Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS)

First Advisor

Stephen Krebsbach

Second Advisor

Ronghua Shan

Third Advisor

David Zolnowsky

Abstract

It has been custom in the South Dakota Higher Education system for the past thirty years to collect and report enrollment data at a central level using a central data repository. That process has evolved over the years but the basic information collected and reported remains consistent. Central computing staff at Regents Information Systems (RJS) utilizes this data for the South Dakota State Board of Regents in support of overall management of the South Dakota university higher education system. The extracted data is also used by Dakota State University (DSU) for institutional research, federal reporting, and other university data needs. While this enrollment data satisfies most of the reporting needs centrally, over the past years, data needed to support management decisions has increased. There are times when the universities or the Board of Regents staff request additional data for research, institutional statistics, comparative analysis, and decision making and it is not readily available. Through this project, additional enrollment-related data elements will be identified, and a system will be designed, developed and implemented to extract information into files that are compatible with the existing extract files in support of university and central reporting. The research for this project encompasses several areas. First, since the initial plan of this project, the South Dakota State Board of Regents (SDBOR) office staff along with the RIS central reporting staff has proposed initiatives that have changed the direction of this project. Secondly, the differences between a data warehouse, a data ma1i, and other repositories were researched to determine the best solution. And lastly, what systems or processes the South Dakota universities have in place to accommodate the increasing need for decision making but yet utilizing the existing data repository infrastructure. The research indicated that the best solution now was to develop an independent data mart utilizing the existing enrollment data files, a Datatel provided utility for creating summary files and the query and reporting tools available. While this is not the ultimate solution, given the possible flux in system-wide reporting solutions, this result provides a short-term solution while long-range plans are developed and implemented centrally and at Dakota State University. Improved reporting to meet the demands and needs of higher education and university administrators is necessary in the data-driven decision making process. The basic data collection and reporting systems is in place and is centrally maintained both of which are advantages. The addition of selected data elements will enhance this system and provide the information needed to meet the increasing reporting needs.

Comments

dsu-th-027

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