John "Skip" Crooker, Christina Drum, Qingmin Shi, Ashley Guyer, Kanikka Wofford, and Joy Mariscal (all Decision Support) recently delivered three presentations at the annual Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Forum.
One presentation, co-presented by Drum, Wofford, and Mariscal, titled "Collaborative Efforts to Build Equity Dashboards and Foster Student Success", examines innovative approaches to integrate equity dashboards into a centralized platform. It facilitates the efficient data organization and dissemination to support diversity-related initiatives and metrics at UNLV. Drawing from the experiences and challenges encountered during the creation of the equity dashboard, this session aspires and engages participants in seeking their own data-informed solutions. The distinctive complexity, volume, and structure of data showcased in this session serve as an exceptional source of inspiration for those dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion on their campuses.
Furthermore, Crooker, Shi, and Guyer co-presented the thought-provoking session, titled "Promoting Student Outcomes: Utilization of Canvas Activity Log Data". This presentation explores using Canvas, a widely adopted Learning Management System (LMS), for gathering course data on student engagement trends and patterns throughout the fall 2023, and course performance. The central theme of the presentation revolves around using Canvas activity data in the field of institutional research and higher education, overcoming data-related challenges, and developing the engagement index for research purposes.
Additionally, Crooker, Guyer, and Shi collaborated on another insightful presentation, titled, “Involvement in Student Organizations to Promote Equity and Student Success”. This presentation estimates the effect of student involvement in registered student organizations (RSOs) on six-year graduation rates, with the primary focus on investigating potential equity gaps in involvement and the benefits of such involvement for racially minoritized and historically underserved student populations. To address selection bias, they implemented a propensity score matching (PSM) design to provide a more precise estimation of the impact. Preliminary findings reveal a positive impact of involvement on six-year graduation rates, particularly for racially minoritized and historically underserved student groups
