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Getting Answers to Your Student Retention Questions

Getting Answers to Your Student Retention Questions. On-line Interfaces with the Retention and Longitudinal Studies Data Views September 4, 2001. Q. What is On-Line Analytical Processing ( OLAP )?.

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Getting Answers to Your Student Retention Questions

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  1. Getting Answers to Your Student Retention Questions On-line Interfaces with the Retention and Longitudinal Studies Data Views September 4, 2001

  2. Q. What is On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP)? A.OLAP refers to the analysis of data for patterns and trends via an on- line interface with the source data (usually data views in a data warehouse).

  3. Q. What role does On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) play in the analysis of student records to assess student retention/success? A. We need to understand why data is normalized for storage and maintenance and then de-normalized for analysis.

  4. Data on Students Is Normalized to Assure Record Integrity and Universal Accessibility in ISIS … … Awards Courses Majors … Plans Subplans Sections Grades Subplans Minors “Normalization splits the students’ records into their smallest logically related subunits.”

  5. De-normalization synthesizes,or reconstructs, the longitudinal student record from its disparate logical subunits. Plans Subplans Sections Grades Subplans Minors This process requires two steps…

  6. The Process of De-normalization • Step 1: construction of data views • The views allows users to access the production data without encumbering the productions system (some de-normalization occurs at this step) • Step 2: development of user interfaces • Different user groups will require data from the warehouse de-normalized in different ways

  7. Retention and Longitudinal Studies Data Views Sponsor – Campus Data Needs Committee Client – Madison Academic Organizations Team • Schools/Colleges (Grad School, Engineering) • Administrative Units (LEAD Center, B,P & A, Registrar’s Office, Academic Services) • DoIT (Strategic Consulting, End-User Computing, Applications Technology) Background Questions What degrees do students graduate with? How long does it take for students to earn degrees? What are retention and graduation rates by unit? By gender? By ethnicity?

  8. Retention and Longitudinal Studies Dataviews The Data • All Students Enrolled at UW-Madison Since 1985 • Continue adding students, semester histories, student/courses, and awards indefinitely. The Views • RETENTION_AWARDS_MAIN • RETENTION_AWARDS_PLAN • RETENTION_AWARDS_SUBPLAN • RETENTION_COURSE_HISTORY • RETENTION_PLAN_HISTORY • RETENTION_SEMESTER_HISTORY • RETENTION_STDNT_GROUP_HIST • RETENTION_STUDENT • RETENTION_TRANSFER_COURSE • RETENTION_TRANSFER_STUDENT • RETENTION_TEST_SCORES • RETENTION_EXT_ACAD_DATA • RETENTION_EXT_DEGREE

  9. User Interfaces with the Warehouse • OLAP interfaces • Extensive reconstruction of longitudinal student records cannot be accomplished by querying the data views directly • OLAP tools de-normalize with a logically efficient user-friendly, dynamic interface • Ad hoc and “canned” queries • minimal de-normalization of the warehouse data views can be accomplished by user-created or canned queries from the Query Library • Note: pivot tables and other OLAP tools may still be useful for these users once their data is extracted

  10. An On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) SystemSynthesizes data from data views and provides the analyst with an interface that is • Easy to Install / Use • Updateable • Portable • Dynamic • Different questions about the same population • Same question about different populations

  11. OLAP Interfaces • Local OLAP Interfaces • Local user groups can download records for tens of thousands of students; synthesize them longitudinally; and distribute the data to individual users in the form of customized OLAP or “pivot” hyper-cubes • Local interfaces are now being constructed for at least 6 campus groups likely to include 50+ users • Overhead for construction and maintenance appears to be quite low • Global OLAP interfaces • Once the needs are fleshed-out, some groups may wish to have the local process mirrored globally in the data warehouse for larger groups of students with the OLAP cubes available via the web.

  12. Data Users with small pivot hypercubes: OLAP Source Queries on PC or server InfoAccessData Views ISIS A Graphic View of an OLAP Scheme

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