There are a number of ways in which the Office of Institutional Research (IR) can raise its profile. Some of these methods have been covered in previous posts. Institutional Research departments can make others in the organization more aware of who they are and what they do by playing a leadership role when colleges and universities seek to begin new initiatives. As part of a systematic process, IR will have:
identified, through data analysis, the areas of greatest need.
identified some best practices in the area of need, if they exist.
collaborated with key staff in the development of:
objectives to be accomplished,
action plans tied directly to objectives,
time frames for accomplishment, and
persons responsible for objective achievement.
Identified specific measures of objective success.
A number of sample logic models are available online or it is easy enough to create one of your own using Excel. Ideally, institutional leaders will have identified resources to dedicate to the initiative including staff, equipment, and facilities.
Many times, an important part of the process falls through the cracks, which is how to determine when the initiative should be discontinued, i.e., when do you say, we have tried this and it just is not working out? At the beginning of the process, Institutional Research should encourage leadership to identify the conditions that might cause an initiative to be discontinued. IR should take the lead to:
determine whether objectives are being met.
determine whether action plans are being executed appropriately or whether the initiative concept is not as effective as originally hoped.
determine what specifically went wrong and perhaps what went right as part of a post-mortem exercise.
document and post findings as institutional knowledge and learning to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
collaborate with leadership to determine scalability of the initiative. It is possible that objectives are met, but it is determined that the initiative is not scalable and therefore not an effective use of institutional funds.
Institutional Research reaffirms its value added to the organization through this systematic process to ensure that each initiative has a clear rationale for beginning and a clear rationale for discontinuing, thus contributing to meaningful approaches to improve student success, effective use of institutional resources, and effective expenditure of taxpayer dollars.
