I know I’ve been talking about this higher ed online analytics revolution for some time now, but it’s now time for action.
It started in May with a survey to get a better idea of the state of online analytics in higher education. The survey was a big success as 399 professionals working in higher education took the time to fill it out. The results have been published and shared widely. They basically confirm that we’ve got some serious work in front of us to give online analytics the place it deserves in the higher ed marketing decision process.
I’ve decided to help you start this revolution at your institution and help it spread across the industry in several ways:
- by seeding conversations about analytics at conferences, on twitter, in blogs, etc.
- by sharing a basic framework for your measurement strategy in the presentations I gave (EduComm and eduWeb) and will be giving (HighEdWeb and SIM Tech) at higher ed conferences in 2010
- by creating a one-stop website including resources, links and presentations about the topic: www.higheredanalytics.com
- by launching a monthly benchmarking survey (yeah, that’s the 12-metrics-for-a-revolution thingy I’ve been talking about this summer)
In higher education benchmarking data is key to institutional change. I’m not sure this is the most efficient change agent by nature, but higher ed executives understand and love benchmarking data. This is why the monthly benchmarking report will help you “sell” online analytics to your stakeholders and make this revolution happen in higher education.
So, if you want to find out how well your website is doing compared to your peers’, just share your July 2010 data for 12 basic metrics by taking our monthly benchmarking survey before August 20, 2010.
The collected data will be compiled and shared as aggregates only (so, no need to worry about your results being associated to any piece of information that could help identify your institution).
We will share the full report only with folks who take the survey. In other words, if you want us to show you the data, you gotta show yours first ;-)
Our goal is to get data from at least 100 institutions for this round. If you only have access to data for your office/department or your unit (college, school, institute, etc.), you can still take the survey, just make sure you select the right option when asked.
As soon as we go above 200, we will be able to provide some segmented reports (public/private, 4-year, 2-year, business schools, college of, etc.), so invite your colleagues working at other institutions to join as well at www.higheredanalytics.com .
I’ve created a basic spreadsheet (.xls file) so you can keep track of your results and fill out the survey quickly.
If you haven’t receive an email invitation yet to take the July 2010 Benchmarking Survey, you can just register online to receive your invitation right away.
Questions? Just email karine@collegewebeditor.com