Institutional Data Management in Higher Education Roadmap

Abstract

This ECAR roadmap synthesizes the important issues and recommended actions drawn from the study Institutional Data Management in Higher Education, by Ronald Yanosky. The study examines the policies and practices by which higher education institutions effectively collect, protect, and use digital information assets to meet academic and business needs. Importantly, it also explores the impact of the “data big bang” on colleges and universities and the way information technology (IT) organizations deal with it. While the overall guiding concept is data management, the definition of data management that informs this study refers broadly to information assets in digital form. The study takes a multi-part approach that includes a literature review to examine data management frameworks and definitions and to define issues and establish research questions; consultation with higher education IT administrators and data management experts to identify and validate survey questions; a quantitative web-based survey of EDUCAUSE member institutions that received 309 responses, 78% of which were from the institution CIO or equivalent; qualitative interviews with 23 higher education IT leaders and staff; and two case studies, one examining a sensitive data risk reduction initiative at the University of Virginia, and one concerning Chronopolis, a multi-institutional grid-based project for the long-term preservation of research data.

Citation for This Work: Yanosky, Ronald. “Institutional Data Management in Higher Education Roadmap” (Roadmap). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, December 2009, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.