Category: Institutional Research and Decision Support

When Are Enrollment Numbers “Final”? Understanding Census, Frozen Data, and Live Counts at Ball State

October 22, 2025 by IRDS

Overview Ball State uses two official snapshots each Fall and Spring term for IRDS reporting: Fall Week-1 Snapshot: one week into the term (preliminary). Final Fall Census: October 15 (official final) → IRDS freezes the data after quality assurance checks. Spring Week-1 Snapshot: one week into the term (preliminary). Final Spring Census: 8 weeks into the […]

Read More
A Better Front Door for Tableau: Built by People, Kickstarted by AI

October 8, 2025 by IRDS

When BSU staff need data, “Where is that dashboard?” is ideally not the first and then most persistent question. To surface data and analytics more easily and efficiently we’ve launched Ball State’s new Tableau Landing Page to make the fastest path to insight also the most obvious one. Threading a Needle This project is the […]

Read More
IRDS Research Reports and Briefs

August 25, 2025 by Faidat Bello

The Institutional Research Office at BSU produces research reports on topics of interest to the BSU community and other stakeholders. Most of our research reports are driven by collaboration with BSU staff who have attended the Data Literacy Institute, offered by the Association for Institutional Research in partnership with IRDS (details available here). On this […]

Read More
Improving Data Literacy at Ball State: Our Approach

August 1, 2025 by IRDS

Being asked to improve data literacy at a Professions-focused Undergraduate/Graduate-Doctorate Large institution can feel daunting. Where do you start, how do you scale, and how do you measure progress in a way that actually changes decisions on the ground? This post outlines what we did at Ball State University, why we chose this path, and […]

Read More
Supporting Sophomore Success: A Closer Look at Retention Beyond the First Year

July 22, 2025 by Faidat Bello

Although often overshadowed by first-year retention, sophomore retention is a meaningful indicator of student progress. This blog post presents an analysis of second-to-third-year enrollment patterns at Ball State, highlighting factors that support continued enrollment. The analysis includes 7,649 Fall 2020–2022 first-time students who returned for a second year. The project builds on a project initiated by […]

Read More
Recap: Year 3, IRDS and Ball State

June 30, 2025 by Faidat Bello

In our yearly recaps posted Recap: Year 1 and Recap: Year 2, we discussed several of the technological successes of IRDS and BSU. In this year three recap, we add in the relationships we have been building around campus. But first, we did implement two new important data product categories in year three. Workforce Insights In […]

Read More
Data Insights: Explore Our Dashboards

June 16, 2025 by Faidat Bello

At Ball State University, data isn’t just a tool, it’s an integral part of making informed decisions and supporting student success. Our team has been hard at work perfecting the tools that enable us to know and support students through their BSU lifecycle. Today, we are excited to introduce three Tableau dashboard walkthroughs: Admissions, Housing, and High-Impact Practices (HIPs). These visualizations enable […]

Read More
Generative AI, Looking Through the Hype

May 29, 2025 by IRDS

AVP’s Corner Back in the 1990s there were many breathless news articles posted about how the internet and online colleges were the death knell for the traditional model of Higher Education. I printed out a few of the most alarmist articles and had them hanging on my corkboard for many years as a reminder that […]

Read More
Featured Interview: A Conversation with Cole Heady About Ball State University’s Data Cookbook

April 2, 2025 by Faidat Bello

Accessible, accurate, and reliable data are at the heart of data-informed decision-making. At Ball State University, Data Cookbook plays a crucial role in this process, serving as a central hub for data governance and ensuring consistency across institutional analysis and analytics efforts. It allows departments to work from a unified business glossary, improving decision-support and […]

Read More
Featured Interview: A Conversation with Drew Miller about Ball State University’s Data Warehouse

March 3, 2025 by Faidat Bello

Accessible, accurate and reliable data is at the heart of data-informed decision-making. At Ball State University, the Data Warehouse serves as the backbone for this, and facilitates one of our goals– supporting student success. We sat with Drew Miller, the Director of Institutional Research, and unpacked what the Data Warehouse does, how it functions, and why […]

Read More