Abstracts

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Information Insights - How might we acquire capacity and deliver well on people-focused and purpose-driven innovation?

Jon Faulkner, 6bythree, and John Harris, King's College London

The range of challenges and constraints facing higher education organisations is immensely complex and has for a long time lead to a greater proportion of time, budget and endeavour being directed at elements which don't enable innovation or improvement to the service availability or experience across all stakeholders involved. How do information insights provide for effective strategic change which enables the journey to digital innovation, addressing legacy technology, providing for greater focus on activities which truly serve people and purpose. In this workshop session we will identify how information insights bring into sharp focus the primary problem areas, can inform prioritised and proven options for progression and identify the gaps in current capability that need to be addressed to provide increased focus and budget allocation to a more sustainable and future-minded service offering.

 

A cloud data platform to support self-service information insight, the Imperial story

Dr Benjamin Roberts, Data and Analytics Lead, Imperial College London

Imperial has recently introduced a Cloud Data and Analytics Platform. This talk tells Imperial’s story about how we did this, what lessons other people can take from our learning, and how we are using this platform to provide a self-service Insight and Analytics facility for people across Imperial College.

 

The transformational impact of Information Management in the first 12 months

Katie Simms, Principal Business Intelligence Data Analyst and Simon Dunn, Digital Solutions Manager, University of Portsmouth

Back in June 2021 we had a consultant in to look at our data maturity as a University and although we had an enterprise data warehouse for many years, the maturity study confirmed that we are immature in our use and understanding of data across the University and we are in the beginnings of an investment into an information management improvement programme. It would be a good opportunity to talk at this event on 16th June about our experiences to date and the challenges we will face over the next couple of years. From learner analytics, data quality dashboards, data literacy training and governance to changes in our information management platform, we would like to share our experience so far and hear from others that might be starting out on their journey or are further along than us.

 

How to get the most from data: five key questions for your tech provider

Andrew Rowbotham, Careers Information and Communications Coordinator, University of Bradford and Michael Harbaugh, Head of University Partnerships, Handshake

Drawing on his extensive experience of working with Higher Education institutions of all sizes in both the US and UK, Michael Harbaugh, Head of University Partnerships at Handshake, will team up with University of Bradford to provide practical advice on how to get the most value from student, employer and Careers Service teams’ data. Over the course of their growth, Handshake has built successful partnerships with more than 1,400 institutions, and in this session they will bring their perspective on how both IT teams and end-users in the careers office have been able to leverage their software most effectively. The session will cover two critical elements to effectively leveraging software: how to incorporate gathered data back into broader HE database tools, and how to use support business units on campus with the data they need to take quick action.

Using nudge theory, Michael will talk about the best way of obtaining data, helping universities skip lengthy ‘gated’ processes which can put respondents off, instead ensuring passive data collection always runs in the background, while proactive data collection is as easy and intuitive as possible.

He will then look at the idea of actionable information -, giving concrete advice on how to collect, present and consume data so that teams can use it immediately to do their jobs better. This session will also cover communicating data and trends throughout an institution, making sure workflows are seamless, automated and coherent - and that senior teams get information they want from the data they collect, ultimately informing institution-wide strategy.

Crucially, attendees will leave this session with five key questions to ask their tech providers - the ‘must-haves’ that will make any data strategy a success.