So what on earth have I being doing for the last 10 days? Neglecting this blog I know. But with good reason. We’re putting the finishing touches to our Unit Monitoring BI outputs which I think are pretty cool. I hope that as an institution we really begin to benefit from this type of resource and that academics find it informative and useful.
We will shortly be publishing data for just about every unit of study at our institution. The data is based on 20 measures ranging from Enrolment and Load through to Unit Evaluation. The following is an example of part of the reporting that will be available to academic staff to better understand what has happened and is happening in their unit.
The above time-series charts supplement a much deeper ‘current period’ perspective which provides traffic light style reporting and tabular presentation of measures. The double page spread for each unit contains 551 data items. With 783 units being reported, that amounts to over 431,000 separate pieces of information available twice a year. That is a lot of information to present on 2 sides of a single sheet of paper but I think we’ve managed to make it consumable.
We shall see what the reaction is, as ever we will be receptive to suggestions for improvement, particularly with respect to the presentation, layout and format of the data.
Rob - How successful have you been in linking this great info which is generated by unit offerings and teaching to other corporate data such as HR and Finance?
Rick
We did originally have a 20th measure which was unit income but that one didn’t make it as it was a little contentious in terms of public viewing. Aside from that we have done some basic student:staff ratios using HR data but you sound like you have something more specific in mind?
Yes, I understand why the actual $$ would be sensitive.
An alternative measure that might be useful is counting transactions it takes to get students enrolled in a specific unit or course. Are some more transaction heavy, therefore more costly, than others?