In higher education, data-informed decision-making is crucial for institutional success. Data allows us to weave together a comprehensive story of how we serve our students, faculty, and community. This insight guides faculty, staff, and administrators to identify areas of success and pinpoint areas for improvement.
But how do we get that data to people? One answer is Datapalooza. The annual event provides a deep dive into institutional data as part of ongoing efforts to build a data-centric culture on campus. It is a strategic and interactive way to focus on key performance indicators and metrics through thoughtful conversations, discussions, and presentations.
“The idea for Datapalooza just flowed from our journey to build a more data-informed culture,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Chris L. Heavey. “We needed not just to have the data available, but to proactively push it out to people and give them the framework, ideas, and examples of what they should look at.”
Since its launch in 2020, Datapalooza has highlighted key metrics of the university’s Top Tier 2.0 initiative. The event helps attendees develop familiarity with self-service data tools. UNLV Analytics is the university’s central business intelligence tool, providing interactive dashboards and ad hoc querying. The system offers a repository of data from various systems, including MyUNLV, Rebel Success Hub, and Lightcast Alumni Pathways, allowing users to drill down, filter, and break out key metrics relevant to their units.
This year, the Datapalooza planning team centered the event on student success data. “Given President [Keith E.] Whitfield’s goal of reaching 40,000 students by 2030 and the advancement he wants to see us make on student retention and graduation, it’s critical to focus the discussion on student data,” Heavey said. “In order for us to make the necessary progress, it’s got to be a universitywide commitment.”
Kyle Kaalberg, executive director of strategy and strategic initiatives, is an integral partner in Datapalooza. “To fully grasp the implications of institutional data, we have to align it with the university's strategic plan to ensure that progress is being made,” he explained.
By focusing on data in critical areas essential to maintaining UNLV’s status as a Carnegie R1 research institution — such as student retention, progression, and doctoral degrees — Kaalberg helps units think about their contributions to the overall strategic plan.
“By pushing this data out, it allows the departments to see how they fit into the bigger picture. With our new model of academic program review, we're conducting a series of meetings to help units take a look at a lot of data and zero in on what each unit feels is important for them to address,” Kaalberg said. “It's a significant collaboration with the Provost’s Office to make sure everyone is working together and carrying out their respective functions, but still working together as a team.”
Those collaborative efforts include the development of dashboards that contain relevant data to meet the needs of academic units and administrative offices.
The Office of Decision Support (ODS) serves as the primary unit tasked with delivering institutional data essential for decision-making and strategic planning. Led by Vice Provost for Decision Support Skip Crooker, the ODS team is dedicated to creating new dashboards and reports within UNLV Analytics to meet both campuswide and unit-specific data requirements.
The office conducts training sessions on dashboard utilization and query writing, equipping faculty and staff with the necessary tools to access and leverage data for their work.
“Our role in Datapalooza was to provide data extracts from our business intelligence dashboards and data systems,” Crooker said. “We also participated in the discussion of the metrics and identified key metrics to highlight for the presentation. Datapalooza is important because we have an opportunity to highlight the successes of our students as well as identify achievement gaps that may require more resources.”
In her new role as assistant vice provost for academic initiatives and data, Laurel Pritchard supports Academic Affairs’ efforts to develop dashboards and tools that track key Top Tier metrics, assess equity gaps, evaluate initiatives and outcomes, and promote student success.
“In addition to managing Academic Affairs and student lifecycle data, I help direct individuals to valuable data sources and insights about student outcomes. I collaborate closely with Decision Support and other campus teams to identify data needs and develop dashboards and tools to help ensure access to transparent and actionable data,” Pritchard said.
With limited resources and ambitious Top Tier goals, it is important to employ data in ways that help prioritize our activities and assess outcomes, said Kate Korgan, senior vice provost for Academic Affairs.
“One of the changes to this year’s Datapalooza was to reimagine the event as part of a year-round series of activities that promote a data-informed campus culture,” Korgan explained. “We measure what we value. It is our priority to make data transparent, accessible, and actionable. This means extending the Datapalooza conversation through open data-lab events, a guide to campus data resources, and the timely distribution of a series of data bulletins.”
Set to launch in the coming months, the bulletins will share key data points and pose guiding questions to encourage units to reflect on the work they are doing by discussing and dissecting the data.
“What we need to be able to do is drill down to see where things are going well, and where things are not going well,” said Heavey. “So part of this is making sure that we're putting program-specific data into people's hands so they can see how their program is or isn't contributing to UNLV’s overall success in terms of our mission and the strategic goals we have as a university.”
To access data dashboards and other helpful tools, visit UNLV Analytics.
