MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Primary and secondary education is becoming increasingly demanding – both in terms of running schools as a business and providing the resources to educate young minds.
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School administrators and boards are expected to do more with less; with funding tied to fees charged, academic results, student population size, class sizes, average daily attendance, extended program offerings and a range of other measures that detail overall school performance.
Schools have long been required to produce reporting to stakeholders. And, with progressively tougher operating conditions, it's an activity that takes significant time and administrative resources.
By directing the high volume of data collected naturally into a Business Intelligence (BI) system that is priced and scaled to address school-level reporting requirements, schools have the opportunity to reduce this burden and expand operational insights.
Higher education paves the way
Schools share many of the same reporting and business problems as universities; in countries where private schools are popular, it is not uncommon for private school yearly budgets to reach into the tens of millions. This makes those institutions complex to run.
Higher education institutions are increasingly adopting BI to reduce management complexity and discover the facts about their businesses that matter. A competency which can boost academic, administrative and workforce-related outcomes and help publicize those achievements.
To assess this performance-based data, these institutions turn to BI software – tools designed to display data in visual formats for the purpose of reporting and analysis.
To understand how the University of Konstanz (Germany) and Macquarie University (Australia) have used BI software to extract critical insights:
Yellowfin: A leader in education analytics
Yellowfin is a leading provider of reporting and analytics solutions to the education industry.
Highly visual reports let anyone take timely fact-based action anywhere, anytime, from any device.
Better still, Yellowfin's 5-user starter pack means that educators can enjoy the benefits of world-class BI for just $3000 per annum. There are even special discounts for academic institutions.
Why bother with BI: Improving school business performance
For schools, like universities, implementing a BI and analytics initiative enables administrators to access constant reporting, meet reporting requirements faster and easier, and foster data-driven decision-making.
Within the school community – by presenting insightful quantitative information in easily understandable formats – school decision-makers, educators and planners can identify important trends and take action to meet organizational or academic objectives.
BI and analytics technology can be used to deliver data-based insights.
1. Academic outcomes and student experience
- Analyze trends to reshape curriculum delivery and subject offerings – to boost student results, retention and satisfaction
- Track academic performance against organizational and government thresholds
- Track student performance against specific areas of the curriculum
2. Administrative effectiveness and efficiency
- Monitor and manage the amount spent on contracted services and extracurricular activities
- Monitor student enrollment figures and class sizes over time
- Analyze costs and funds by faculty to establish budget shortfalls or surplus
- Track and assess the costs and effectiveness of marketing activities
- Map and analyze the location of feeder schools and student addresses to develop targeted marketing and student acquisition campaigns
3. Workforce management and morale
- Monitor teacher ratios to underpin student intake and hiring plans and processes
- Assist with curriculum, timetabling and workforce planning
- Monitor allocated workloads to ensure teachers are not over-allotted
- Identify trends in student and teacher performance
Outcome
A well-managed BI program can assist school institutions to dramatically improve administrative effectiveness and efficiency, academic performance as well as student / teacher experience and satisfaction.
For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:
Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 (0)3 8617 4954, +61 (0)431 835 658