About

Why is EDUCAUSE holding a 3-Day Sprint on analytics?

Presidents, provosts, trustees, students and the federal government are looking to analytics as a solution for complex problems. If you haven’t already become involved with analytics, it may soon be knocking at your door. Analytics is a tool; it is a process. It can be applied to finance, facilities, academic affairs, or support issues.

While analytics may not be new for IT units, there is still a lot to learn. What interpretation applies to FERPA when using analytics with student data? What are the best data governance policies? How do you get people to trust you with their data?

To bring the community together on this topic, EDUCAUSE will hold an analytics sprint. Over three days, we'll explore the many ways analytics is impacting IT.

What can I expect to get out the 3-Day Sprint?

You can expect to discuss the overall implications of analytics for higher education as well as the important questions and issues surrounding analytics on your campus. Hear what others have already learned about analytics and examples of how analytics have been used in a variety of functional areas.

Walk away with an understanding of:

• How to get started with analytics on your campus
• Who needs to be involved
• What ITs role is

How do I participate?

Visit this website throughout the week. The sprint is a build-your-own experience—you choose which activities to participate in, based on your interests and needs. Each day we will reveal a new web page with links to the free synchronous and asynchronous activities.

Watch your inbox each morning for our daily sprint e-newsletter. This will be sent at 8:00 a.m. ET each day and will outline the day's activities as well as highlights and insights from the previous day. If you do not receive the newsletter, you can access each day's issue from the sprint homepage.

Visit the website daily as we roll out each theme. The daily web pages will connect you to all of the sprint activities:

• Participate in the online discussion via IdeaScale—our conversation hub. Logging in is easy using a Google, Facebook, AOL, Twitter, Yahoo!, or Open ID account.
• Read and comment on featured EDUCAUSE resources on analytics—you will need an EDUCAUSE web profile to post comments.
• Watch the daily webinars—you must be pre-registered for the live 2:00 p.m. ET sessions. Recordings will be posted to this site by 4:00 p.m. ET daily. --The live webinars are full.--
• Read daily blogs posted by invited guest bloggers, accessible from the sprint homepage.
• Take the daily poll—results can be viewed immediately, revealing what others are saying and doing.
• Follow us on Twitter using the hashtag #EDUSprint.
• Tell us what you think—e-mail us your thoughts. Your feedback is important to us.
   

How do I volunteer for the sprint?

• Sign up to facilitate discussions, be a guest blogger or to tweet and engage in social media during the sprint. Information for Volunteers
• During the event, submit your institutional processes, pilot projects, or lessons learned at IdeaScale.

• Reflect and share your thoughts by using the hashtag #EDUSprint or tag your blog posts with EDUSprint.

What will happen after the sprint?

After the sprint, the website for the three-day experience will turn into a focal point to aggregate and showcase analytics resources, effective practices, and venues where the conversation can continue.

In addition, an event summary will be published, and a proceeding e-mail will be sent out to the community with information on how to engage in year-round conversations on analytics.

How do I get help or give feedback?

Please e-mail or call EDUCAUSE Member Services at 303-449-4430 with any questions or comments on this experience.

For webinar technical questions, you can also visit our technical requirements and webinar FAQs web page.

This project is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.