A major benefit of analytics is to optimize use of resources.
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4 comments
for Idea: Cost savings are an important benefit of analytics
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The idea was posted10 months ago
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Here Martin and I disagree. When you are working in something like a student success program, you have to use analytics to focus resources. If you spend your limited resources attempting to help students who don't really need help, then you don't have time to help the students who actually do need help.
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I'm viewing this from the perspective of student recruitment, and clearly it makes much more sense to allocate resources toward strategies for which you can measure results. In an era of tight budgets, and when has that not been the case in higher ed, it's imperative that the available be resources be allocated wisely. Another consideration is that it is hard to argue with data--metrics speak for themselves. Data helps cut through politics and decisions that are not data-driven.
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Interesting points - not sure though how we get these analytics in place or analyze them or share them without an increase in resources. I guess I was viewing it less as "optimizing" and more as decreasing or increasing.
That said, I still think it's a stretch to assume that analytics will optimize the use of resources. I consider this one of the halo-errors where we attribute a good tool with superhuman qualities. "This new tool will solve our problems, tell us what decisions to make, prove our points, and optimize our resources."
I agree with Kyle's assertion that analytics can help a solid leadership team better focus (and therefore optimize) resources - but that is a result of good leadership leveraging the information available through analytics. I can't give credit to the data or its analysis. I'm sure we'll find just as many cases where resources were squandered by misinterpreting or misusing the information - which I would again not blame or credit to Analytics.
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