
Role: Executive Director, Learning Technologies
How Do You Use Insights 2.0 To Serve UNT?
I’ve always enjoyed puzzles and problem-solving and Insights 2.0 gives me the tools to solve important puzzles for the University. As a recent example, our unit has partnered with an external marketing firm to execute a digital marketing plan for seven of our online graduate programs. In order to make social media buys, the firm needed to know who to target. In short order using an Insights dashboard, I was able to pull the demographics of current and recent students by academic plan so our marketing partners could create target profiles and tailor our messaging to effectively reach this audience. In another recent use, I pulled multiple years of headcount data for graduate programs with an online delivery option and created an interactive line chart to visualize which programs were growing over a 4-year program and which might benefit from a marketing boost. At a minimum, this is a good conversation starter about strategic enrollment growth. Logging into Insights 2.0 is like putting on a pair of special decoder glasses that allow you to see trends where formerly there was only rows and columns of discrete information.
What Would You Share With A Non-Insights User to Encourage Them To Choose Their Own Adventure?
Access to well-designed analytics tools is always a winner when searching for truth in a space full of common foes like gut instinct, the loudest voice, and pocketful of anecdotes. Remember: The plural of “anecdote” is not “data.” There are three characteristics of Insights that really stand out to me:
1. Intuitive navigation and easy-to-use dashboards and visualizations
2. Quick access to detailed data sets for off-line analysis
3. The DAIR superfriends, a customer-service focused team, who is always willing to engage in exploration, offer guidance, and continually improve processes and tools based on user feedback.
And I can’t emphasize enough how amazing the support is. Exploring new territory can be daunting and no one wants to look powerless or dumb. DAIR provides a comfortable environment where you can learn, ask questions, and come away feeling smarter and, more importantly, be much better prepared to help others in your unit or management chain make strategic decisions based on solid insights. That’s a super power that feels good and does even better when it’s put into action.
If You Could Choose Your Own Superpower, What Would it Be?
If I could choose a superpower, it would be to instantly teleport anywhere either individually or with a small number of willing friends and family. Mostly, I’d probably use this to attend live music and theater events outside of DFW once it’s safe to gather in large numbers again. Currently, Zoom is the closest things I have to a teleportation tool.