Why is data important?
Data can be a significant piece of the puzzle when it comes to the work you do in advising, career services, and learning support. Looking at data can highlight areas where there is opportunity for improvement and help us see trends. Data specific to the work of our OACS community members can help us find answers to questions about:
- Who utilizes academic advising, career services, and learning support services, potentially allowing us to identify who is not utilizing these services and how to address that.
- Important student outcomes like retention, graduation, and grades.
Responsible Data Use Training & Resources
- Complete UW’s data literacy training course. Learn more about responsible data usage by taking the Data@UW Data Literacy course. This interactive online course only takes about 30 minutes and is designed to introduce you to institutional data governance and your individual responsibilities.
- Take (or retake) FERPA training. It’s important abide by FERPA guidelines when working with student data. You can take (or retake) the FERPA Training from the Office of the Registrar and review the OACS Applying FERPA to Advising overview to refresh your knowledge.
- Keep in mind legitimate educational interest. When accessing sensitive or restricted institutional data, it is important to only access the information you need to perform your university-assigned responsibilities. Student Education Records like grades, coursework, and activity data are protected by FERPA and require a legitimate educational interest to access.
- Learn about key data definitions. Familiarize yourself with UW-Madison’s Institutional Data Policy, which provides a definition of institutional data and a few other key terms around responsible data usage.
- Remember to use data ethically. DAPIR provides guidelines for using data ethically and the importance of understanding the key responsibilities and ethics of conveying data.
OACS Data Catalog
To make important data more accessible to you, OACS has worked closely with Data, Academic Planning, and Institutional Research (DAPIR) to create the OACS Data Catalog. This tool is designed to be a one-stop shop for your data-related needs, offering a comprehensive index of data reports related to the work of advising, career services, and learning support community members. The OACS Data Catalog is housed in Tableau, UW-Madison’s data visualization tool.
Each report within the Data Catalog requires a specific access level that is identified in the data classification column within the Catalog. Don’t have access to the report you want to look at? Learn more about data classification and request access to data you are unable to view.
Reports are seperated into tabs for each OACS community. The reports will be displayed as lists (Tableau IDEs), Tableau visualizations, or links to curated data websites. Learn more about navigating the different report display types in these two user guides:
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why can't I access the report I want to look at?
Each report within the OACS Data Catalog requires a specific access level that is identified in the data classification column. The levels of access include:
- Public: Anyone can access the information
- Internal: University staff with a NetID can generally access the information
- Restricted: Requires supervisor approval and data steward authorization to access
Learn more about each data classification.
To request access to certain data that you are currently unable to view, please fill out this authorization request form.
If you are accessing internal or restricted Tableau tools off-campus, you will need to be connected through the GlobalProtect VPN. If you are having other issues, please contact Matt Delaney at matt.delaney@wisc.edu.
How will I know if I have a legitimate case for using or looking up data?
When accessing sensitive or restricted institutional data, it is important to remember to only access the information you need to perform your university-assigned responsibilities. Student Education Records like grades, coursework, and activity data are protected by FERPA and require a “legitimate educational interest” to access.
If you’re unsure if you have a legitimate reason to be looking at data, please reach out to your specific Data Steward.
To learn more about FERPA, please take the Office of the Registrar’s FERPA training.
To learn more about Data Literacy and Governance, please take DAPIR’s Data@UW Data Literacy training.
Where can I learn more about using UW-Madison institutional data?
The DAPIR website has many great resources for learning more about institutional data use at UW-Madison. You can also check out the following user guides and trainings for more detailed information:
User Guides:
- Navigating Tableau User Guide: Data Visualizations
- Navigating Tableau User Guide: Institutional Data Exporters (IDEs)/Lists
Data-related Trainings:
As OACS continues to work with DAPIR on developing training and education around data use, we would love to hear from you! Do you have specific questions or needs when it comes to using data? Please reach out to info.oacs@wisc.edu and let us know.
Who should I contact with questions about the OACS Data Catalog or other data?
Please reach out to Matt Delaney at matt.delaney@wisc.edu with any questions about the OACS Data Catalog.
For general questions about OACS or our data initiatives, please reach out to info.oacs@wisc.edu.
Using the OACS Data Catalog in Your Work
What are some questions the reports within the OACS Data Catalog can help me answer?
Academic Advising
- Which of my students have applied to graduate and still have unfulfilled degree requirements?
- What are my new freshmen student’s midterm (6-week) grades?
- Which of my students have a hold on their account that impacts enrollment
Career Services
- Where are UW-Madison alumni working? Where are they living?
- What do bachelor degree recipients do after graduation?
Learning Support
- Which students could benefit from proactive outreach to share resource and support?
What are some scenarios where the OACS Data Catalog could assist in my everyday work?
- You can find a report in the OACS Data Catalog to create a list of your assigned advisees who are eligible to enroll in the upcoming semester. With this information, you can send emails to specific students with important dates, deadlines, and reminders to ensure they don’t miss key enrollment steps.
- Through the OACS Data Catalog, you can find a report to identify students in specific programs who are currently missing degree requirements. This allows you to provide personalized advising to help students develop a clear path to timely graduation.
- The OACS Data catalog can be helpful when preparing presentations for campus partners. You can access data on student enrollment trends in your majors and insights into how many students have enrolled in different programs over the past few semesters.