1. We Love Your Data! A Report from the IPEDS Help Desk Jamie Isaac & Janice Kelly-Reid RTI International April 16, Presented at the 2008 SHEEO/NCES Network Conference and IPEDS Workshop Arlington, VA
3040 Cornwallis Road ■ P.O. Box ■ Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA 27709

2. IPEDS Help Desk - Operated since July 2000 by RTI International
- Help Desk agents are specially hired and trained to serve IPEDS customers
- Open weekdays 8:30am to 5:00pm Eastern time
- Open evenings and weekends during the final ten days of each collection

3. What is the Role of the Help Desk?
Typically, we have staff, many of them seasoned veterans. We operate out of our Call Center in north Raleigh, NC.
Respond to phone calls and s.
Make prompting (reminder) calls during the last 2 weeks of each collection.
Review and migrate all survey data after locked and complete. At minimum, this means careful review of the edit reports and caveats.
We can enter “special notes” for individual schools, so let us know if special treatment is needed for a particular reason.

4. Meet the Help Desk

5. Help Desk Activity

6. Help Desk Activity – 2007-08 Collection Year
*Through April 9, 2008

7. Inbound Call volume
Projected
Collection Year
*Through April 9, 2008

8. Outbound Call volume
Projected
Collection Year
*Through April 9, 2008

9. New Activities

10. Targeting Help Desk Resources
During the past year, we’ve been gathering some data to help us better understand who the Help Desk users are, how many keyholders are new to IPEDS, and which institutions require the most reminder calls.
Additional training resources targeted to new keyholders.
Future plans are to conduct reminder calls targeted to new users (and historically late respondents).

11. Keyholder Turnover, 2007-08 New Keyholder (Existing School)
New Keyholder (New School)
No Change in Keyholder

12. Inbound Help Desk Calls, by Sector

13. Outbound (Primarily Reminder) Calls, by Sector

14. Late Data Submission

15. Last Minute Submissions
Everyone submitted their data really early this year!
Just kidding…
During the final week of each collection, there continues to be an extremely heavy burden on the collection system.
Notes:
We are constantly reminded by keyholders that they have to wait to get the data from various people, they are busy with many tasks, etc., so be sure not to use the term “procrastination” because surely some audience members will be offended by the allegation.

16. Last Week Submissions

17. Data Tools Help Desk

18. What is the Role of the Data Tools Help Desk?
Opened on March 5, 2007.
Currently, 2-3 staff working as needed, responding to phone calls and s.
Assists IPEDS users and others by familiarizing them with the IPEDS data tools and/or assisting with outputting data files.
Includes the following tools & resources:
Peer Analysis System (PAS)
Executive Peer Tool (ExPT)
College Navigator
Data Analysis System (DAS)
Other NCES data sources and publications

19. Data Tools Help Desk 3/5/07 – 4/12/07
35-40 inquiries per week, on average
Source of inquiries:
Phone- 66%
s- 34%
Average call duration: minutes
For calls needing additional research, average time spent per request: 26 minutes

20. Data Tools Help Desk 3/5/07 – 4/12/07
Inquiries by Data Tool

21. Examples of the kinds of help we have provided recently
Didn’t understand why there are different levels to log-in; needed help with basic navigation.
Needed help understanding how to use qualifying variables.
Wanted to know how to generate calculated variables across multiple institutions (in order to determine grad rate averages by sector).
Didn’t understand how to create a comparison group by variable.
Wanted to create a list of institutions with a similar allied health program, with enrollment totals over past several years.
Needed help calculating ratios for sub-groups of faculty compared to all faculty.
What questions can we help YOU with?

22. Thank you for your assistance in making IPEDS successful!
In Closing…
Thank you for your assistance in making IPEDS successful!
…and finally….
As usual, we have a gift of appreciation… which will help you remember how to contact us!