Data warehousing: a tool for the outcomes assessment process

To meet EC-2000 assessment criteria, information from all university constituents needs to be routinely collected and tracked longitudinally. Typically, one finds that even when the information exits, it is located across several decentralized data bases run by different units. Additionally, many universities are either running older mainframe legacy systems or are in the process of making the transition to newer systems. These conditions make it difficult to collect information regarding students and their performance throughout their undergraduate career and after. Data warehousing is a system of organizing institutional data that can support the assessment process. This paper describes one university's experience with the development and management of a data warehouse through the support of the National Science Foundation Gateway Coalition.