Why Regional Universities and Community Colleges Should Utilize Data Analytics

Data analytics has been around since the dawn of the digital and IT revolution. As more and more businesses harness the power of data analytics, it makes perfect sense for higher education to follow the same roadmap. After all, data analytics has become crucial to make informed and calculated decisions.

Higher education can create an environment and extract data points in order to gain more insights. Academic institutions can focus on data analytics platforms to achieve their short and long-term objectives. Think of data analytics as an added resource that allows educational institutions to stay on top of everything.

Data Analytics: Strategic and Systematic Approach

Educational institutions can use data analytics strategically and systematically to transform operations, administrative work, and learning processes. The good news is that more regional universities and community colleges are leaning towards data analytics to be more strategic and make accurate predictions.

But, What Exactly Is Data Analytics?

Data analytics refers to a process to analyze complex data to find specific trends and answers. Data analytics has become a broad scope and revolves around many techniques that can help higher education achieve numerous goals.

Data analytics is ultimately is a process with multiple components that educational institutions can use to roll out new initiatives. For instance, higher education can utilize various data analytics components to understand their market position and assign future goals.

Data Analytics and Enrollment

During the pandemic crisis, the enrollment rate fell to an all-time low. But the future of higher education is still bright because of the newer forms of digital and tech solutions. Most academics and experienced digital marketers agree that data analytics is the future of the higher education system.

Of course, it is a major paradigm shift for regional universities and community colleges. Besides, the long-term benefits of data analytics outweigh its limitations. After the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, higher education can continue to utilize data analytics to make predictive analysis.

Remember that improving the enrollment rate is just the tip of the iceberg. Regional universities and community colleges can also use data analytics to boost production, provide extended support, revolutionize adaptive learning, and push innovative boundaries.

Education experts and academics believe that data-driven analytics can resolve issues and provide specific support to students. It is the best approach for higher education to move forward in the right direction. When it comes to post-pandemic academic learning, data analytics solutions can help colleges and universities create more effective frameworks and drive unprecedented growth.

Community colleges and regional universities can now use advance analytics programs to segment large demographics and unearth more dynamic trends. But educational institutions will have to deploy an IT team to discover enrollment trends and capture critical markets.

Major Challenges Data Analytics Can Help Higher Education Solve

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, higher education had to deal with mountainous challenges. The truth is that students have varying resources, opportunities, and backgrounds. So, when it comes to diversity, educational institutions need to avoid generalization.

In the quest to ensure a heightened learning experience, regional universities and community colleges usually run into a few challenges:

• Addressing student learning gaps
• Meeting new student enrolment objectives
• Giving support and attention to one student at a time
• Using actionable insights from collected data

Higher Education and Predictive Analytics

Educational institutions can now use data analytics to improve student outcomes, offer superior academic experience, boost institutional efficiency, and much more. Data analytics allows regional universities and community colleges to personalize and optimize their academic processes. Educational institutions can also expand their market reach and adopt a data-centric decision model.

Managing Administrative Enrolment

As mentioned earlier, data analytics can help educational institutions take their annual enrollment to the next level.  And that’s because data analytics allows you to make calculated enrollment and management decisions.

For instance, regional universities and community colleges can use predictive data analytics to conserve their marketing budget and look for potential students that would enroll. Educational institutions can do this through engagement-based data points.

Targeted Advising to Students

When there is a lack of academic staff on board to offer individual support to students, it can create more problems for regional universities and community colleges. But educational institutions can use predictive data analytics to create a notification system and spot students who are in dire need to get proper support and attention. Academic institutions can track indicators like classroom behavior and grades to create an effective and practical intervention policy.

Adaptive Learning

Modern academic learning continues to evolve and personalized adaptive learning can pave the way for educational institutions to drive more growth. Through adaptive learning, regional universities and community colleges can chart each student’s learning journey through interactions.

Educational institutions can use this data to provide useful insights and customize learning experiences. Educators can also use predictive data analytics in various learning courses. Consequently, it would accelerate the learning process and propel students to consume more information.

Data Analytics: Predict the Success of Your Educational Institution

It is true – educational institutions no longer have to be at the mercy of manual processes to predict success. Instead, regional universities and community colleges can sort out suitable candidates, manage operations, improve administrative efforts, and monitor students’ activities to make the right judgment calls throughout the year.

Focus on Trends and Solve Common Challenges

The wonder of data analytics can help regional universities and community colleges to thwart common operational and administrative challenges. Furthermore, universities and colleges can keep an eye on changing trends and resolve issues ahead of time.

Save Marketing Budget and Personalized Academic Learning Experience

Once educational institutions apply data analytics, they can save their marketing budget by forecasting student enrollment. Furthermore, regional universities and community colleges can spot students who require additional support. On top of all, academic institutions can personalize their academic experience with more adaptive learning.

Final Thoughts

It is hard to overlook the important role of data analytics in the modern education system. It is no secret that data analytics helps businesses implement effective information technology solutions. In fact, data analytics is the key to achieve success in a competitive marketplace. Educational institutions can follow on the same path and improve their performance, efficiency, and discover new information patterns through data analytics.

REFERENCES:

1. https://library.educause.edu/topics/information-systems-and-services/analytics#:~:text=Analytics%20is%20used%20in%20a,business%20intelligence%2C%20and%20learning%20analytics.
2. https://www.lotame.com/what-is-data-analytics/
3. https://www.cio.com/article/3606151/what-is-data-analytics-analyzing-and-managing-data-for-decisions.html
4. https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2020/06/how-higher-ed-can-use-data-analytics-boost-admissions
5. https://precisioncampus.com/blog/leverage-data-analytics-education/
6. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/news-sections/data-analytics
7. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol31/iss1/5/