CASE STUDY 3: Improving Academic Support and IT Services via Knowledge Management in a University MIS Department

 CASE STUDY 3

Improving Academic Support and IT Services via Knowledge Management in a University MIS Department

 

The Context

                    Many institutions make use of Management Information Systems or MIS in order to manage their data infrastructure, academic systems, and IT services and systems. Due to the influx of students and faculty population, an academic institution encountered certain and specific issues including optimizing its data use, enhancing its IT services, and making sure that information is efficiently and conveniently managed and dispersed among different teams and departments.

 

                    The said MIS department kept a lot of various systems that included student records, faculty research databases, administrative software, and the Learning Management System or LMS. Nevertheless, the full potential that this data could have given to the institution was later not recognized fully. This could have helped to enhance decision-making and in-service provision for other teams to utilize. Moreover, in the event that these potentials were not benefited, this resulted in knowledge gaps when employees either have departed or changed positions due to the fact that small teams sometimes had lacked access to important knowledge regarding troubleshooting and inculcating previous system solutions.

The Challenges

a)    Fragmented data. The fragmented data from several of the systems made compiling in-depth reports and trend analysis difficult in order to inculcate them into more informed decision-making.

b)    Lack of Timely Information. The administrative and faculty personnel had a difficult time and struggled to get access to pertinent information in a timely manner, delaying the process of decision-making in responding to student needs, curriculum changes, and budget allocations.

c)     Knowledge Gaps due to Employee Turnover. As employees depart from a department or take up the ranks in positions, newly appointed employees and staff for certain roles have difficulty in getting on track and up to speed on their specific tasks due to the lack of procedures for preserving and gathering institutional knowledge, especially in IT expertise, thus resulting to knowledge gaps.

         

The Solutions Practiced

1.     Centralized Data System. The university implemented a centralized data warehouse that combined data from the Learning Management System or LMS, from the student records, from the faculty databases, and from the administrative software. This allowed maintained uniformity and granted access to data across different departments in order to examine the data.

2.     Real-Time Information Dashboards. Personalized dashboards were developed by the MIS department for the faculty, administrators, and IT workers. These dashboards provided the different departments with up-to-date information on budgetary statistics, research activity, student enrollment, and system performance.

3.     Knowledge Repository. In order to address the issue regarding employee and staff turnover, the department introduced a knowledge-sharing platform where employees are able to work together on projects and exchange best practices that included troubleshooting manuals and guides, system upgrades, and solutions for common issues.

4.     Predictive Analytics. The department adopted predictive analytics to analyze past data and usage trends. These tools helped anticipate possible issues like system outages or upcoming IT requirements This allows the department to actively allocate resources and address issues before they escalated

 

The Results

a)    Improved Decision-Making. The instituon made better data-driven judgement because of the integrated data system. IT services improved proactivity, quickly identified problems, and effectively allocated resources.

b)    Fasters and Smarter Decisions. Decisions in the academic and administrative domains could be made more quickly and intelligently thanks to the dashboards, which gave professors and staff access to relevant information.

c)    Knowledge Retention. The knowledge repository mitigated staff turnover, keeping important IT information current and making it accessible to new hires.

d)    Reduced System Failures. Predictive analytics enhanced IT planning, there were fewer system failures, and technological resources were allocated more effectively.

Information Management Questions:

1.     In what ways do real-time dashboards assist different stakeholders (faculty, administrators, and IT personnel) in getting the information they require?

 

Real-time dashboards are truly very beneficial to university personnel namely the faculty department. Real-time dashboards give the faculty department with the convenience and advantage especially when it comes to giving and offering their students particular needs. Real-time dashboards are a type of graphical user interface that provide simplified, easy-to-review visualizations of key metrics or performance indicators in the concern for business objective, function, or process in real-time (Real-Time Dashboard - Definition & Overview, n.d.).  It also visualizes and automatically updates the user’s screen and interface with the relevant data and information that is essential and crucial to processes, functions, and objectives (What Is a Real-Time Dashboard?, n.d.).

Through such interactive interfaces, the university personnel, like the faculty department, get to have a great advantage in creating better content and teaching materials to their students. This creates a progressive state towards teacher-student relationship wherein students get to learn more from their professors and to get more engage in study and in school. One of the major factors that need a lot of attention is the students’ attendance. This is the basis for calculating the performance of the students. Visual dashboards represent this data in an easily understandable format which will help assess the attendance of all the students (Performance Dashboards A Navigational Tool for Universities and Colleges, n.d.).

Through the dashboards initial reports and keeping account of the student’s attendance and their overall participation in the classroom setting, teachers can be able to immediately assess the student's eagerness to learn in class base on how frequent they attend class and participate. Teachers can also monitor their students progress in certain subjects and courses as the summary of students’ grades could be shown in this advanced dashboard. Faculty can monitor the students’ retention on why the said students are taking retention, being able to track it can convenient ease managing students’ credentials and data.

Real-time dashboards are truly very beneficial to university personnel namely the administration. The university administration relies on up-to-date intel of data displayed in the dashboards as basis for their decision making in key areas such as admissions, budget planning, and resource allocation. Through data being interpreted into visual and figures, the university administrators are able to conveniently weigh and conclude choices and decisions for the university that will benefit the students and the staff. The dashboard can perform transparent transactions and in addressing areas such as academic, human resources, students’ progress, and etc. through data gathering that can help in concluding wise decision-making for the university as a whole.

Dashboards can also help the administration through monitoring student’s methodology of education. The performance dashboards for universities and colleges include the key performance indicators that keep the administration informed about the students’ progress and their engagement in academic things (Performance Dashboards A Navigational Tool for Universities and Colleges, n.d.). By this, the administrators can also assess the effectiveness of college courses as reports from students’ progress reflects on the dashboard interface and overall gives an overview of academic progress, performance, and attendance.

Real-time dashboards are truly very beneficial to university personnel namely the IT personnel. Through the help dashboards with real-time features and time-to-time update, IT staff can track system uptime, network performance, and user activity by system monitoring in real time. This can allow for proactive identification of potential risk and issues that can be easily mitigated and resolved. This can also help in conveniently addressing significant problems to arise and effectively making resolutions or mitigations in order for these problems to not escalate to certain degrees that could cause harm to certain systems, fragment data, or even cause the university with large amount of  financial cost to be spent for tech damage or restoration for system and data loss.

2.     How can different stakeholders (faculty, administrators, and IT staff) obtain the information they want with the aid of the real-time dashboards?

                                     

Real-time dashboards can provide information that is tailored and catered for certain and specific departments in the university in order to gain access and data they need to fulfill their roles to perform effectively . This includes the faculty department, administrators, and IT staffs. Each of these departments have unique and specific roles to play and fulfill, this a real-time dashboard can cater to those for their particular needs.

For the faculty department, they need data and information that can help them in their role of catering to the students’ activities and performance. They need data  that helps them monitor students’ performance, managing teaching resources, and for planning their students’ academic activities.

The faculty department can track student performance. The faculty department can access their students’ grades and assessments through up-to-date results across different courses. Real-time dashboards can provide visual representations of students’ individual and collective progresses in real-time. This allows the faculty department to identify their students who may be struggling and provide timely interventions in order to help and assess them in their progress.

The faculty department can monitor students’ attendance and participation. Through real-time dashboards, the faculty department  can view real-time attendance records for their lectures, labs, and seminars. There will always be courses where participation and attendance is critical, real-time dashboards can track the student’s engagement with the course materials, be it both in physical classrooms and online learning environment platforms. The faculty department will be able to see their students’ assignment and project submissions. The dashboard will reflect and highlight students who are falling behind especially if deadlines are missed, enabling the faculty to address and assess the issue before it escalates.

The faculty department will be able to manage classroom analytics. Through monitoring class enrollment populations, they can ensure that classrooms are neither overbooked nor underutilized. Class management can be practiced as real-time dashboards help in determining if there will be additional resources or assistance needed perhaps in larger class sizes. The faculty department may not know nor understand the backgrounds of the students that they are teaching thus real-time dashboards can help present data on students demographics and profiles to tailor their must teaching approaches to the class (University and Higher Education Dashboard Examples | InetSoft Technology, n.d.).

The faculty department can utilize real-time dashboards for curriculum planning. Real-time feedbacks and surveys from students on particular courses and teaching methods can help the faculty adjust their course materials and teachings styles to the class. These can be compiled though online surveys as the dashboard provide instant feedback loops to the faculty about their teaching effectiveness as it is based on students ratings or written comments. The faculty can also do learning outcome analytics and track progress involving learning outcomes set for certain courses, aiding them in making data-driven adjustments to curriculum if certain objectives are not being met.

The faculty department will be able to monitor al about research and grant data. Through real-time dashboards, grant tracking will be possible as it show and reflect real-time updates on grant funding received, expenditure reports, and upcoming deadlines for certain grant applications. The faculty that is handling on research projects will be able to see grants that are still active and how much funding is remaining. The faculty can also track research outputs. This helps them monitor the progress of their research work and their metrics on published papers, citations, and collaborations.

For the administrators, they rely on dashboards to oversee the university’s overall performances, finances, and operational logistics, especially those in leadership and management roles appointed to. Their dashboards must be tailored and designed to support strategic decision-making and resource allocation.

Through real-time dashboards, the administrative department can monitor university enrollment and admissions. Administrators are able to view real-rime data regarding new admissions, dropout rates, and graduation rates. This enables an effective resource planning as it helps estimate the demand for classes, housing, and services. Administrators are able to also monitor applicant data and conversion dates. Through real-time statistics shown in the dashboard regarding new admissions, the number of applicants for each program, conversion rates from applications to enrollments, and acceptance rates, this helps the administrators to track the university’s image and adjust its marketing strategies or even recruitment efforts.

The administration department can also manage and monitor financial data through real-time dashboard. Through the dashboard, it can display real-time financial reports, including data on departmental budgets, the spending trends, and upcoming financial allocations. The administrators can also filter the view expenditures by categorizing and being able to view which departments are staying within budget limits. Real-time dashboards can also help in assessing the university administrators in identifying underperforming revenue streams and take corrective actions as it provides insights into tuition revenue and research grants.

Real-time dashboards can also help IT staff in order to monitor the university’s technology infrastructure. It helps in ensuring smooth operation of systems and in addressing technical issues before they escalate and impact users. Dashboards for the IT staff should cater to and be tailored to focus on system performance, network security, and resource utilization.

Through dashboards, the IT department can monitor server uptime and load balancing the status of the university’s servers, this includes the uptime metrics, system loads, and CPU utilization in real-time operations. This helps the IT staff resolve issues before they escalate and lead to system outages. Real-time dashboards can also help in tracking network performance metrics such as bandwidth usage, latency, and data packet loss. This assesses and helps IT staff to immediately detect bottlenecks or unusual traffic that may indicate system inefficiencies or even cyberattacks.

The IT staff can also predict analytics for system failures with the help of dashboards based on historical data. The dashboard can help in predicting when maintenance will be required to be done if a particular server or network component has performance issues, allowing the IT staff to schedule repairs proactively and addressing it to the university beforehand as they give a heads up. 

3.     In what manners can the university guarantee that the information displayed on dashboards is correct and up to date for various departments?

 

It is essential of universities to guarantee that the information they are gathering and consuming must be accurate and up-to-date as this affects how the process and production of things in the institution would go. Ensuring real-time dashboards for every department and staff that is tailored for them helps in supporting reliable decision-making in the future, leading to progress and improvement. Inaccuracies or outdated data can lead to poor decisions, resource misallocation, and inefficiencies that may impact the university’s overall credibility, integrity, and effectiveness.

In order for the university to ensure and guarantee that their information displayed on dashboards are correct and accurate, they must establish a robust data collection and validation processes to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information displayed on the dashboard. Implementing automated data feeds and regular updates to provide real-time or near-real-time data (A School District’s Guide to Public Dashboards, n.d.).  

The university should also maintain data integrity and ensure real-time synchronization. Through data integration tools with automated  Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes, it helps in integrating and keeping information up-to-date and current as dashboards pull data from various university systems namely student records, LMS, administrative database, and etc. Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process is a data integration process that combines, cleans and organizes data from multiple sources into a single, consistent data set for storage in a data warehouse, data lake or other target system (What Is ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)?, 2021). By integrating such methods into the university dashboards, the university will be able to consume data and information that is in real-time and up-to-date. Implementing Application Programming Interfaces or APIs and data connectors also helps in integrating the dashboards to automatically retrieve and display the latest data from the university systems. These APIs can help in synchronizing with multiple systems in the university and ensure that the new data is immediately reflected on the dashboard.

The university can also implement automated data validation and data cleansing processes. Through automated data validation, this ensures and checks data for any inconsistencies, duplicates, and anomalies before it is integrated into the dashboard. Through data cleansing processes, these helps in removing errors, outdated entries, and duplicate records. It is essential as it helps in maintaining accuracy over time, especially when the university handles large amounts of data from multiple sources. Data standardization can also help in ensuring that data from different sources and systems follow a consistent format and standard. Standardizing the format in the data warehouse eliminates potential errors when displaying this data on dashboards.

The university should also conduct and implement trainings for stakeholders regarding dashboard usage and data accuracy. A great dashboard is only as effective as the people using it. Providing training and support will help stakeholders understand how to interpret the data and use the dashboard effectively (Harnessing Educational Data, n.d.). This helps prevent misuse of data and ensures that all the stakeholders know how to access the latest and most accurate information. Investing in data literacy programs can also help the university stakeholders further understand data sources, integration processes, and limitations. Through these programs, it ensures that the users and stakeholders are likely less to misinterpret information and data or overlook indicators of inaccuracy in data.

The university should also implement and inculcate role-based access control or RBAC. Role-based access control (RBAC), also known as role-based security, is a mechanism that restricts system access. It involves setting permissions and privileges to enable access to authorized users (“What Is Role-Based Access Control | RBAC vs ACL & ABAC | Imperva,” n.d.). Through restricting access to certain users and stakeholders, this helps the university reduce the risk of unauthorized changes or errors inputted by unfamiliar users. Permission management is a critical aspect of any software system, as it governs the access rights of users or groups to information and functionalities. The important points to take note that makes restricting access significant is that it enhances security, increases accountability, customized user experience, and regulatory compliance and resource optimization (How to Implement Role-Based Access Control for Dashboards in Bold BI, n.d.). 

 

   4.     What further data or metrics may be included in these dashboards to help with             decision-making?

Being able to add diverse data and metrics for the university dashboards can create significant enhancements and changes to the decision-making processes across the university, namely the faculty department, the administration, and the IT department and staff. Change is constant. In further improving intricate and complex data and management of information, especially that these data can create great effects to not just the university but to all internal and external stakeholders, one must be mindful and sensitive to to handling decisions and management processes. With proper care and management, this lessens the effect of possible negative consequences that may befall the university’s infrastructure and well-being.

Implementing campus operations and resource utilization, such as classroom and facility usage, library usage and material checkout, energy consumption and sustainability metrics, and campus security and safety metrics, can help in improving the university’s overall facility capabilities.

In classroom and facility usage, the university can add to the dashboard about rates for classroom, labs, and other facility usage in order to assist with space management and optimizing the resource allocations. By adding library usage and material checkout into the dashboard, the university can do tracking regarding the frequency of using libraries, material checkouts, and online resource access in order to evaluate resource allocation and adapting library services based on student and even faculty feedback and needs. By adding energy consumption and sustainability metrics, data regarding the energy usage throughout all the buildings would appear on the dashboard. The sustainability metrics wherein data regarding waste reduction or even recycling rates gets reflected on the dashboard. These data can assess sustainability initiatives and help manage operational costs. Lastly, the university can add into their dashboard campus security and safety metrics in order to track incident reports, security response times, and other safety-related metrics that will help in ensuring the campus security protocols are as effective as possible.

The university can add student support and engagement metrics to the dashboard. This includes counseling and support services usage wherein the administration department can track the usage rates for counseling and support services, namely mental health services and academic advising services. These data can help in assessing resource allocation and highlighting the students' needs in these particular areas. The dashboard can also reflect metrics regarding students’ extracurricular participation like their club involvements. With higher engagement metric rates, it can signify the students’ satisfaction and their areas of interest. The university can also add alumni engagement metrics in order to track alumni engagement rates, donation trends, and event participation. This data can then help in assessing in planning alumni relations strategies and fundraising initiatives.

The university can also add to the dashboard metrics for tracking compliance with accreditation standards namely faculty qualifications, curriculum requirements, and program completion rates. Diversity and inclusion metrics can also be added as a feature to the dashboard. This will track diversity in student and faculty demographics. This also includes their participation in diversity and inclusion programs in order to support initiatives to promote a diverse and inclusive campus environment. 

Conclusion

The implementation of an integrated knowledge management system in the university's MIS department has transformed its approach to academic and IT support, demonstrating the vital role of information systems in enhancing institutional operations and decision-making. Through centralized data systems, real-time dashboards, knowledge repositories, and predictive analytics, the MIS department successfully addressed several key challenges, such as fragmented data, knowledge gaps, and limited information access, creating a more cohesive and proactive support structure for both academic and administrative needs.

One of the most significant benefits of this knowledge management initiative has been the creation of a centralized data warehouse, which brought together information from various systems, including the Learning Management System (LMS), student records, faculty research databases, and administrative software. By consolidating these previously fragmented data sources, the MIS department provided a unified view of information accessible across departments. This integration not only made it easier to compile comprehensive reports but also enabled in-depth trend analysis, helping faculty and administrators make data-driven decisions. For instance, faculty could assess student performance trends more accurately, and administrators could allocate budgets more effectively, using reliable, up-to-date data displayed in their personalized tailored  dashboards.

The real-time dashboards tailored for each stakeholder group namely the faculty, administrators, and IT personnel, have also been pivotal in enhancing decision-making. Faculty members gained a powerful tool to monitor student progress, manage classroom resources, and adjust teaching methods based on immediate feedback. Administrators benefitted from insights into enrollment patterns, financial metrics, and resource usage, which supported strategic planning and budgeting. For IT personnel, dashboards provided real-time system performance metrics, allowing them to address technical issues before they affect end users. By offering different stakeholders customized access to relevant data, these dashboards enabled faster, more informed decisions across the institution, increasing operational efficiency and responsiveness to both student and faculty needs.

The creation of a knowledge repository to capture and share critical IT and institutional knowledge addressed another major challenge specifically the knowledge loss associated with employee turnover. With this repository, the MIS department ensured that information about system troubleshooting, upgrades, and standard operating procedures was stored in a centralized platform accessible to all employees. This preserved the continuity of operations when staff members left or transitioned into new roles and supported new hires in becoming productive more quickly. Additionally, the knowledge repository encouraged collaboration, enabling team members to share best practices and contribute to an evolving knowledge base. This collaborative environment fostered a culture of continuous learning and improvement, essential for an institution that relies on evolving technology to support its academic and administrative functions.

Predictive analytics represented another leap forward in the MIS department's capabilities, enabling the proactive management of IT resources. By analyzing historical data and identifying usage patterns, the department could anticipate potential system issues, such as network bottlenecks or server downtime, before they occurred. This proactive approach allowed IT personnel to allocate resources more effectively, reducing the likelihood of system failures and ensuring smoother operation of critical infrastructure. Predictive analytics also supported capacity planning, helping the department forecast future IT needs based on current trends in system usage, student enrollment, and research activity. By addressing potential problems before they escalated, the department reduced downtime, improved user satisfaction, and ensured that IT resources were used efficiently to support the institution’s broader objectives.

The case study illustrates how knowledge management, data centralization, and predictive analytics can collectively drive operational efficiency in a university setting. Through these systems, the institution not only optimized data access and knowledge sharing but also aligned its resources with strategic priorities. Centralized data and predictive analytics provided a clear, actionable view of resource utilization, allowing administrators to make adjustments that improved operational efficiency. For instance, administrators could make data-driven decisions about staffing levels, space management, and budget allocations based on accurate forecasts of demand.

Furthermore, the MIS department’s improvements in data accessibility have facilitated greater alignment across departments, helping different groups work together to achieve institutional goals. Faculty and administrative staff can now collaborate more effectively, using shared data to coordinate on projects that impact both academic and operational areas. The integration of technology into decision-making processes represents a strategic advantage for the university, positioning it as a forward-thinking institution capable of adapting to the evolving demands of higher education.

Another important aspect of this transformation has been the shift towards a data-driven culture within the university. By equipping faculty, administrators, and IT personnel with real-time insights and actionable data, the MIS department has fostered a culture of accountability, transparency, and innovation. Faculty are now able to base instructional adjustments on solid evidence, enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes. Administrators, with access to accurate and timely data, can make decisions that align closely with institutional goals and budget constraints. Meanwhile, IT personnel, empowered by predictive analytics, are in a better position to anticipate needs and support the university’s technological infrastructure.

Looking ahead, the university has a solid foundation for further innovation and improvements in its information systems. The current system can be expanded to incorporate additional metrics, such as student support usage, campus sustainability data, and graduate employment outcomes, further enriching the insights available to stakeholders. As the university continues to grow, maintaining this robust infrastructure will require regular system upgrades, ongoing data governance, and perhaps most importantly, continued investment in data literacy among faculty, staff, and administrators.

Maintaining the accuracy and relevance of the data displayed on dashboards will be essential for sustaining the benefits realized through this initiative. The MIS department can ensure data quality by conducting regular audits, implementing automated data validation, and continuously improving data integration processes. Additionally, the university can support these systems through data literacy programs that equip stakeholders to use and interpret data effectively. By nurturing a skilled workforce that values and understands data, the university can ensure that the knowledge management and analytics systems will continue to provide meaningful value in the years to come.

In conclusion, the university’s approach to enhancing its MIS department through knowledge management, data centralization, real-time dashboards, and predictive analytics has demonstrated the transformative potential of information technology in higher education. The integration of these systems has not only resolved operational challenges but also set a strong foundation for ongoing innovation, strategic alignment, and continuous improvement. By fostering a data-driven culture and creating a resilient infrastructure for knowledge sharing and analytics, the university has positioned itself to meet future challenges and support its mission of academic excellence.

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