Abstract:

Institutions of higher education are often driven by their stated mission and core values. At Saint Leo University (SLU), the mission of being “…a Catholic, liberal arts-based university serving people of all faiths” is driven by the core values of excellence, community, respect, personal development, responsible stewardship and integrity. In examining technology for good, SLU leverages the impact of excellence, responsible stewardship and integrity through its active application of technology, such as dashboards, to help carry out these values to educate students and cultivate faculty development.

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (2015) announced a call to action which included finding innovative ways to harness technology for social good. They state that “Despite…technological progress, the social sector has been slow to incorporate a continuous flow of data analytics to inform policy and practice” (p.3). Moreover, they point out that the unintended consequence of siloed data, a nearly universal finding across industries in the era of big data, yields inefficient process, waste, cost overruns and limits outcomes.

This presentation showcases the incorporation of dashboards into academic program and course review processes. To fully utilize data to inform decision making, we applied a framework where faculty and staff collect the right data, have access to the data, know what to do with the data, interpret and make decisions based on that data, and follow up to ensure the changes are effective. Incorporating dashboards into this framework improves academic programs through the utilization of data to draw conclusions and insights that lead to action. We have begun to ensure that we are more efficient in presenting one data truth through:
a) the adoption of specific processes around the development of dashboards,
b) the presentation of evidence, and
c) the interpretation of findings.

These lead to data-informed decision making.

SLU data analysts developed over 20 dashboards to support continuous institutional improvement. Dashboard content ranges from enrollments and graduation/retention rates to student learning evidence. Dashboards are designed to provide quick insights, but are also flexible enough to drive deeper investigation. However, without a background in analytics, faculty may not be able to interpret the available information. To curtail this potential problem, we trained all faculty on how to access, navigate, and interpret the findings on the dashboards.

Additionally, online courses use seven dashboards to guide course selection, redesign, and planning. The lead instructional designer, senior course data analyst and each department chair meet yearly to review course data using a process that ensures all departments have an opportunity to redesign underperforming courses. Once the course redesign is complete, a course custodian is assigned to monitor enrollment and performance for a period of two years. Recommendations from these meetings lead to changes in the course that enhance student learning and respond to both instructors’ and students’ needs.

Through this presentation we will:
1. Describe the processes and approaches we use to transform our data culture
2. Display the types of evidence provided through dashboards
3. Illustrate the support that enables users to make evidence-informed decisions
4. Discuss lessons learned and future steps

Keywords:

Faculty engagement, evidence-informed decisions, dashboards.