Learning from Data

1
Learning from Data

• Conversations between Faculty and Institutional
  Researchers

2
Data Informs the Educational Process

• It allows increased focus on outcomes and more
  reliable decision making.
• Therefore
• Conversation between faculty and researchers is
  clearly important.

3
Parlez-vous research?

• Faculty researchers may not always speak the
  same language.
• For example, English faculty have
• Have no training in numbers and data
• Can be skeptical by nature
• Trust own impressions first

4
Parlez-vous curriculum?

• Researchers
• Have no connection to specific departmental/curric
  ular concerns
• Psychology department needing prerequisite for
  Psych 1
• English department making curricular changes at a
  particular level needing a sense of the effect
  of these changes

5
How can institutional research be a resource for
faculty?

• Researchers need to help faculty understand what
  the actionable questions are what questions can
  be asked and effectively answered with data
• Researchers need to help faculty understand the
  data to help them see what a given set of data
  means

6
What are the actionable questions?

• (Translation for faculty What questions can
  reasonably be asked and answered through research
  and data?)

7
Examples from CCSFs English Department

• Various outcomes assessments
• Reality Check
• Gave us a better picture of what our students
  were actually capable of
• Helped to write a reasonable course outline
• Helped to diagnose problems with our sequence
  areas we needed to cover better
• Curricular Consistency
• Helped to get faculty teaching the same level to
  be on the same page

8
Examples from CCSFs English Department

• Lowest level comp class has received a lot of
  attention to analyze success with recent
  innovations
• Qualitative Quantitative Data (Translation
  Words and Numbers)
• Surveys focus groups
• Pass, retention, persistence rates
• Creation of a culture of inquiry among faculty
  involved

9
Examples from CCSFs English Department

• Prerequisites/Advisories
• Which English class should the top ESL class feed
  into?
• What English advisory would be most useful for
  students taking Psych 1?
• These conversations lead to discussions about the
  importance of remediation