Data

Collaborative Teams: Data

Updates and Next Steps

May 2021

The Student Affairs Data Collaborative met on March 26 to discuss setting specific goals for the group. Members worked together to clarify goals and select the most immediate priority:

1. Standardize and fully implement data collection, reporting, and access processes division-wide
   1. Data processes to standardize: Participant tracking, reporting, FERPA certification, Involvement Network, Tableau, and department-specific tools
   2. Automate participant tracking and reporting division-wide
   3. Measure all engagement to some extent; Measure as much with MyIDs as possible; Determine and remedy reporting gaps
   4. Work from common definitions: What is data? What is engagement? What is “protected?” What are the gaps?
   5. Increase and enhance data literacy across the division (ie. Codebook, etc.)
   6. Ensure alignment with university’s existing processes and definitions (OIR, Financial Aid, Registrar, Career, EL, EITS (security), etc.)

As we pursue this goal, group members implored each other not to “recreate the wheel,” encouraging us to leverage existing campus (OIR) tools, definitions, and guidelines. Additionally, the collaborative reminded each other that our main question throughout should be “How will this benefit students? What are the specific problems we are trying to solve?”

In addition to the first priority, the collaborative proposed an initial draft list of remaining goals to clarify in the future:

2. Departmental data sharing
   1. Concerns about external access to departmental data (other departments or units on campus)
   2. What is genuinely “protected” data?
   3. Software efficiencies? Sharing software? Inter-software communication?
   4. Streamline access and increase clarity on what data is available (update data request form)
   5. Brainstorm productive approaches to collecting, reporting, and sharing data from sensitive programs/services (ie. Conduct, SCO, UHC, DRC, etc.)
   6. Campus/Student Affairs data sharing partnerships (Career, Instruction, EL, DAE, Financial Aid, Registrar, etc.)
3. Division data guidelines
   1. Focus on completeness and uniformity across sources
   2. Streamline access and increase clarity on what data is available (update data request form)
   3. Ensure data accuracy, validity
   4. Observe current available data and tools and determine opportunities for storytelling/improvement/enhancement
   5. How to leverage data to improve outcomes (measure impact, implement assessment, make data-informed program decisions)
4. Assessment
1. Advance from measuring satisfaction to measuring learning (measure impact)
2. Build impact measures into the Involvement Network

March 2021

The Student Affairs Data Collaborative met on February 24, when we learned about each Student Affairs department’s approach to data collection, storage, reporting, and assessment, including tools and software employed. We also discussed the division’s approach to these efforts centrally, and how these effort contribute to the University’s student data initiatives as well as our own efforts to assess and enhance student support and programs.

Specific topics of discussion were:

• Access to and using other units’ data
• Opportunities for and limitations of Student Affairs data requests
• Accounting for nuances (ie. Medical Partnership students, or Augusta University nursing students, etc.)
• Determining and addressing challenges with data:
  • Existence
  • Gaps
  • Collection
  • Completeness
  • Uniformity
  • Interpretation
  • Access
• Noting opportunities for software efficiency and collaboration (Student Affairs, Career Center, EL, etc.)
• Measuring, assessing, and reporting - difference between “reach” and “impact”
• Security and privacy considerations

The Collaborative acknowledged there are many, large, and complex challenges to meet, and that determining individual initiatives to pursue might be more effective than attempting a comprehensive approach design or enterprise overhaul. Next steps for the group are likely determining those individual initiatives in light of availing opportunities and the SA2025 plan and timeline.

October 2020

The Student Affairs Data Collaborative met on September 24 to go over the Division’s general approach to data collection, storage, reporting, and assessment, as well as presented tools which educators can use data to enhance their programs. Members requested more detail about individual department approaches, and we agreed to address that in an upcoming meeting.

The Student Affairs Data Team reviews and fulfills requests from UGA Student Affairs employees who need access to information for business purposes, including data related to student demographics, contact information, academic performance, term information, academic details, pre-enrollment information, and student engagement. (https://studentaffairs.uga.edu/vp/content_page/data-requests)

The Student Affairs Data Team members are:

• Ben Cecil, assistant director of International Student Life
• Stan Jackson, assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs
• Wes Summers, Student Affairs digital engagement lead

August 2020

The Student Affairs Data Collaborative officially commenced on July 27, 2020, when members were welcomed to the initiative via email. Initially, the Student Affairs Data Collaborative will discuss the challenges to and need for comprehensive participant tracking, both in-person and virtual.