1. Feed the Beast A Multi-Faceted Approach to Operational Data Requests on Your Campus
Denny Savage
Senior Associate Registrar
The University of Alabama
M2.5 | 2/12/18

2. Agenda 1. The Role of the Registrar as it Pertains to Data
2. Request Intake
3. Departments
4. Colleges, Dean’s Offices, & Administration
4. Internal Reports
5. Questions

3. The Role of the Registrar
Proving What to Whom

4. Operational Data
At UA: University Registrar vs. Institutional Research
Generally not longitudinal data or statistical analysis
Data to be used in day-to-day decision-making
Disclaimers about enrollment counts, etc. when compared to census/historical data
Limiting access to prior terms
Keep it on campus: not to be used for accreditation or other outside purposes

5. Request Intake
Managing and Fulfilling Report Requests

6. Receiving Requests 3rd Party Requests Directory Information Only
Fees Associated with the Request
Formal Request Procedure
Requests from Other UA Employees
Computations of operational data handled by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (average grades per section, sections with high D/F/W rates, student class ranking, etc.)
Operational data requests handled by University Registrar (class rosters, lists of majors, lists of courses, etc.)
Electronic request form validated by single sign-on

7. Employee Request Form

8. Filling Employee Requests
Delivery Methods
Data file placed in secure, file-sharing application (Box)
Report built in Argos with delivery schedule
Report placed in Argos for specific user(s) to run ad-hoc
Report built for a wider audience to access in Argos
Deciding on Delivery Method
Who is requesting the information?
How often is this information likely to be requested?
Could the requested information been relevant to a wider audience?

9. Departments

10. Departments What data is needed? Tying students to department?
Enrollment
Graduation
Class Schedule
Tying students to department?
Majors tied through curriculum rules
Minors tied through custom coding
Granting access
Using faculty coding in Banner
Restrict based on associated department
Allow access through custom tab in UA portal

17. Colleges, Dean’s Offices and Administration

18. Colleges, Dean’s Offices and Administration
What data is needed?
Enrollment
Graduation
Class Schedule
Advising
Retention
Curriculum
Transfer Credit
Granting access
Access to Argos Client
Folder level security
College/Office Specific vs. University-Wide

19. Argos Folder Structure

20. Administrative Office Reports
Data that is only relevant or can only be disclosed to a particular office of set of staff
Generally specific/narrow sets of data
What justifies creation of a folder?
Offices that operate and manage students across colleges
Disability Services
Veterans Affairs
Athletic Academics
Study Abroad
Student Success/Retention Initiatives
Offices that manage unique student populations
Early College (High School dual enrollment programs)
English Language Institute
Cooperative Education

21. Administrative Office Reports

22. Administrative Office Reports

23. College Reports
Data that is only relevant or can only be disclosed to a particular college
Data that needs to be ed to non-Argos users
Always limited to students within that particular college
What types of data?
College-specific rules/requirements
College honor society data
Level-specific data (Graduate/Law School)

24. College Reports

25. College Reports

26. Dean’s Office Reports
Higher level data that allows for reporting across levels and colleges
Limited to a small group of users (2-5) within the College Dean’s office or Student Services area
Includes limited number of users from the Provost’s Office as well as other academic support staff
What types of data?
Course and Curriculum (non-FERPA)
Student specific enrollment, grading, retention, graduation, transfer credit data

27. Course and Curriculum Reports
Catalog-level data dealing with active course inventory and prerequisites
Class Schedule Data
Schedule summary
Cross-listed sections
Grade distribution
Missing final grades
Permit & authorization setup
Curriculum Data
Active degrees, majors, concentrations, and minors

28. Enrollment Summary OLAP

29. Student-Specific Dean’s Office Reports
FERPA-protected data
Our approach to the presentation of this data has evolved:
Started with specific data sets
Moved to broader data dumps to allow users to export and manipulate data
Currently pushing interactive dashboards with drill-down charting that allow our users to explore the datat

30. Specific Data Set

31. Data Dump

32. Academic Performance Profile

33. Academic Snapshot Dashboard

34. Academic Snapshot Dashboard

35. Academic Snapshot Dashboard

36. Grade Distribution Dashboard

37. Grade Distribution Dashboard

38. Preliminary Enrollment Report
Sent out daily after early registration
Sent until census date for the term in question
Compares to previous term based on current day and previous census

39. Preliminary Enrollment Dashboard

40. Preliminary Enrollment Dashboard

41. Preliminary Enrollment Dashboard

42. Internal Reports

43. Internal Reports Historically, mostly data-cleanup
The majority were built to be scheduled and sent via daily or semi- daily
Types of reports
Class schedule coding error cleanup
Curriculum cleanup
Census cleanup
Audit trails
Graduation/commencement preparation
Athletic rule monitoring
Evolving approach
Instead of delivering specific data, give your employees the opportunity to explore the data as if they could query the database
Allows your staff to become more familiar with the data
Allows for a more proactive approach to problem solving
More flexible, query dashboards
Combining multiple dashboards into a single interface

44. Class Schedule Query
Allows the user to slice and dice the data as they see fit
Replaces numerous error reports
Explore the following tables:
SSBSECT: Class Schedule
SIRASGN: Instructor Assignment
SSRLINK: Section Linking
SSRXLST: Cross-Listing
SSRMEET: Meeting Pattern, Building and Room

45. Student Curriculum Query
Searching primary curriculum criteria
Great for finding test populations
Explore the following tables:
SGBSTDN: General Student
SGRSATT: Student Attributes
SHRTTRM: Academic Standing
SGRCHRT: Student Cohorts
SFRSTCR: Registration

46. Holds Query Allows for mass searching not possible through INB
Prepare your staff for peaks in walk-in and phone traffic
Identify holds lacking direction

47. Student, Faculty & Staff Search
Expands on search capability within INB
Search across active and inactive s and phone numbers including all types of both s and phone numbers
Access enrollment and degree history of selected student

48. Student, Faculty & Staff Search
Allows for a quick, student snapshot
Helpful when completing enrollment and degree verifications

49. Student, Faculty & Staff Search
Similar faculty search interface
Search across faculty/staff setup in SIAINST

50. Registration Troubleshooting Query

51. Registration Troubleshooting Query
Non-student specific search not possible in INB

52. Registration Troubleshooting

53. Registration Troubleshooting

54. Registration Troubleshooting

55. Summary Intake Security Constituencies Evolve
Have defined procedures, posted publically, that allow for effective management of incoming requests.
Security
Consider data security when authorizing users and fulfilling requests.
Do these users have an educational need for the data?
Is the information being stored in a secure manner?
Constituencies
Cater your reporting options and delivery methods to the different areas of your campus.
Reporting and data delivery is not a one-size-fits-all operation.
Evolve
Solicit feedback from your users.
Send regular notifications reminding your users what’s out there.
Sit down with your users and see how your data fits into their day.
Don’t forget about your own staff.

56. Questions/Comments?

57. Thank you! Denny Savage denny@ua.edu