Models, Structures and Strategies in Student Affairs and Services THEME.

Models, Structures and Strategies in Student Affairs and Services

THEME

Intelligence on demand: utilising Technology based Information Systems to provide strategic information to enhance decision making, efficiency and quality service delivery in Student Affairs and

Services

To highlight the strategic use of Information Systems to provide strategic information quickly and easily to enhance decision making, efficiency and quality service delivery

I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here….I just wasn't aware of it yet.

Bruce Sterling

Fourteen years into the 21’st century,

Technology is continuously growing into a prominent part of our daily lives, it becomes critical to harness this power.

The question to ask : are we really using it to enhance are we really using it to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in our service offerings? effectiveness and efficiency in our service offerings?

The information age is upon us and information is readily accessible to anyone anywhere, hence the way we use information can become a key strategy (Omotosho 2009).

The INFORMATION AGE

Knowledge and Information are the primary drivers of effective productivity, competition and wealth in today’s society ( Hamidi et al. 2011)

Developed countries like AmericaAmerica have integrated Technology based Information Systems into almost all practices across Higher Education, including Student Affairs and Services.

South AfricaSouth Africa, a developing country needs to follow suit in terms of

aligning information Systems with Service Delivery Service Delivery in Student Affairs and Services.

What do we understand by Service Delivery?

“Service delivery is about delivering your services as effectively and efficiently as possible to the satisfaction and delight of the customer/client/stakeholders” etc.

What do we understand by Strategy?

Strategy denoted the direction a company wants to go in and how it intends to get there (McNurlin et al. 2009). This is complemented by a plan that depicts a view of the future that guides decision-making.

Simply put, strategy is all about a game plan, a set of objectives or synchronisation of resources that are intended to help an organisation attain its goals.

‘Knowledge –based Strategy’

Making decisions to inform strategy based on sound and accurate Knowledge

(Intelligent Information------> Knowledge)

A visual articulation of the view of Knowledge by William and Amin (2006):

Organisational Improvement

Knowledge

Data

Information

Raw information/Facts

Decipher data and attach meaning to it

Use knowledge for better decision making, strategy

identification and achievement of organisational goals

Obtain ‘relevant’ information by analysing, correlating and drawing out useful attributes

2250959 2012

R2250959 Sales 2012

R2, 250, 959 = Competitors annual sales for 2012 for electronic home security

systems

Devise immediate strategy to increase sales on electronic home security systems and

attract competitor’s customers

Information Systems

-Consists of data and application systems which is built on an IT infrastructure.

-This also includes ‘people’ as an important entity that use these Systems to deliver information in an organisation.

We Need to Harness the We Need to Harness the resource of Information resource of Information SystemsSystems

The aim of this presentation is to

explore the concept of strategically leveraging Information Systems as a means of deriving relevant and accurate information on time that can be used for necessary decision making that can in turn expedite efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and quality service delivery in Higher Education

Automated Information Systems

Capture critical processes and operations

Effective an efficient Storage

Report Generation at “real time”

Statistics

Fast and efficient capturing and storing

Fast and efficient retrieval, searching and tracking

Safe and Access Controlled Records (Password Protected)

Never gets lost (Back-up)

Electronic statistics generation

Real-time and accessible from anywhere (Web-enabled)

Information on Demand Information on Demand

Also known as ‘knowledge discovery’ and is an inductive type of analysis that determines relevant patterns/ relationships/trends from data that is hidden in a data group or database (Corne et al. 2012).

Data mining is used primarily to discover key knowledge from data allowing business to make pro-active decision based on that knowledge.

Datamining is applicable to a Higher Education institutions

A huge challenge that faced Higher Education was intense growth of data and how to use that data to enhance strategy and executive decisions (Goyal and Rajan 2012).

Datamining -- generate strategic knowledge from vast amount of accumulated data.

This knowledge could effectively be used to,

analyse profit margins identify high and low yielding courses of study competitive intelligence target marketing to potential students knowledge driven strategies for growth of the department/ university resource allocation financial knowledge such as purchases, accounts and other income/expenses.

(Goyal and Rajan 2012)

HE institutions were unable to assist students in selecting career paths, courses and monitoring of the overall student population that are at risk of dropping out because of lack of knowledge from the relevant institutional systems

Using knowledge discovery and data mining principles – Analysed issues that were pivotal to student success at the institution.

This included analysing variables such as enrolments, academic performance, personal experiences, dropouts, transfers, retention and course success thereby providing sound knowledge.

This was then linked to a digital dashboard that was readily available to the key Management personnel of the institution

Datamining was fundamental to HE institutions (around the world) - could be effectively used to address and solve issues and problems critical to student success

Executive Information System with an interface that provides ‘real-time’ knowledge in the form of numbers,

charts and graphics and is designed to present the overall organisational picture on a single page.

Dashboards can be integrated into various Departments:

FundingHealthHousingSportsSupport

Performance can be monitored in ‘real-time’ at the click of a button.

Benefits: Benefits:

Ability to view Departmental/Divisional performance instantaneously.

Identification and correction of negative trends and identification of new trends new trends

Measurement of both efficiencies and inefficiencies

Promote more informed decisions based on collected knowledge

Assists in developing organisational strategies

Dashboards helped strategically when it came to:

Setting performance goals and tracking performance indicators

Identifying trends and operational efficiencies

Establishing measures and criteria for monitoring progress of students

Early warning system to correct problems /issues relating to students

Effective reporting with charts and graphs

Evaluating and understanding the Departments’ operational condition

Meeting regulatory requirements

(Harel and Sitko 2003)

Predictive Systems

Uses the concept of Predictive analytics

Allows one to predict future trends by using both current and past data.

Allows one to connect data with strategic action by making reliable conclusions based on data about current conditions that can influence future events.

Eckersen (2007) ,IBM (2010)

Predictive Systems can be used to predict:

students at risk of dropping out,

course pathways that expedite student retention and graduation

Departmental resource consumption/Performance

Provide knowledge that can be used to develop interventions to support/help and retain students

Eduventures (2013)

Retention and graduation rates were a problem

The provost and vice president for Academic and Student Affairs stated that “there has been noticeable improvements in student performance and retention through the use of predictive analytics”

It assisted in finding correlations between proper course selection and factors relating a students’ ability to predict if courses could be completed on time.

King (2013)

There is a Paucity of these type of Systems in HE in Africa in both Academia and Support.

(Sukununan 2014- PHD Study)

IntegrationIntegration

Departments:

-Housing-Support-Funding-Sports-Health-Etc etc

Automated Web- enabled Information Systems per Automated Web- enabled Information Systems per departmentdepartment

-Captures critical activities/information of the departmentCaptures critical activities/information of the department

-Generation of key reportsGeneration of key reports

-Single button statistics generation Single button statistics generation

-User authentication User authentication

-Accessible from any part of the worldAccessible from any part of the world

Feeds into departmental Databases

Linked databases (allowing inter-departmental knowledge exchange)

Feeds into central digital dashboard system Feeds into central digital dashboard system

Available to Managers / Executive ManagementAvailable to Managers / Executive Management

Knowledge on demand

Speedy delivery of key intelligence/information

Knowledge Based Decision Making on critical processes per department or across entire Division

Quicker response times

Improved output

Efficient and quality service

SHAREPOINTSHAREPOINT

SharePoint enables one to set up Web sites to:

Share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.

Collaboration Tool

Documents Sharing Tool

Web Based Infrastructure

Storage and sharing of Documents (Confidentially & Access Restricted)

Collaboration with multiple people/students (Access Restricted)

Tracking of Documents, files, reports etc

Virtual meetings with partners/students

Discussion forums

Report Generation

Electronic Surveys

Cost

Poor/Lack of support

Organisational Culture

Techno-phobia

Technology is here to stay

Technology (wont replace you) but is here to complement and replace existing processes

Technology cannot be stopped

Embrace it, understand it, Live it

This presentation is designed to inspire This presentation is designed to inspire considerations to the potential of more effective considerations to the potential of more effective Information Systems usage in Student Affairs and Information Systems usage in Student Affairs and Services that can impact strategic Decision making Services that can impact strategic Decision making thereby promoting effectiveness, efficiency and thereby promoting effectiveness, efficiency and quality which inevitably raises the bar in service quality which inevitably raises the bar in service delivery. delivery.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke

The End

Corne, D., Dhaenens, C. and Jourdan, L., 2012. Synergies between operations research and data mining: The emerging use of multi-objective approaches. European Journal of Operational Research, 221 (2012) 469–479. Availalabe at: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejor (Last Accessed: 20/05/2013) Eckersen, W.W., Predictive Analytics: Extending the Value of Your Data Warehousing Investment. TDWI Best Practices Report, First Quarter 2007. Available at: http://www.teradata.com/t/assets/0/206/308/35d4edc6-3408-4cbd-8946-a803e49d8288.pdf (Last Accessed: 19 March 2013) Eduventures., 2013. Predictive Analytics in Higher Education. Available at: http://www.eduventures.com/2013/02/predictive-analytics-in-higher-education/ (Last Accessed: 10 December 2013)  Goyal, M. and Rajan, V., 2012. Applications of Data Mining in Higher Education. International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 9, Iss. 2, No 1.  Hamidi, F., Meshkat, M., Rezaee, M. and Jafari, M., 2011. Information Technology in Education, Procedia Computer Science, pp. 369–373. Available at: www.sciencedirect.com (Last accessed 10 October 2012).

Harel, E.C. and Sitko, T.D., (2003). Digital Dashboards: Driving Higher Education Decisions. EDUCAUSE- Center for Applied Research. Research Bulletin, Vol 2003, Iss 19. Available at: www.educause.edu/ecar/ (Last Accessed: 10 December 2013)  

IBM., 2010. Real World Predictive Analytics: Putting Analysis into Action for Visible Results. Available at:http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/ytw03112usen/YTW03112USEN.PDF (Last Accessed: 16 October 2013)

King, A., 2013. Higher Education Turns to Predictive Analytics. Available at: http://the-modeling-agency.com/higher-education-turns-predictive-analytics/ (Last Accessed: 10 December 2013)  McNurlin B, Sprague R and Bui T. (2009). Information Systems Management in Practice, 8th Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Omotosho, M.P., 2009. Strategic Use of Information. Available at: http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/moomotosho/2009/06/strategic_use_of_information.html (Last Accessed: 28 February 2013) Sahay, A. and Mehta, K., 2010. Assisting Higher Education in Assessing, Predicting, and Managing Issues Related to Student Success: A Web-based Software using Data Mining and Quality Function Deployment. Academic and Business Research Institute Conference, Las Vegas, 2010. Available at: http://www.aabri.com/LV2010Manuscripts/LV10127.pdf (Last Accessed: 25 March 2013)