Data Analytics

Educause Assessment Tool Gauges Institutional Analytics Capabilities

• By Rhea Kelly
• 08/24/21

Educause has created a new self-assessment tool to help colleges and universities better understand how their analytics capabilities can enhance teaching and learning practices, improve student outcomes and advance institutional goals. The 26-question survey provides a rubric to define an institution's current analytics capabilities (as opposed to future goals) and serve as a baseline for further discussion.

The assessment walks the survey-taker through five "capability categories": Workforce; Data Governance; Data Management; Leadership; and Data-Informed Culture.

• Workforce speaks to institutional culture around data literacy, staffing of analytics-related roles, and overall communication and collaboration;
• Data Governance covers standardization of data sources, data definitions, policies and practices supporting good data stewardship;
• Data Management encompasses infrastructure, digital ethics and data integration;
• Leadership speaks to how institutional leaders understand and prioritize data analytics on a strategic level; and
• Data-Informed Culture assesses the use of analytics for decision-making, cross-institutional collaboration, change management and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Upon completing the assessment, institutions receive a copy of the responses via e-mail, which can be shared internally as desired.

"Analytics is a powerful tool that colleges and universities are embracing to advance student success initiatives, improve quality and efficiency, and enhance teaching, learning and research," said Betsy Reinitz, director of enterprise IT programs at Educause, in a statement. "Using analytics to inform decision-making in those areas is more important now than ever before as institutions continue to adapt to changes brought by the pandemic."

The tool is available to Educause members here.