What Is The Student Data Warehouse?
The Student Data Warehouse (SDW) is tool that allows users to access information that can be utilized to assist in data-driven decision making. The SDW contains data on students that matriculated at the University of Utah. This consists of demographic, course enrollment, graduation, and leave of absence data for such students. The SDW does not contain all admissions related data or data. Specifically, the SDW does not contain data on individuals that applied to the University of Utah and did not matriculate. Additionally, the SDW does not currently contain data related to financial aid or other socioeconomic related data.
The SDW is maintained by a management committee composed of several departments and offices across campus including the Registrars office, the Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis, the office of Assessment, Evaluation and Research, USS/UIT, Undergraduate Studies, and selected SDW users from several colleges. Access to the SDW is governed by the management committee.
For more in-depth information, visit SDW.
Want to chat about the SDW? Contact the SDW experts: amanda.may@utah.edu, stephanie.nalbone@utah.edu, and luis.oquendo@utah.edu.
SDW Best Practices
The SDW is a wonderful tool to access and explore data. However, the SDW is an internal tool that is only utilized by school officials. Moreover, the definitions, structure, and organization of the data found in the SDW may not be appropriate for some data inquiries. Therefore, there are instances in which the SDW should not be utilized. Outlined below are some general best practices.
- Data-Driven Strategic Planning and Decision Making
- Analyses, Assessments, Data Exploration - A Closer Look at your Students
- Querying Students for Specific Criteria
- Exploring all students affiliated with your College/Department (Primary/Non-Primary Majors, Minors, etc.) - Day-to-Day Operational Use
- Live Data Requirements
- Status Checks/Monitoring: though unofficial, one can monitor projections, trends, or counts as they relate to enrollment, graduation applications, or other data
- University of Utah Budgeting Processes
- Data utilized for the budget process is provided and vetted by OBIA - Official Reporting Purposes
- Data required for reporting to federal or state entities such as the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) or Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
-Official reporting is vetted by OBIA - Data for Public Consumption
- Media, Websites, Grants, Public Reports, Surveys, etc.
- Data that will be utilized by parties not affiliated with the University of Utah