It’s been almost 6 months since I launched the first higher ed web analytics benchmarking survey. Since August 2010, 80 to 100 higher ed professionals have taken the time to report their web data on 12 metrics. Shelby Thayer from Penn State University and I identified this set as interesting metrics to watch across the industry.
To tell you the truth, I wish we had more participants in the survey, but I guess this is still something as this benchmarking initiative has helped dozens of you get a monthly date with web analytics — as opposed to never looking at Google Analytics reports before.
Beyond this on-going effort to collect relevant data and share resulting benchmarking reports, I have tried to present and write as much as possible about web analytics in higher education. I’ve also collected resources (presentations, tutorials), interviewed Avinash Kaushik and talked about the issue to a lot of folks in the higher ed community.
The moment of truth for this initiative will be next May when I run again my survey about the State of Web Analytics in Higher Ed – a year after the first survey. Hopefully, we will have made noticeable progress and the average time spent on analytics in higher ed will have increased.
Until then, here are 3 things you can do to join the Web Analytics Revolution in Higher Ed:
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Take the monthly survey now!
It’s open until tomorrow (but for you I’ll let it open until
MondayFriday, Jan 28, 2011 ;-). You just need to submit some information about your institution along with your December 2010 data for 12 metrics. If you complete the survey, you get the report – and next month, you will also get data from the past 6 months as well. So, there is no better time to join this benchmarking initiative. We run thismonthlysurvey every month. It opens on the second Thursday of the month and you’ll get a reminder/invitation every month along with the resulting report. -
Share your knowledge, case studies, good tips and tricks with a blog post
Several analytics junkies (including Shelby Thayer, Seth Meranda and Patrick Burt) have accepted my invitation to share their expertise and thoughts about analytics in higher education on the Higher Ed Analytics Blog. And, I would love to add more voices to this blog dedicated to web analytics in higher ed. You don’t have to make a huge commitment – a post here and there is fine. To become a blogger, just email me at karine@higheredanalytics.com and I’ll be happy to create an account for you.
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Volunteer to present/talk about analytics
I’d love to get some real-time interactions going among folks interested in higher ed web analytics. We could have a monthly conference call or virtual meeting to talk about challenges, ideas, good practices, etc. If there is interest for this kind of online get-together, I’d be happy to host.
So, if you’re interested in presenting or attending such a virtual meeting (I said monthly, but we could do a meeting every other month), please post a comment below so I can gauge the general interest about this idea.
