We’ve talked about how data is key for optimizing processes of higher education institutions. Another key element is having a professional capable of understanding and analyzing results.
If your institution is implementing the use of data, a Chief Data Officer can contribute high-performance solutions.
Some specific jobs to work with data include Chief Data Officer, Chief Information Officer, Data Governance Director or Chief Analytics Officer. Depending on the size, company type and level of data usage, these roles may be merged or separate. This is something new in higher education, but it will definitely continue to grow over time.
According to a report by the technological consulting firm Gartner, 90% of large organizations will have a CDO this year. How can this person change the way higher education handles data?
One of the great difficulties in universities is not necessarily the amount of data they handle, but the large number of migrations that these data have suffered from one system to another. This makes using them more difficult since there may be redundant content or incompatible formats.
“Data from higher education institutions have characteristics that make them particularly diverse. The support we provide consists of helping them understand, unify and extract value from the data they already have,” comments u-planner CDO Sebastián Flores.
For example, with academic planning in a given period - meaning the organization of curricular planning activities - a CDO can identify how many sections there were, their average size, spaces for improvement or the main pain points universities face in terms of scheduling.
Gathering data helps higher education institutions make strategic decisions that results in huge resource savings. Proof of this is the experience of the University of Washington.
The UW needed to optimize and simplify infrastructure management. The first thing they did was get an objective analysis based on data for understanding how they were using their infrastructure. Allowing them to identify which departments would be more affected by policy changes and uncover best practices to help increase the desired outcomes of these changes.
Self-taught, analytical, and with the ability to raise and resolve issues using the scientific method; a CDO must use various software to best take advantage of data, which can be quite diverse.
“You have to know how to bring up issues whose answers may be a bit uncomfortable. Every time we say: ‘We aren’t being as efficient as we could be,’ we are bringing up a fact that might be hard to address, but this is precisely what enables us address gaps that help the university continue to improve,” says the u-planner CDO.
Furthermore, a CDO is always up-to-date with new trends. Sebastián Flores explains that, “tools are rapidly changing in terms of software options. What was commonly used three to five years ago is probably not much in use today. You always have to search for better tools.”
Latin American institutions are in transition. Some are only recording data to obtain some value from them, whereas others are on the forefront. “Institutions have taken on a culture of continuous improvement. Those that are basing decisions on data have been able to change more quickly and improve over time,” states Flores. He adds, “Universities do not always understand the value inherent to their data. Many of the solutions to their primary challenges can be handled using data science techniques.”
The CDO is a key element for taking advantage of data at universities. The purpose of this role is to recognize the value that is already present, to set it apart from the systems in which it is found, and to propose strategies around key decisions. These may be redistributing infrastructure, looking for student drop-out patterns, or analyzing the use of classrooms and laboratories to name just a few.
Universities that wish to compete and be highly efficient need someone who can look critically at the data and figure out which steps to take that will lead to improved accreditation outcomes, rankings and a more attractive image for students.