Transcript No Slide Title - Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

Frontiers in Education 1999
Data Warehousing: A Tool for Facilitating Assessment
Polytechnic University, New York
Gateway Coalition
Dr. Joanne Ingham
Director of Institutional Assessment & Retention
Office of Academic Affairs
[email protected]
Relational Database
Management Systems
(departmental data)
Legacy System
(Mainframe or other types
of edit oriented system)
External Data statistics,
state and federal reports
Data Mining, Collection, Processing and Integration
On-Line
Processing
Requests
Analyzed Data,
Reports
Data Warehouse
Warehouse Flexibility and Responsiveness
Benefits:
 Easy access to data & fast response rate
 Manageable - work only with data you need
 Processing does not disturb main system
 OLAP - Online Analytical Processing
Drawbacks:
 Constant electronic update
 Must design and maintain new system
Recognition and Support For Centralized Assessment
Process and Longitudinal Tracking
August 1997
•Hired personnel: Director and Project Leader
•Purchased equipment and software: workstation,
scanner, visual tools, NT, RDBMS, VB, C++
•Data collected: ten years of institutional data
•Piloted new techniques: web, client/server, scanning
September 1998
•Purchased: server and a workstation
•Expanded assessment process: based on pilot results
Data Collection - Identify Available Data
• University Legacy System - Mainframe
• Reports
•State Reports (HEGIS),
•Freshman Survey (CIRP)
•Departmental Year-End Reports
• Other Database Systems
•Special Services Office - custom
•HEOP - excel
•Career Services - custom
•Alumni Office - outside provider
Data Collection Issues:
Need for a University Catalog Statement on Assessment
Data Collection Issues:
• Departmental confidentiality concerns - release
letter prepared by the Dean
• Meet with Directors to determine:
– which data exist
– format of the data
– relative purity of that data
Data Incorporated into Warehouse
– Official census data files (for each academic session)
• 21 day count
– Registrar files
• registration
• end of semester grades
– Freshman cohort files
– Official graduation files
– Alumni files
Data Integration - A Critical Step
•Migrating data from existing Legacy System
•Extracting and transferring data from other systems - UNIX,
Windows, DOS based databases and spreadsheets
•Checking for data quality
•Eliminating duplicates and dead data
•Checking for data consistency by cross referencing data from
different sources
Aug97
|| Nov97
|| Feb98
|| May98
|| Aug98
Office Established and Director and Project Leader Hired
Equipment and the Software Purchased (NT Workstation, VB, Interdev, Access, SQL)
Initial data Collection and Data Transfer (Data Warehouse is established)
Data Collection and Maintenance (Ongoing Process)
Data Integration
Program Piloting and Testing
Development of a Web-Based Assessment Process
Benefits:
• Easy to distribute - access 24 hours
• Easy to analyze data
• Saves time, human and office resources
• Easier to work with electronic data - on a routine basis
• Computer can check for integrity of data - validate
Drawbacks:
• Response rate sometimes lower
• Involves more preparation time upfront
• Possible technical difficulties if system is down
Develop and Pilot Test Instruments and Methods
 Faculty Survey- Paper based, overall 60% response
rate, 85% rate from target faculty, data entered
manually.
 Freshman Design Course - Web-based survey,
60% response rate, data collected and
analyzed automatically.
 Alumni Survey - Web-based and paper (later to be
scanned). Using both approaches for better
response rate with alumni population.
 Course-Level Assessment - Web-based pilot,
spring 1999. Full implementation, fall 1999.
 Ease of administration, data collection and analysis.
 Ease of student access to evaluation forms.
Warehouse as a Faculty & Department Resource
 Access to timely and thorough statistical data: graduation
& persistence rates, grades, registration.
 Support assessment activities for accreditation
 Alumni Surveys
 Course-Level Assessment
 Assessment Activities for Grants
 Longitudinal Tracking of Students
 Performance Linked to ABET competencies
 Retention and Persistence
 Changing Majors within University
 Transfers
 Math Performance as a Retention Issue