found students earning a D or F in a class use the Blackboard system 40 percent less than those students earning a C or higher,” Fritz relates. In the admissions office at Hope College (Mich.), time was an enemy. But lag time in the recruiting admission process has disappeared since implementing Intelliworks. Adam Hopkins, associate director of admissions and international recruiting, can now see who applied overnight and what items are missing in universitybusiness.com their application. “Having that real-time information when talking to students makes a large difference,” Hopkins relates. “Before, we had a download process at certain times of the day, which can take quite a bit of time to update.” Hope College previously used a home-grown Microsoft Access solution with limited functionality. The web-based Intelliworks system encourages better communication and captures notes about prospects to directly affect correspondence with them. Folks with their finger in the recruiting process (admissions, athletics, and faculty) are all using the solution. Prospect data is housed in Intelliworks and later moved to Banner once a student has moved to applicant stage. Although Hopkins realizes a lot of factors go into an institution’s success, since moving to Intelliworks in 2009, Hope College has had the highest number of applicants in history and full classes, as a school with capped enrollment. More Big Features Predictive analytics is a talked-about new feature in the BI space, according to SunGard Higher Education’s senior strategic consultant Scott Cupach. “Imagine leveraging the historical data already stored in your data repositories to determine which students are most likely to drop out or not pay their tuition bill on time, which are likely to switch majors or become alumni who generously give back to the campus, or predict where crimes may occur on campus, thus November/December 2011 | 49 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - November/December 2011

University Business - November/December 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Financial Aid
Viewpoint
Education Gateways
Models of Efficiency
Business Intelligence Gets Smarter
Internet Technology
Independent Outlook
End Note

University Business - November/December 2011