HelioCampus is a data analytics platform that provides UMBC with the next-generation decision support services.  Helio integrates our enterprise data warehouse with advanced reporting and visualization tools.  

With Helio, we can use information from our systems to answer key questions through analytics, data storytelling, and data science and do it easier and faster.  Helio is a key component of an integrated infrastructure for academic planning, assessment, and analytics.  

We’re delighted to tell you that the project and platform are starting to roll out to the campus. 

We have deployed the platform and provided initial training to a first wave of approximately two dozen people who are active users of our existing data warehouse.  This initial training focused on four key sets of dashboards:  Admissions, Enrollment, Student Retention, and Graduation.  

We will continue to conduct training sessions to additional waves of the community and provide resources for self-guided training in the use of Helio and Tableau, the platform’s visualization tool.  Tableau is easy to use, and you can learn the basics in as little as 45 minutes using our curated self-training curriculum.  

Access to the Helio platform can be found at analytics.umbc.edu.  Request access to the platform or a Tableau license at https://analytics.umbc.edu/support/request/.  Please note that there is a role-based approval process similar to that granting access to REX.

We’re grateful to our campus partners who participated in the validation and “soft launch” phase of the project.

Almost everyone has found themselves in a position where they need to ask a question, but aren’t sure who they should ask or how to ask it.  It can be frustrating (and inefficient) to ask several people for the same thing with the hope that one of them can help.

The Analytics and Data Science team, IRADS, and the REX team have made some simple changes to take the confusion out of asking for help with reports, analytics, or data requests.  We’ve added links to the sites people generally go to find data.  Look for a link that says “REQUEST HELP WITH DATA, REPORTS, OR ANALYTICS.”   Clicking on that link takes you to a page which helps you to refine your request and to make sure the proper people see it.  The requests become part of the familiar campus RT ticketing system.

Here’s what happens when you submit a ticket.  Your request automatically becomes part of a queue reviewed by the Data Warehouse Group at its regular Friday meetings.  At that meeting, your request is triaged, the appropriate member of the group is assigned to be responsible for it, and a due date is assigned.  It will be tracked until it’s closed.  

Not sure exactly what to ask?  Look for my favorite link “None of the above fit or I don’t know how to ask for what I need”   Our teams will work with you to help you define your question and help you get an answer.  

The enhanced analytics, data, and report request system takes the worry about who to ask off your plate, and the RT ticket you generate takes away the worry about your request slipping through the cracks or being lost in an email inbox.

In recent years, the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support  (IRADS) has installed or built a nifty set of “bird’s eye view” reports about teaching & learning in the campus’ Report Exchange (REX) data warehouse that any instructor might find useful. These include but are not limited to various campus-wide Blackboard usage reports such as the following:

Blackboard

• Bb Learn Course Use By College (shows Bb use by students across campus)

• Bb Instructor At A Glance (shows overall use for each instructor’s courses)

• Student At A Glance (shows individual student activity across all Bb courses)

Grade Comparison and Distribution

Similarly, the following "summary level" REX reports could be interesting to instructors who want to benchmark their own courses with peers from any discipline or department across campus:

• Course to Course - Grade Comparison (inspired by Dr. Hrabowski's definition of student success: "not only passing a course but also the next one that requires it.").*

• Outcomes After Course Completion (includes retention and graduation)

• Grade Distribution by Organization (by college and campus-wide).

• Courses by DFW Rate and Average Grade (by course view only)

• Most Popular REX Reports (see what reports others are using)

The aggregate data these summary REX reports provide could provide useful context for understanding any course, but by default, none of them will have “drill to detail” student ID information.

Background

UMBC faculty may recall that DoIT used to publish a list of most active Blackboard courses for every term. However, we discontinued this after Spring 2013, when we completed our transition to Blackboard’s Analytics for Learn (A4L) product that UMBC’s own experience helped influence. A4L reports for students and faculty are now embedded in every Blackboard course (see Control Panel → Evaluation → Analytics), but there is still nothing that provides a “bird’s eye view” of Bb usage across campus -- except the Bb Learn Use by College Report mentioned above.

Why might this be important? Increasingly, UMBC and other institutions are looking at institutional Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard as a real-time indicator or even predictor of student engagement, not just a static content repository of syllabi and powerpoint presentations. If so, then understanding effective design of LMS courses -- as measured, in part, by students’ use of them -- could be helpful as well.

Accessing REX

Until recently, access to REX itself was granted “upon request,” so one might first want to know what lies beyond the login screen before doing so. However, the summary reports above offer a sneak peek at what REX can do, and are now available to any instructor with access to the PeopleSoft advising system by default.**