RO delivers on campus partner requests for SOAR
In response to the College of Letters & Science request to get more comprehensive curricular and student enrollment information, Phil Hull created an Institutional Data Exporter (IDE) for Fall Course Access. The IDE will be utilized during SOAR for Course Access Planning.
To support SOAR Course Access Planning initiatives, the Office of the Registrar regularly meets with leadership within the Letters & Science Teaching & Learning Administration, Office of Undergraduate Advising, and large L&S departments throughout the summer to discuss course access and course demand issues. Prior to 2021, colleagues within L&S went course-by-course in the Course Search & Enroll app to determine seat availability. Starting in 2021, coinciding with a larger-than-expected incoming class, the RO developed a report produced biweekly to assist academic planners on a comprehensive report to show course access. These reports were helpful, but lacked a couple of important data elements including course breadth designation and level, course enrollment cap, course location, and classroom capacity.
In May 2023, Phil Hull, Policy Analyst and Student Data Steward within the Data, Reporting, and Eligibility team created a Course Access Institutional Data Exporter (IDE). Institutional Data Exporters are Tableau visualizations within UW–Madison’s Repository of Administrative Data and Reports. Tableau is a business intelligence data visualization tool that allows users to interact with data through dynamic and interactive dashboards, maps, and other presentation formats. The Course Access IDE gathers data elements from SIS and InfoAccess, as some of the data elements requested by the College are not available in InfoAccess. By creating an IDE instead of depending on reports from InfoAccess or SIS, Phil enabled Letters & Science to self-serve and get the information they desired on a more regular basis.