About the Core Data Service

Prior to its consolidation with Educom in the summer of 1998, CAUSE had been capturing data from its members for nearly twenty years (until 1996). Early surveys collected data on administrative systems primarily, as CAUSE's mission had not yet broadened to encompass academic computing. Academic computing data were captured in a survey done annually by Charles Warlick of the University of Texas at Austin. Between these two surveys, the IT community had access to some fundamental data about academic and administrative hardware and software. Warlick's data were published regularly in a print compendium, while CAUSE's data were published periodically in summary format.

In addition, CAUSE's data were used to form the basis of an "Institution Database (ID) Service" through which members could request custom reports drawn from the data in six major areas: staffing, budgets, organization, software, and computer hardware and communications. This service was quite popular with members, peaking at 442 custom reports requested in FY94-95 and declining in 1996 after CAUSE stopped collecting data.

CAUSE's ID survey instrument changed over the years as the association's mission changed, and especially after Warlick ceased to do his survey nearly a decade ago. At that time, Kenneth C. Green had already begun to disseminate and report the findings of a comprehensive academic computing survey (called the Campus Computing Project) that focused on the microcomputer environment on campuses throughout the country. In addition, several years ago, David Smallen and Karen Leach partnered to begin a new data collection activity, called the COSTS Project, focused on identifying and capturing the cost of networking on campus. This activity for the most part attracted participation of small, liberal arts institutions but institutions in other Carnegie classes also participated.

With the merger of CAUSE and Educom, EDUCAUSE developed a number of strategies for delivering a research program to capture and share the data and information members need to plan for and manage IT on their campuses. First, an EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey was launched in 2000 and has been conducted annually since. Then, in 2001, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) was created to respond to members' increasing requests for applied research and analysis to help campus leaders inform and reinforce their IT-related decisions.

Finally, in the winter of 2001, EDUCAUSE established a Research Task Force to advise about a member-based data collection strategy that would focus on establishing a database of member campus profiles through the capture of "core" campus data for the purpose of peer comparisons and information sharing. The task force recommended that EDUCAUSE develop and disseminate a core data survey to collect data annually about information technology environments and practices on member campuses in order to develop (1) a Web-based interactive database service available to all who complete the survey through which they can access data contributed by their peers to help benchmark, plan, and make decisions about IT on their campus, and (2) an annual summary report of aggregated data about IT use and management in higher education. This initiative would not duplicate but would cooperate with existing IT-related data collection efforts.

The first Core Data Service (CDS) survey was launched in December 2002 to capture data for fiscal year 2001–2002. The CDS interactive database first became available in May 2002, and a Core Data Service Summary Report was posted that fall. The survey is now conducted annually, from January through March, always capturing data from the previous fiscal year, with those data made available through the interactive database service by May of that year. A campus must complete and submit the annual survey to retain or gain access to the CDS database service.

In the spring of 2005, EDUCAUSE and COSTS Project leaders announced that by the end of the year they would integrate their respective efforts to gather and analyze data about the costs and environmental factors of information technology in higher education. The merger of the surveys occurred in time for launch of the 2005 CDS survey in January 2006, capturing fiscal year 2004-2005 data.

©Copyright EDUCAUSE 2007. Data contributed to the Core Data Service by a participating institution remain the property of that institution. Otherwise, the contents of the Core Data Service database, survey, and Web site are the copyrighted property of EDUCAUSE and may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, sold, transferred, downloaded, or modified without the express written permission of EDUCAUSE. EDUCAUSE claims copyright to data captured through the Core Data Service to protect data confidentiality on behalf of contributors, not for commercial gain.