Action Analytics Planning:
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

Conducted Analytics Assessments and Change Management Plans:
Boise State University, Connecticut Community College Systems, Northern Kentucky University, University of Saskatchewan

Action Analytics Community of Practices:
Funding by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Analytics for Strategic Enrollment Management:
Confederation College

Problems Solved: Losing Competitive Position, Poor Performance of Underserved Learners, Need to Optimize Student Success		Strategic Focus: Leading/Navigating Change, Action Analytics™, Developing Organizational Capacity, Changing Organizational Culture, Serving the Underserved
Project Team: Donald Norris, Joan Leonard, Paul Lefrere, Stephen Gilfus, Lou Pugliese, Phil Taylor

Action Analytics at MnSCU. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) consist of 32 institutions serving over 300,000 learners. MnSCU is leveraging its analytical resources and relationships by developing a loosely-coupled, “action analytics utility.” This capability will shape interventions based on a repository of contextualized “actions that work” to improve the performance of underserved learners across P-16 and employment settings. These capabilities will be utilized to develop the rganizational capacity of all of its public/private partners and to make available information resources to all stakeholders of public

Strategic Initiatives developed the vision and plan for the action analytics environment at MnSCU to include: 1) developing the action analytics capability, 2) building MnSCU’s action analytics capacity so it can share world-class capabilities, and 3) shaping MnSCU’s efforts to leverage relationships with K-12 schools, postsecondary institutions, employers, and workforce organization partners. This will enable MnSCU to demonstrate and proliferate action analytics across all work and learning enterprises.

Assessing and Enhancing Analytics at Institutions. Strategic Initiatives has performed assessments of institutional readiness for analytics at the following institutions: Boise State University, Connecticut Community College System, University of Saskatchewan, Northern Kentucky University, and the University of Dammam (Saudi Arabia). These assessments include a mapping of current ands future analytics environments and charting the migration paths and change management plans to lead and navigate the creation of a culture of performance measurement and improvement.

Action Analytics Community of Practice. With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Strategic Initiatives collaborated with MnSCU, Capella University, And the Shank Institute to create a Public Forum on Action Analytics and the Action Analytics Community of Practice. These efforts are creating a body of insight on how to utilize analytics in higher education to optimize student success and achieve institutional financial sustainability. The focus of the community is to generate and share insight on how to build and leverage organizational capacity for analytics, especially at the institutional level. Dr. Norris is working on a plan for A Primer on Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics in Higher Education under this initiative.

Analytics for Strategic Enrollment Management. SEM WORKS and Strategic Initiatives worked with Confederation College, a multi-campus community college in Thunder Bay Ontario serving a vast region, including a substantial number of aboriginal schools. The consulting team engaged in a comprehensive strategic enrollment management campaign including: 1) an audit of current SEM practices and potentials, 2) an audit of current organizational capacity _ technology, processes, people, and culture _ and the potential of analytics to measure and improve performance, 3) research on image and other issues relating to SEM, 4) crafting a comprehensive strategy for SEM and analytics, and 5) working with College leadership on executing and refining this strategy over time.