Imagine you are driving on the highway. You know where you want to go, but you aren’t quite sure how to get there. Instead of driving aimlessly (and hoping for the best!), you enlist your go-to navigation tool to guide you.

The same can happen when using data.

That’s why the Office of Research and Decision Support (IRDS) is excited to announce the launch of our new Consult Form.

The Consult Form lets data users across campus request a personalized session to help them understand a dashboard or interpret institution-specific data. Essentially, we will be your GPS, helping you navigate data and our office’s resources to move toward the informed decisions you want.

Let’s learn more.

Get the Help You Need

Submitting a consultation request is just a click away in ClickUp.

You will need to answer a few brief questions, as shown below. These questions help ensure that the most appropriate IRDS team member is assigned to your consultation case.

Our office routinely reviews and assigns requests every Friday during our Service Team meeting. Once your case is assigned, we will set up a 15-20 minute consultation session with one of our data experts to answer your questions.

This form will also be available on our website and Tableau Landing Page in the near future.

Common Use Cases

The Consult Form is a great tool if you are new to Tableau and have specific, role-based questions that may not have been answered during Tableau User training. Or, perhaps you have access to a new dashboard and want to clarify the data before you make a decision. Maybe your need is broader: you know you need institutional data to solve a problem, but you aren’t sure of the “what and where” of the data.

As a rule of thumb—if you need assistance with understanding any IRDS-related resources, the Consult Form will be your go-to. If you know the data you need, our Data Request Form has you covered.

If we find that our office is not the most appropriate to answer to your question(s), we will refer you to the office best suited to your need.

As always, if you need immediate assistance from our office at any time, we are available via email at irds@bsu.edu.

We’re here to help on your data journey.