This dissertation intends to inform self-assessment and data collection practices within Rutgers University and act upon the encouragement of university leadership to advance the potential of the public service mission. These goals are accomplished by exploring relevant questions to inform the practices of institutional research (IR) and…

Institutional researchers use skills from their diverse backgrounds to collect, analyze and report data about their institutions to stakeholders representing various interests and levels of data literacy. However, there is little research into how these professionals process data and none into what aspects are important to institutional…

Wichita State University (WSU) began the SEM process in 2015 with a steering committee co-chaired by the university registrar and the chief data officer (CDO). Work leading up to and undertaken throughout that process and the implementation of the SEM plan it produced helped to form an extraordinary partnership between these two professionals.…

The recently increased importance of practicing precision education has attracted much attention. To better understand students' learning and the relationship between their individual differences and learning outcomes, the bird-eye view possible for educational policymakers and stakeholders from educational data mining and institutional research…

Traditional institutional research systems may limit who is counted and how they are counted because of limitations associated with disability classification, self-disclosure of disability status, and accessibility limitations inherent within some data-collection methods. As postsecondary institutions work toward improving access for disabled…

Survey methodology is the dominant approach among universities in the United States for reporting employment outcomes for recent graduates. However, past studies have shown that survey methodology may yield upwardly biased results, which can result in overreporting of employment rates and salary outcomes. This case study describes the development…

In this era of "Big Data," institutions of higher education are challenged to make the most of the information they have to improve student learning outcomes, close equity gaps, keep costs down, and address the economic needs of the communities they serve at the local, regional, and national levels. This book helps readers understand and…

The increasing volume of information and the intense pace of its circulation are changing the ways universities access, use, analyze, and provide data. Many have championed the use of large-scale databases to track student admissions and retention, faculty productivity, student wellness, and other phenomena that shape our understandings of higher…

Organizational relationships are complex. Employees do their work as individuals, but also as members of larger teams. They exist within various social networks, both within and spanning organizations. Multilevel theory is at the core of the organizational sciences, and unpacking multilevel relationships is fundamental to the challenges faced…

Data quality has become a pressing issue for many campuses in recent years, as colleges struggle to extract timely, accurate, and consistent information from ever-proliferating institutional data sources in order to meet strategic decision-making and accountability demands. In this mixed methods study, a survey and semi-structured interviews were…

This chapter provides institutional researchers a foundation to understand workforce data and how they can be accessed and used within an institutional research operating culture. Specific wage methodologies, earnings reporting, and future directions for using wage data are provided.

This chapter provides an example of how one university's institutional research office played an active role in using data from institutional studies to guide the university toward courses ripe for change, faculty toward successful teaching strategies, students toward successful learning behaviors, and the university toward assessing the impact of…

The need for data-informed decisions is not limited to national policy, state systems, or senior leadership of postsecondary institutions. Decisions that impact the achievement of higher education missions are also made by students, faculty, frontline staff, and program administrators--all of who deserve data and information to support their…

As higher education institutions in the United States strive to maximize their use of resources to better support students, it is critical for professionals to make data-informed decisions. Most institutions are currently gathering an abundance of data from multiple sources, which provides a good opportunity for functional units, divisions, and…

Institutions are applying methods and practices from data analytics under the umbrella term of "learning analytics" to inform instruction, library practices, and institutional research, among other things. This study reports findings from interviews with professional advisors at a public higher education institution. It reports their…