According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans’ confidence in higher education is at an all-time low — and while many different factors contribute to this issue, a lack of institutional data transparency is one of the most significant.
Achieving data transparency can help your institution regain stakeholder trust, improve the student experience, and maintain its competitiveness in the higher education landscape. But there are several key steps you’ll need to take to reach this goal.
Data transparency refers to the practice of making sure your institution’s data is accessible, understandable, and readily available to stakeholders who have a legitimate interest in it. It involves maintaining a culture of openness about where that data comes from and how you use it.
In the business world, for example, customers expect businesses to disclose their data practices. Now that most institutions of higher education are collecting more data as part of digital transformation efforts, students and other key stakeholders are beginning to express similar sentiments.
Some of the most common obstacles institutions face in achieving data transparency include:
Proper planning and clear, open communication is essential for overcoming these challenges. For example, explaining the benefits of data transparency to institutional leadership can help you gain their approval, which can make getting buy-in from the rest of your institution easier.
It’s easy to understate the importance of data transparency for higher ed. In fact, it’s critical for ensuring better outcomes moving forward. Here are some of the biggest benefits institutions can gain from investing in data transparency improvements.
Although earning a degree or other credential from a higher education institution is one of the most reliable ways for students to improve their socioeconomic outcomes, many students face challenges that can prevent them from completing their education.
Data transparency can help your institution close critical equity gaps in education access and student success by making your data usable. You can then use that data to:
Higher education is a significant investment of time and resources for internal and external stakeholders. Providing open access to your data and being honest about your practices can help you maintain positive relationships with:
Collaboration is essential for continuous improvement and innovation in higher education, and having an accurate inventory of all your institutional data can help facilitate better collaborative work among colleagues.
Improving data transparency creates a culture of trust and accountability among administrators, faculty, and other staff by providing greater visibility into the impact each group has on your institutional goals. This cultural shift can:
Additionally, a cloud-based data storage and management platform can help you ensure all collaborators are on the same page for continuous progress.
Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) is more than a business buzzword — it’s a necessity for improving outcomes at your institution. And although higher education institutions are swimming in data, a lack of transparency limits your ability to use that data to your advantage.
When your institution invests in transparency, you create a seamless flow of data across your institution. That access enables your decision-makers to generate accurate insights on demand for more effective, efficient decisions.
Student data transparency is essential for student success. More access to their data helps students make better decisions regarding their educational journeys, from planning which classes they’ll take to exploring different career paths.
For example, a lack of data transparency at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) made many students ineligible for course enrollment. Without easy access to their educational records, students were often unaware that they lacked the required prerequisites to enroll in certain courses until well into the registration period — which impacted their chances of completing their programs on time.
Implementing an integrated software solution that opened visibility into student data across the institution helped provide increased flexibility to FTCC students, helping boost retention and graduation rates for students across various populations.
All higher education institutions that receive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education must comply with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974. This law prohibits institutions from disclosing student education records or other personally identifiable information (PII) unless:
Data transparency can help you improve your FERPA compliance management by creating a clear trail for audits. With the right data management and analytics tools, you can help auditors quickly evaluate your system and data usage by providing a clear paper trail of all your collected data and disclosures.
Knowing why data transparency is important is the first step, but your institution must put it into practice to gain the benefits listed here. Here are some actionable tips you can use to begin working toward data transparency at your institution.
Having clear goals for your data is the first step toward improving data transparency, as these goals will inform your overall strategy.
For example, do you plan on using demographic data to improve student recruitment efforts? Or would you analyze assessment scores and student feedback over time to determine an instructor’s effectiveness as a lecturer? The goals you set will determine:
Essentially, you need to clearly explain to your stakeholders what data your institution will collect from them and how you plan to use it. This transparency will help build trust with your data sources, which can make them more willing to share their data with you in the future.
Your institutional leadership should establish a clear, straightforward data transparency policy and communicate it to all faculty, staff, and other stakeholders.
Key items to include in your policy include:
Make sure your policy is documented and easily accessible to everyone in your institution, including students, faculty, administrators, and other staff. Being able to easily reference this document can help make it easier to maintain their trust by giving them a clear means of holding your institution accountable.
While you may think making your data more accessible would open your institution up to cyber threats, increased transparency can actually help you mitigate your security risk — as long as you take the proper care of your data and infrastructure.
Effective data management strategies, which are critical for achieving data transparency, help you take inventory of all your data and track its usage. Here are a few reasons why:
Investing time and resources into data security initiatives is essential for more than compliance with FERPA and other important data regulations — it’s also critical for maintaining stakeholder trust and achieving your overarching mission.
Some examples of data security best practices you can implement at your institution include:
Cultural acceptance is critical for making any change in your institution’s data collection strategies, including efforts to improve transparency.
If your institution is lagging behind in digital transformation, a fully data-driven culture can be challenging to implement. However, these tips can help make navigating this shift a little easier:
When you have the right tools at your disposal, you’re more likely to get the results you need. Some important features to look for in a higher ed data analytics solution include:
To harness the full power of your institution’s data, you need the right software tools. That’s what we provide at Watermark. Our advanced data management and analytics tools help higher education institutions nationwide improve student success metrics and profitability and leverage the data you already collect.
Deep integrations between every solution with Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS) and leading learning platforms enable you to quickly pull data from across your institution for easy analysis. And powerful reporting capabilities generate rich visualizations that make your insights accessible to all stakeholders for more informed decision-making.
Request your free demo today to see how Watermark can help your institution commit to data transparency.
