Building an Academic Data Culture to Support Student Success

Faculty, department chairs, and teaching and learning staff are critical partners that should be actively engaged in data review and policy processes at their institutions. However, many lack access to the data, training, or resources necessary to design meaningful programmatic policies and educational experiences that support equitable learning and outcomes for minoritized student groups. It can be challenging for many institutions to break down silos and make meaningful connections across departments and offices in service of improving data literacy and democratization with the goal of achieving more equitable student success. APLU provides strategic guidance, data literacy workshops, and academic data coaching to cross-functional collaborative teams to support them in identifying the necessary relationships and resources within their own institutional context that will support the growth and adoption of data and learning analytics at the course, departmental, and institutional levels. Participating teams will learn how digital learning technologies and digital infrastructure can support these efforts and how real-time, in-semester student and course-level data is crucial to helping students when and where they most need support.

Learning Objectives

• Build knowledge and skills in academic data literacy and support a community of practice by participating in a collaborative, cross-functional, institutional team.
• Understand how adoption of data and learning analytics within academic departments can be enhanced by the integration of digital learning technologies.
• Assess your institutional data culture and identify key areas of opportunity for improvement.
• Develop an action plan to identify issues and create strategies to enhance equitable student success at the departmental and course-level.
• Promote a practice of continuous improvement in examining data through an equitable lens.

Service Deliverables

• With your cross-functional team, and with the support of APLU and its network of coaches, design a customized action plan for improving the use of data for academic student success within a unique project or initiative at your institution
• Create a collection of internal and external resources to support participants with academic-data driven decision making and changes through case-making and broader knowledge dissemination at their respective institutions

Intended Audience

This service is for cross-functional teams consisting of academic administrators and leaders, department chairs, faculty, institutional research experts, digital learning and learning analytics support staff.

Note: APLU will support participating institutions in identifying ideal candidates based on institutional contexts, need, and capacities.

Service Format

Combination synchronous and asynchronous activities, facilitated workshops with institutional coaching support. The service may be delivered to a single institution or to a cohort of institutions. This service includes:

• a series of interactive workshops, delivered synchronously, and facilitated by experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
• coaching sessions with higher education, digital learning, and data analytics experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
• asynchronous course content, educational resources, and workbook activities that will support cross-functional teams in developing action plans for improving the use of academic student success data for a unique project or initiative at their institution

Service Length

This service is designed as a three-to-five-month engagement, depending on institutional or cohort needs and capacities. This service may also be offered as an intensive, two-day, in-person “boot-camp” for institutions or cohorts.