Practical Application of the Duties & Functions of Institutional Research MidAIR Conference Kansas City, MO | November 9, 2017 Natalie Alleman Beyers | Johnson County Community College Kathy Schmidtke-Felts | University of Missouri-Columbia Megan Vogt-Kostner | University of Northern Iowa Gina Johnson | Association for Institutional Research

Why develop the Duties & Functions of Institutional Research?

Why the Duties & Functions of IR? AIR Board directive Further defining the field can lead to enhanced professionalization Further defining the field allows easier “marketing” of our work to stakeholders Assessment of IR functions Assessment of professional development needs of IR professionals

The Duties & Functions of Institutional Research

The Duties & Functions of IR Identify information needs Collect, analyze, interpret, and report data and information Plan and evaluate Serve as stewards of data and information Educate information producers, users, and consumers https://www.airweb.org/Resources/Pages/IR-Duties-Functions.aspx These are the D&F necessary for a successful IR function in an institution, system, or organization. Many people will be involved in this work, including IR professionals. IR offices should be integral to all of these D&F and collaborate to ensure their success. Identify Information Needs: stakeholders and their decision support needs anticipating questions assisting stakeholders in developing and refining research questions Collect, analyze, interpret, and report data and information technical tasks understanding of the data available collecting and reporting required and requested data applied research methods to analyze appropriate interpretation Plan and evaluate operational, budgetary, and strategic planning program review, particularly for accreditation purposes Formative and summative evaluation Serve as stewards of data and information ensuring an institution-wide data strategy Compliance issues ethical issues data quality assurance data are appropriately accessible and usable Educate information producers, users, and consumers training and coaching related to the use of data, analysis, and information ensuring the ability to collect, access, analyze, and interpret convening discussions related to information needs connecting internal and external producers and users of data Scholarship to inform and improve

Application of the Duties & Functions of Institutional Research In this section, each panelist will have 6-8 minutes to share information on the following: How have you (or do you plan) to use the Duties & Functions of IR documents/work in your setting? What are some examples of how you and your team perform a few of the Duties & Functions in your setting?

Panelists Natalie Alleman Beyers Director, Institutional Effectiveness, Planning, and Research Johnson County Community College Kathy Schmidtke-Felts Associate Director, Institutional Research University of Missouri-Columbia Megan Vogt-Kostner Research Analyst University of Northern Iowa Moderator: Gina Johnson Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships & Membership Association for Institutional Research

Johnson County Community College

Office of Institutional Planning & Research 18,638 students 61% degree/certificate-seeking 16% non degree/certificate seeking 22% dual credit high school Nearly 900 faculty Office of Institutional Planning & Research Director, Senior Planning & Research Analyst, Research Coordinator, Research & Data Analyst (2)

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Assessment, Evaluation & Institutional Outcomes Institutional Planning & Research National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute Strategic Planning & Accreditation INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Data analysis & reporting Data collection Current Alignment with Duties & Functions Data analysis & reporting Data collection Survey development and administration Data Support

Identify current needs of stakeholders Build interactive dashboards Opportunities/Working Towards: Identify current needs of stakeholders Build interactive dashboards Better educators Enhance current reporting processes Continue to strengthen partnerships

University of Missouri-Columbia

Context at University of Missouri 33,000 students – 26,000 undergraduate and 7,000 graduate and first-professional 1,133 T/TT faculty research-intensive, AAU 70% of research dollars to MO public universities; annual grant expenditures - $237 million Institutional Research & Quality Improvement Staff – Vice Provost, 2.5 Institutional Research, 1.5 Quality Improvement, 1 Admin Associate Undergrads ~25% non-resident

Centralized vs. Decentralized Who does what? Where do I go to find the answer to this question? MU IR & QI University of Missouri System IR Student Information Systems Faculty Information (Provost’s Office)* Schools/Colleges

A New Vision for Institutional Research Randy L. Swing and Leah Ewing Ross https://www.airweb.org/Resources/ImprovingAndTransformingPostsecondaryEducation/Documents/A-New-Vision-for-Institutional-Research.pdf

Identify information needs Collect, analyze, interpret, and report data and information Plan and evaluate Serve as stewards of data and information Educate information producers, users, and consumers https://www.airweb.org/Resources/Pages/IR-Duties-Functions.aspx

University of Northern Iowa

UNI Enrollment Profile 11,907 students (84.0% undergrad) Master's Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs Large transfer student population Top majors: Elementary education, accounting, psychology, biology, deciding

Role: Guide Answering requests (internal and external) What question are you trying to answer? What data can we provide? How much data is too much data?

Role: Mediator Councils, committees, sub-committees What data is available? Assistance with creating or providing survey data Provide knowledge of additional campus research and involvement Prepare recommendations based on the data collected Assess future needs

Role: Educator Qualtrics Trainings Data Driven Decision Making Assessment and reporting Data Driven Decision Making Host sessions throughout the semester Open to faculty, staff, and students

Role: Interpreter Collaborate with: IT-Administrative Information Systems Construct and validate (survey) dashboards Registrar’s Office and Financial Aid Assistance with pulling additional data Faculty Validation of (enrollment) dashboards

Role: Manager With IT-Administrative Information Systems Bi-weekly trainings

Contact Information Natalie Alleman Beyers | nalleman@jccc.edu Kathy Schmidtke-Felts | feltsk@missouri.edu Megan Vogt-Kostner | megan.vogt@uni.edu Gina Johnson | gjohnson@airweb.org