Archives


  • Data Governance at Ball State

    Data Governance at Ball State

    Universities rely on information, but it’s not enough to just have vast amounts of data. We need a strategy for using data wisely, and that’s where data governance comes in.  We’re deliberate about finding effective ways to manage our data at Ball State, and in this post we share an inside look at some of […]

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  • Useful Links to Data and IRDS Services

    As we expand our offerings to the Ball State community it can be challenging to find them all. In this post we will, on a regular basis, update those links. Please feel free to bookmark this page and refer back to it as needed. IRDS uses Tableau and we have other official lines of communication. […]

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  • Basic Tableau User Training

    On a regular basis IRDS conducts training for users before they are granted access to our Tableau environment. If you would like to request access to Tableau please review this post and then you can request access here. If you have already attended the training you can access the training powerpoint here for a refresher […]

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  • Welcome Joseph, New Addition to the IRDS Office

    IRDS is happy to introduce Joseph Finke, a new Research Associate. A lifelong Hoosier, Joseph grew up on a farm in southern Indiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Classics from Valparaiso University and a Master’s of Public Affairs from IUPUI. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University Bloomington and […]

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  • The BSU Data Rating System

    In the realm of data governance it is important to have a quick indicator of the quality of a report, dashboard or data source. IRDS, in conjunction with our campus partners, has developed the Data Rating System (DRS). This rating system is intended to be a visual indication of the quality of data that is […]

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  • Looking Toward August 2024

    In the last few posts we outlined some of the things that happened over the course of roughly the last two years. Over the course of the next year we have a similarly full agenda with new initiatives and ongoing improvements to existing data products and processes. We are currently in the process of implementing […]

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  • Data Visualizations produced by IRDS

    In previous posts we have outlined the work done developing BSU’s data warehouse. IRDS has been working with partners across the institution to ensure that this data can be accessed and utilized to support important decisions. Toward that goal we have developed a series of dashboards that surface information in new and innovative ways. As […]

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  • Recap, Year Two, IRDS and Ball State

    In our last post we recapped the year one developments on BSU’s Data Warehouse. As we go forward, we will be able to leverage that warehouse to produce more and better data for the institution. In this post we discuss the developments in year two (ended August 2023); specifically the implementation of the Academic Performance […]

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  • DWH schema

    Recap, Year One, IRDS and Ball State

    As mentioned in prior posts, Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRDS) has worked diligently over the last 2 years on the implementation of the institution’s Data Warehouse (DWH). Our ongoing partnership with HelioCampus helps us advance those efforts more quickly than we could achieve on our own. In year one of the partnership, we created […]

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