This study highlighted in Inside Higher Ed caught my attention: Belonging in College Isn’t Just Nice—It Can Boost Graduation Rates. Here is the bottom line…
University Assessment Services Projects Posts
Today’s Inside Higher Ed report highlighted an employer survey from the AACU: Most Employers Confident in Higher Ed. The Chronicle email headline was Hiring managers…
I love Power BI and Tableau, but Excel and even Google sheets work really well for data storytelling. Even PowerPoint works well (I learned that…
We discussed this yesterday in our Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE) workshop I led on using data in storytelling and…
The student with the student success resume…Or the student with the learning outcomes resume? Which do most universities know more about? This was the topic…
At the ISU Business Analytics Society speaker series, we talked about the best framework for creating a data viz and a good way to learn.…
This visualization was inspired by an article from the NY Times, Don’t Fall for the Rigged College Game. The article referenced the National Survey of…
I asked students in my undergrad Honors Mindset course how they define success and then compared it to what we typically measure. Three things stood…
How should students divvy up their limited time in college? To answer this question, I created a *heatmap dashboard in PowerPoint.* Yes, I created a…
I appreciated The Typical College Student Is Not Who You Think article this morning. It was refreshing to read an article about real challenges most…
I had an awesome conversation with Jayla Langford, M.S.Ed., PhD student at Indiana University, about how I used Power BI for sentiment analysis to explore…
This article from NPR paints a mixed picture for college graduates. AI, automation, and employers putting off expenses in an uncertain economy have created a…
The bottom line Effective teaching practices (as defined by the Center for Postecondary Research at Indiana University) have a moderate impact on retention at ISU.…
This article by my colleage Jarek Janio, Ph.D. discusses learned helplessness among college students. It got me thinking about GPA, not just as an outcome…
Any undergrad experience that facilitates frequent and meaninful interactions – especially with faculty – have a significant impact on students. Internships, co-curricular activities, on-campus jobs…they…
Data visualizations face multiple demands in academic settings. Some users want quick, story-driven insights. Others prefer the details, including metrics and statistics. Satisfying everyone’s needs…
When I taught an assessment and evaluation course, one of my favorite activities was to ask students to create an assessment metaphor. Over the years,…
For years, I rode by bike past this random marker in the middle of the country, just east of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. I did a little…
Here’s the bottom lines: This data looks at the 2013 ISU graduating class and follows their incomes for 10 years after graduation. Holding an on-campus…
Belonging is associated with student success. We often think of student success and belonging as something shaped by experiences outside the classroom. However, effective teaching…
Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing (NLP) technique used to determine the emotional tone or attitude expressed in text. Text responses are placed into…
Moving Into Town—and Moving On by Cliff Adelman should be required reading for anyone interested in student success and retention. Even though it focused on…
The bottom lines for ISU is that institutional emphasis on well-being has decreased at ISU over the last 10 years. This trend mirrors trends in…
In Why Students Can’t Work on Their Own, Chronicle of Higher Education author Beckie Supiano details college student struggles working independently. And ponders if this…
The more I work with data about college student success, the more I am convinced about the integral role of student affairs in all facets…
Yesterday’s Inside Higher Ed article highlighted increasing anxiety among graduating seniors about the job market. Another article outlined three strategies colleges can employ to empower…
When alumni reflect on their college experiences, few recall their course schedules and weekly assignments. Rather, it is the interactions and relationships they had with…
by Chad Kahl & Lindsey Skaggs, Milner Library Milner Library has always been interested in what library users think about our services, resources, spaces, and…
The most recent Gallup poll on higher education found that more Americans have some/very little confidence in higher education than high confidence. Historically, Americans expressed…
A recent article in Inside Higher Ed noted positive changes in retention and persistence for colleges and universities. Significant gains were made for students enrolled…
An ISU graduate can expect to earn at least $900,000 more than a high school graduate over their lifetime. A lot more for many majors. New data…
Anecdotally, I have noticed a large increase in open-ended responses to all surveys at ISU over the last six years or so. For me, “Anecdotally”…
The traditional narrative is that students who “drop out” of college don’t study enough. Let’s put that myth to rest. In our NSSE retention study,…
No. They are not. But their perceptions are not unreasonable. The opinion about the value of a college degree is based on a survey from…
When a first-year student says they’re going to enroll for their sophomore year, I would believe them. As the figure below shows, intentions are more…
An article in Inside Higher Ed cited a study indicating that 92% of faculty members were asked for career advice in the past year. My…
An article in Inside Higher Ed highlighted research showing college students are increasingly uncomfortable sharing political opinions. I don’t know about comfort levels, but we…
See the statement at the end of this post about using earnings data in higher education. High GPA ISU graduates – the blue dots –…
Improving college student retention and persistence requires an empirical foundation and framework for translating research into action. That’s where assessment comes into play. This study…
Disconnects in general education are common in higher education. One disconnect is between the value many students place on general education outcomes (which is high)…