Derek Alderman Department of Geography

Purpose O Discuss why I take data analysis seriously O Departmental Health & Sustainability O Reflect on Academic Program Review O Data Challenges and Opportunities O Lessons the Department of Geography learned in collecting and analyzing data O Proactive rather than reactive

3 rd Year as Department Head O Also new to University of Tennessee O Need data to get handle on where Department is going O A Counter-balance to the wide range of faculty perspectives O Need Data for APR—of course! O Previous university home in North Carolina O That university engaged in major data collection and program prioritization (“right sizing”) O Data have consequences; Who controls the process?

Geography APR/Self-Study O Challenges O Institutional level O Unable to compare our instructional and research data to other units (per capita) O Difficult to obtain data on student diversity and how it has changed over time O Few aggregate departmental research metrics beyond figures on sponsored projects and proposals O We are moving toward documenting engaged scholarship, but not in place yet

Geography APR/Self-Study O Challenges O Departmental level O Not strong culture of program data analysis O History of collecting much more data on graduate students than undergrad majors O Ex: We know how long it takes PhD students to complete the degree but not the case for undergraduates (retention) O Lack of data not consistent with “student-centered” mission of Dept.

Geography APR/Self-Study O Opportunities—”Points of Intervention” O Academic Unit Statistics: O Illustrated need to increase number of Geography majors O Ongoing creation of new degree tracks and aggressive recruitment strategy O Analysis of Citations to Faculty Research and Journal Impact Factors (done on our own) O Prompted group discussion, mentoring, and comparison of H-index scores of UT Geography faculty to national benchmarks for the discipline

Geography APR/Self-Study O Opportunities—”Points of Intervention” O Lack of sufficient student profile and diversity data O Led to development of entrance survey for new majors O Collection of employment growth data in Geographic Information Science O Confirm demand for GIS curriculum enhancement in program O Lack of data on student placement & success data O Plans to implement post-graduate assessment device in next year or so (helps SACS too)

Lessons Learned O Departments should “Ground Truth” academic unit statistics O Use other data to calibrate and enhance interpretation of official stats O Ex: Deconstruct Budget Figures using IRIS O Departments should actively collect own data and “Improvise” when data do not exist O May require using unconventional data sources O Ex: Measuring student placement using Facebook

Thank You