Institutional Research (IR) has historically been tasked with fulfilling reporting requirements and information requests that are often transactional. This has changed more recently in light of the ongoing analytics revolution, which has highlighted the need for a more intentional approach to producing and using rigorous evidence to support…

This chapter presents three themes that have emerged from the previous chapters and offers ideas on how to implement recommendations within IR offices.

This concluding chapter discusses the main challenges currently facing institutional research at small- and medium-sized colleges and describes how the field may evolve.

This chapter discusses principles that support using data about teaching and learning and offers several strategies particularly well suited for use by institutional researchers at small colleges in helping faculty, staff, and administrators use data on student learning for improvement.

This chapter presents issues related to the legal privacy rights of MOOC enrollees and considers the role of institutional values and missions; it concludes with recommendations for enhancing student privacy.

This chapter demonstrates the complexity of pedagogical and curricular change as it unfolds through several overlapping phases of increasingly coordinated reflection and action around STEM initiatives at Pomona College. It argues for a networked model of research and practice, drawing on theory and lessons from improvement science and highlighting…

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

This article focuses specifically on one type of undergraduate intervention and its contribution to facilitating success for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM): the living-learning program (LLP). LLPs are a type of learning community best described as curricular linkages designed to provide students with a deeper and…

The path from environmental regulation to sustainable institutions has not been a smooth one. By the 1960s, it was clear that the environment was in trouble, with severe air and water pollution, the casual disposal of toxic waste, mountains of garbage, and the loss of many species of plants and animals. The response was a series of restrictive…

To meet the sustainability challenge, colleges and universities will have to reorient their educational programs. Institutional research (IR) can help assess and demonstrate the success of such initiatives. The change that is required in the way people view the world and their place in it is what the author calls a "sustainable mindset." A…

Three institutions' planned change strategies that introduced a comprehensive array of new approaches to planning, management, communication, information and analysis, and staff development are discussed. The larger purposes of these planned change activities--educational change and institutional vitality--await future evaluation. (MLW)

The article describes how planning was used to transform the University of Twente (The Netherlands) from a regional to an entrepreneurial national institution. Noted are contexts of Dutch higher education and history, developments since 1964, strategic development for the 1980s, planning since 1980, a strategic plan for the 1990s, and the present…

The nature of the legislative environment is discussed and observations are made about how institutional researchers can influence lawmaking outcomes. (Author/SF)

Two general models for bringing about change--the structural model and the people model--are described. Team leadership and team building are seen as people-oriented approaches to change that also affect the structure of an organization. Both targets of change--people and structures--should be approached in tandem. (MLW)

Organizational barriers to information use vary with types of decisions and the phases of information collection, analysis, and communication. Strategies suitable for one environment will not always work in others. (Author/MSE)