1. Bin Ning, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President & Executive Director
Overall Structure, Current Foci, & Future Directions of Institutional Research in the U.S.
Bin Ning, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President & Executive Director
Ann Arbor· November 2017

2. About the Presentation
The presentation is adapted based on my keynote speech in June 2017 at Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan

3. About Eastern Michigan University
One of the 15 public universities in Michigan
2,000 full-time employees, including 800 full-time faculty
Offers from bachelor’s to doctorate degrees in 5 colleges (AS, BUS, ED, HHS, TECH)
Carnegie classified in 2015 as National University (R3)
Enrolls between 20,500 and 23,000 students during a typical fall term
Annual budget US$340 million

4. Overview of the Presentation
Overall Structure
Current Foci
Trends and Future Directions
Challenges

5. Overall Structure of IR

6. About an IR Office
Almost all universities and colleges in the U.S. have an IR office
Number of staff FTEs varies between 1 to 15+
An IR office at a university with 15k-20k students typically has 5-8 staff FTEs
70% of IR offices report to the Office of Provost
Head of the office is typically at Director/Executive Director/AVP level, as the importance of the office has elevated in recent decades
Has an independent budget that covers staff salaries, software purchasing, conference travel, and daily office supplies
Note: FTE = Full-time Equivalent

7. An Example: IR Office at EMU (7 FTE)

8. Distribution of Staff FTE & Responsibilities
Leadership, outreach, planning, office management… – 1 FTE
Federal/state/agency mandated reporting – 0.5 FTE
Other external non-mandatory reporting responsibilities—0.5 to 1 FTE
Ad hoc data analysis and requests—1.5 FTE
Survey administration and analysis –0.5 FTE
Database management and web applications development –1.5 to 2 FTE
Secretarial support –0.5 to 1 FTE

9. Desired Technical Expertise for IR Professionals
Expert who is knowledgeable about common issues, policies, challenges, and trends of higher education
Understanding about assessment, evaluation, and accreditation practices and processes
Data analyst with good/strong statistical background, predictive modeling
Database expert who knows enterprise data structure and data warehousing processes
Interactive web application (BI tool) developer
Reporting analyst who are adept in using SQL language

10. Data Management Processes

11. Data Analysis and Application Development

12. Current Foci

13. Primary Areas of Our Work
Decision and policy support
Support recruitment and student success
Improve institutional effectiveness
Improve academic quality and research activities
Student Surveys
Accreditation support
Extensive reporting responsibilities
Improve data integrity

14. Decision & Policy Support
Strategic planning—Plan-Do-Measure-Improve
Resource prioritization—How to allocate resources based on data-informed facts
Policy development—Development of certain academic policies are based on IR research data (e.g., special support programs, honors college, living learning community)
Predictive modeling—Enrollment and revenue predictions

15. Support Student Recruitment & Success
Market analysis—Where and how to focus recruitment efforts
Retention and completion—Many federal and state policies are linked to retention and completion
Satisfaction and engagement—Surveys provide timely feedback
Student experience—Data analysis related to student experience within and beyond classrooms

16. An Example (Market Analysis)

17. An Example (Recruiting & Registration)
Daily Enrollment Update

18. Improve Institutional Effectiveness
Develop KPIs
Instructional productivity
Dashboard

19. Improve Academic Quality
Program review and evaluation
Assessment of student learning
Research grant applications
Improve student experience

20. An Example
Academic Decision Support Tool

21. Student Surveys NSSE Graduating Senior Survey
New Graduates Employment Status Survey
Other ad hoc surveys

22. Accreditation Support
Institutional Accreditation
Required annual updates and 4th/10th year review
Outcome-based criteria and measures
Trends
Specialized Accreditation
Required annual updates and comprehensive review
Program-based outcomes and standards
Learning outcomes
Job placement data

23. An Example Provide automated annual update to program accreditations

24. Other Areas of Foci Reporting—Government mandate and other agencies
Database management
Data audit

25. Trends and Future Directions

26. Overall Trends of IR
More important in the organizational structure of an institution
Transformation from traditional “data cruncher” to “think tank”
Assume greater and broader responsibilities
More challenges in data definition, standards, and legal issues

27. Business Intelligence (BI) Tools
Machine learning
Data mining
Predictive modeling
Big data
Automation of reporting processes

28. Data Visualization Highly interactive web-based applications
Sankey Chart
Tableau

29. Use of Student Behavior Data
Data from LMS
Frequency of course sign-in
Submission and individual grade of each homework
Interactions with course instructors
Tutorial services

30. Research Agenda Promote research agenda of IR Focus on specific issues
Student success
Policy research
Program prioritization

31. Example: Research Primer

32. Challenges

33. Shortage of Skilled IR Professionals
Brain Drain
Lack of highly skilled and well-trained IR candidates
Some IR certification/degree programs are offered in several universities; yet the help is limited

34. Data Related Challenges
Data complexity and integrity
Data availability
Customization of reports
Data analysis and interpretation of findings
Legal challenges

35. Challenge of Student Surveys
Low response rate
What students actually think
Validity and reliability of surveys

36. Contact
Dr. Bin Ning Assistant Vice President & Executive Director Office of Institutional Research & Information Management 401E Pierce Hall, Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI 48197, USA