HCC Academic Dashboard recognized as 'Best of Texas'
Jun 19, 2017
Data, which is essential to strategic planning and improving student outcomes, can be daunting when it involves more than 114,000 students covering a service area of 630 square miles. Successfully wrangling all that information into a multi-functional, user-friendly dashboard earned Houston Community College (HCC) the 2017 Best of Texas award for Best Data Analytics/Business Intelligence Project.
In January 2016, Dr. Cesar Maldonado, HCC Chancellor, charged a multi-department team to build a new and innovative data dashboard that leveraged new technology and incorporated the ability to look at student success through multiple lenses, especially diversity and equity. It needed to provide metrics that reflect institutional goals and let users explore both “big picture” data and drill down to very specific information. And, it had to be mobile-device friendly.
“Creating the academic dashboard was a creative and collaborative process,” says Dr. Andrea Burridge, HCC research and data analyst. “There was a willingness to explore new, innovative approaches in data management. The team kept stakeholder goals, questions, and needs concerning student access and success as our guidelines. Then, we thought about what users’ follow-up questions might be.”
For Dr. Martha Oburn, HCC executive director of institutional research and innovation the dashboard needed to address the inquiries from several groups. “It needed to provide metrics that reflect institutional goals,” Oburn says.
Online since August 2016, the dashboard is used across the district to identify gaps in delivery and to improve student success. The enrollment map is used to consider where students come from to better align enrollment planning and course scheduling. Stakeholders have access to multiple data filters. Using filters such as economic disadvantage, age, program, dual credit status, diversity helps leadership and partners to better understand HCC students and to develop systems that address enrollment, course success, and transfers, to name a few.
HCC team members who also collaborated in the creation of the academic dashboard are Dr. Kimberly Beatty, vice chancellor of instructional services; Dr. William Carter, vice chancellor of information technology; Aubrey Yates, senior system analyst; Nishantha Gajanayake, research analyst; and Hazel Milan, senior research analyst.
The Best of Texas Awards program recognizes public-sector professionals and local government organizations for their dedication and contributions to advance information technology in Texas.
Discover more about the HCC dashboard at www.hccs.edu/dashboard.