“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” ― Carl Sagan
OIE Assessment Support
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) supports the assessment efforts of the college with research expertise, institutional data, data dashboards and survey research. We can help you shape an assessment activity to make it valid and driven by answerable questions, help you interpret the assessment findings, and help you facilitate discussions with your colleagues about the results. Assessment projects often include analyses of institutional data and survey projects. See below for guidance on how we can help.
Requests for Institutional Data
The use of institutional data in decision-making at Queens College is critical. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) can inform academic departments and administrative offices about what data are available, in what forms, and how the data can address their questions. Once data needs are determined, OIE can access current and historical data and provide departments with reports or dashboard displays of the data they have requested.
If you require institutional data and the data cannot be acquired either through (a) the College Profile, (b) your department chair or unit director (via their access to QC Tableau Server), or (c) QC Navigte Staff, then submit a request to OIE. Send an email to qc.oie@qc.cuny.edu with the following information:
- Which department/program is requesting the data?
- What questions are you are trying to answer?
- What specific data elements do you need?
- From what year(s) or term(s) do you need the data?
- How will this information be used and/or disseminated?
- What is the time frame of your project?
Note: Please provide the OIE with a 3-week lead ahead of time for data requests.
The OIE adheres to a strict interpretation of FERPA in favor of student privacy. In general, the OIE may only provide aggregated and de-identified information to fulfill reporting and analysis requests, and these data are made available only to QC faculty and staff members who have a need to know when fulfilling their official responsibilities at Queens College
Requests for Survey Assistance
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) can assist with all aspects of program assessment survey implementation including the design, validity, sample creation, administration, analysis of responses and summary of results (subject to availability and existing survey schedule).
What you can expect from OIE:
- OIE can review pre-existing survey instruments or help you create new instruments.
- OIE may use Microsoft Forms or Survey Monkey to field the survey.
- OIE Surveys typically remain open for 2-3 weeks.
- OIE will send 2-3 email reminders to non-respondents.
- OIE can keep you informed of your survey’s progress (response rate).
- OIE will provide summaries of the analyses conducted on survey results within two weeks following the closing date of the survey. Special analyses may require additional time to complete.
- De-identified survey data can be provided upon request.
- If incentives are offered, OIE can randomly select the appropriate number of winners for you. You will be responsible for purchasing the incentives, contacting the winners, distributing the incentives, and completing any administrative work regarding the incentives.
To request survey assistance from OIE, send an email to qc.oie@qc.cuny.edu with answers to following:
- Which department/program is making the request?
- What question(s) do you hope the survey will answer?
- Who is the target population?
- How will the survey results be used?
- What is the time frame of your project?
- What type of survey assistance do you need?
It is strongly recommended to contact the OIE before attempting to create a survey so that the methodology can be discussed ahead of time. If designing your own instrument, please consult our Best Practices in Survey Research, as good data only comes from good methodology. Department chairs and program directors may see our Program Assessment Survey Template or our Alumni Outcomes Survey Template for examples of appropriate question items and answer options.
Requests for Assessment Guidance
For guidance on assessment activities, be sure to check out our Assessment Resources, or learn more about course and program assessment. To consult with the OIE about an assessment project, please send an email to qc.oie@qc.cuny.edu.
We ask that faculty conducting assessment please review our Introduction to Academic Assessment prior to our first meeting. Similarly, staff conducting administrative assessment activties should review our Guidelines for Administrative Assessment.
Note: It’s never too early to notify the OIE of a project you need our assistance with — Please aim to give us a 3-week lead ahead of time.
“I had,” he said, “come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, my dear Watson. How dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.”
– Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Speckled Band
OIE Data Analysis and Visualization
Queens College strives to be a data-informed institution by collecting, managing, analyzing, and presenting data about how our students perform in and after college, and how well the college and its component units achieve the college mission. Critical to our success in this area is the ability to get the right data to the right audience. The way we do this has evolved over time to capitalize on new technology platforms that engage members of the campus community from across units and at all levels of the organizational hierarchy with the data that can help them understand how well they are achieving their goals and program outcomes. Two important platforms (described below) are central to the College’s efforts to enhance student success through the use of data.
Tableau Data Dashboards
Data must be presented in a manner that informs rather than overwhelms. Building off of early work using Crystal Reports, Queens College is now leveraging Tableau, a data visualization and analysis software, to create and share interactive dashboards with the campus community.
Tableau allows skilled data analysts to develop tabular and graphical data displays that make it easier to see patterns and trends in the data to inform our efforts to improve program outcomes and overall institutional effectiveness.
Tableau Server allows us to target information to the appropriate audience and engage users from across the college with relevant data to inform programmatic and operational improvements.
Access to Tableau data dashboards on Tableau Server requires a Tableau license. Queens College holds a fixed number of Tableau Server licenses for users to access and explore data displays and dashboards. Currently, all department chairs and some other faculty have access, as do select college administrators and staff. Faculty and staff with a Tableau license: To access data displays available on Tableau Server, go to tableau.qc.cuny.edu and log in with your QC credentials/CAMS account (the user ID and password you use to log in to your work computer on campus).
QC Navigate
This comprehensive advising, communications and analytics platform was introduced at Queens College in late 2019 to better support students on the journey toward earning a college degree.
QC Navigate Staff : provides faculty and professional advisors (academic, career, financial aid, etc.) access to information about students’ academic performance and momentum (individual students and groups), direct students to relevant support services, and facilitates collaboration and coordination among the faculty and staff to help keep students on track for successful completion of their program. QC Navigate Staff includes analytic and reporting tools. Access to QC Navigate depends upon one’s role at the college. To learn more, visit the QC Navigate Staff website for helfpul resources, including how to access data using the Advanced Search Tool.
Note: Students have access to a companion app – QC Navigate Student – that makes it easy for students to access important information and resources, form study groups, schedule appointments with various support offices, and much more.