How did UNT choose to go down this path?
The University of North Texas (UNT) recognized the strategic value of data early on.
Past president, Dr. Neal Smatresk, was passionate about the use of data to help transform
institutions of higher education. His vision and commitment of resources in 2015 truly
jumpstarted the program that exists today, the UNT Insights Program. With the collaborative
support of our IT partners, we embarked on the journey to modernize our approach to
data, analytics, and information resources. Our initial goals were to respond to three
mission-critical questions related to student enrollment, cost, and academic impact.
These goals served as guideposts for decisions along the way.
What software platform is Insights built upon?
Insights 2.0 is built upon the SAS Business Intelligence platform. This toolset leverages
high-performance analytic technologies and empowers organizations to explore huge
volumes of data quickly to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities for further
analysis. The highly visual, drag-and-drop data interface of SAS Visual Analytics,
combined with the speed of SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS), accelerate analytic
computations and enable organizations to derive value from massive amounts of data.
This creates an unprecedented ability to solve difficult problems, improve business
performance, predict future performance, and mitigate risk rapidly and confidently
What benefits has UNT experienced from the Insights Program?
The results for UNT have truly begun to speak for themselves. In addition to earning
a CIO 100 award for innovation in technology in 2019, the Insights Program has impacted
grading practices, strategic enrollment management, financial aid processes, and the
overall Institutional Research capability. Insights has grown into a trusted source
of data and analytics for our growing community of trained users across the campus.
Do you require new users to go through training?
Yes! As part of our ongoing effort to protect the student and employee information,
our team does everything possible to ensure that all members of the Insights user
community understand the common expectations required for leveraging these data and
analytic tools.
How long does training take?
Trainings last 90 minutes for Refresher training and 120 minutes for New User training.
How often is training offered?
Training sessions are offered multiple times per month throughout each semester. Dates
and times are advertised on the Insights Calendar page.
Do you offer online training?
Yes, we offer trainings online through Teams. Our team is prepared to come to you
to do small group trainings on campus as well.
What do I need to bring with me to training?
The training team will screen share in online trainings and present live in trainings
held in person, but since training is interactive we ask that you have a computer
available to check log in credentials and navigate the dashboards.
How often do I need to attend training?
Training frequency is based solely on the needs of each user. We would encourage our
users to stay informed of updates on our Teams site (membership is added after you
attend your first training) for options. It is a good idea to attend training periodically
to see new content, get questions answered, etc.
Can students get trained?
Anyone with a UNT job role can get training and have access to Insights. Insights
is for institutional use only and is not intended for class projects or other personal
uses. If a student needs Insights to perform their job, they are welcome to attend
training.
What types of training does Insights 2.0 offer?
For brand new users we offer New User training, and in the cases of existing users
we offer a Refresher training option. Please visit the Training page for specific information.
Roughly, how many trained Insights users are there?
Currently, we have over 900 active trained Insights users! Over 1500 UNT employees
have been trained on the Insights platform since 2017.
What computing policies do I need to agree to as part of the Insights 2.0 community?
In addition to FERPA mentioned above, we do require our users to abide by the guidelines
issues by UNT. Specifically, users are responsible for their actions under the following
policies: guidelines outlined in Texas Administrative Code Rule §TAC 202.72 Staff
Responsibilities for Information Security Standards for Institutions of Higher Education;
guidelines outlined in the UNT Enterprise ITSS Sensitive Data Policy Guide found at:
https://technology.untsystem.edu/divisions/ets/ecs/cws/sensitive-data-policy-guide.php; guidelines outlined in the UNT Enterprise ITSS Information Security Handbook found
at: https://technology.untsystem.edu/divisions/citc/cs/unt-system-information-security-handbook.php. By holding our community accountable through these expectations, our users are that
much stronger as we strive to do good with data within a framework of acceptable practice
and security expectations.
How do you protect student and employee data?
Data, Analytics, & Institutional Research (DAIR) is committed to ensuring that students,
faculty, staff, and financial information is secure and safe. In partnership with
UNT System Information Security leadership, DAIR leverages a multi-faceted approach
to maintaining a commitment to information privacy and confidentiality. The Insights
2.0 program leverages training, role-based permissions, and other strategies to protect
information and we follow all appropriate State and Federal laws to maintain a commitment
to our students, parents, alumni, and employees.
What do I need to provide to get access to Insights 2.0?
All users are asked to acknowledge the common community standards. As part of the
onboarding process you will be asked to complete a program agreement that spells out
the various responsibilities you will need to embrace to continue to get access to
protected information.
How was your security protocol developed?
DAIR collaborated with the UNT System Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Information
Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Enterprise Data Architect to establish
the security protocol for Insights. New users must complete the UNT or UNT System
required FERPA training course available via the Bridge Learning Management platform
prior to signing up for training. We encourage you to reach out to insights@unt.edu if you have a question about data security.
Where do I go to login?
The Insights 2.0 program wants to make access for our users easy. Users can navigate
to https://data.unt.edu/ to access all dashboards. By either clicking on a specific dashboard on the Insights
website, you will automatically be directed to a sign in screen (shown below). You
should only have to do this once per browser session. On the log in page, click on
the ‘Use Your corporate credentials’ link below the sign in box to sign in through
UNT. Use your UNT provided EUID (example: abc1234) and your established AWS password.
What is my username when I login?
If the "Use your corporate credentials" link doesn't work, enter your UNT provided
EUID (example: unt1890) and password.
What browser is best to use in Insights 2.0?
Google Chrome is considered the most stable browser to utilize. We strongly recommend
not using Microsoft Edge. While other browsers may function and the program continually
tests in all browsers, we have found that Chrome is your best choice to leverage the
Insights 2.0 program.
How can I access data definitions?
We store data definitions in SAS Business Data Network software. Double-click on a
graph, icon, or spreadsheet cell, and click on a data term link to see the definitions.
SAS Business Data Network (SAS BDN) houses business term definitions that promote
the common understanding among stakeholders at UNT. It’s a university-wide approach
to managing metadata and definitions.
What are the current analytic products in Insights 2.0?
Please visit the UNT Insights Dashboards Page for a complete list of current Insights 2.0 products. Our initial list of products
were developed using a combination of factors including executive need, commonly requested
information, and data products related to the institution's strategic plan. The Insights
2.0 program believes in providing relevant data to answer relevant questions to make
a truly relevant impact on our university community.
How are new analytic products decided upon?
The Insights Program leverages a program charter and continual loops of feedback with
executives and key stakeholders across the institution to prioritize efforts. Typically,
complex challenges are raised that require an analytical approach to solving. Executives,
stakeholders, data modelers, and institutional researchers then partner to produce
relevant products to meet the needs of the community. Given analytics is the totality
of dashboard design, data modeling, and data governance efforts, this is a resource
intensive process, and we may have a backlog of products in development at any point
in time.
How do I find out about new Insights 2.0 products that get released?
We will update the https://data.unt.edu/ webpage regularly, we also will send out updates and announcements via the Teams
User group, and in the cases of brand-new content areas design and invite users to
specific training sessions.
Can I break an Insights product?
You CANNOT break an Insights 2.0 dashboard. We provide training to help ensure that
you know how to derive the best information out of products including filtering, drilling
down, extracting, etc. but you cannot break a dashboard. One thing to remember though
is that Insights 2.0 will remember any of your most recently used filtering. Users
are trained on how to recognize when these filters are applied but it is good to remind
yourself of your choices whenever opening an Insights 2.0 product again.
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What’s the source of Insights data?
Insights 2.0 leverages data from a diverse array of sources. For some products we
leverage our student information system (PeopleSoft) or our CRM system (SalesForce).
We also leverage data that comes from the National Student Clearinghouse and other
external sources such as data furnished by the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board (THECB).
What is a data model and what purpose does it serve?
A data model is a process that prepares data for analysis or visualization. Typically,
data models combine information from multiple PeopleSoft tables and/or external data
sources. Insights relies on multiple data models as a source for most of the dashboards
available.
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