Assessment is a necessary and essential function of campus recreation departments. Inevitably, assessment has led to the collection and analysis of departmental data. Common statistics include range from facility usage to program participation to student demographics to financial transactions.
While collecting this type of data has become significantly easier because of the advent and evolution of rec management software systems such as Fusion and EZFacility, understanding how to leverage data to best improve and promote campus recreation is still a daunting challenge for many rec departments.
However, data visualization — the graphical representation of information and data — has emerged as a highly effective tool. Camps rec departments can use these to tell their success stories and demonstrate the value of campus recreation to university leadership.
The Value of Data Visualization
The creation of data dashboards — which summarize related but different data sets and makes the information easier to understand — elevates the storytelling process and transforms large masses of unruly data into a neat and visually appealing package.
Popular platforms, such as Tableau and Power BI, are capable of creating striking and in-depth dashboards that often update daily. As such, campus rec departments gain current data that can be used strategically to foster sound decision-making, promote and advocate for the department, and streamline the comparison of data sets across multiple years. Access to powerful data dashboards truly enhances the assessment process.
Data Visualization in Action
The campus rec departments at the University of Connecticut (UConn) and Montclair State University both utilize dashboards to analyze data, monitor student and patron demographics, inform decision-making, and ultimately tell their stories to their campuses.
D.J. Quinn, the Administrative Support and Solutions specialist for UConn Recreation, has been a key player since the start of his department’s two-year journey to build and refine departmental dashboards.
“There are a couple of important first steps to take when it comes to data reporting,” stated Quinn. “First, you have to evaluate how much time and how many resources you have available to devote to this. It’s important to decide how much time you want to spend working on this. Don’t be afraid to start out small and scale from there. That’s what we did.”
Tzu-Lin Toner, the assistant director Campus Recreation at Montclair, has been leading the dashboards initiative in her department and pointed out the importance of purpose for dashboard usage.
“The challenge was narrowing down the key indicators of performance to display and deciding how best to make them insightful,” said Toner. “There’s a challenge in finding the stories and getting buy-in from all your colleagues.”
Creating and utilizing dashboards does require a true commitment, especially during the development phase. Understanding the challenges while not losing sight of the ultimate benefits is critical.
Four Challenges of Developing and Using Dashboards
- You must be able to gain access to all of the data you want to use. Your department may readily have access through your management software system, but other data may have to be requested from other areas of your institution. Be prepared to ask for the necessary permissions and have the patience to cut through bureaucratic red tape.
- What do you want to include on your dashboards? Your first inclination may be to include everything you can think of, so it is vital to establish what data can be used to best serve your department and assist in telling your story to others through data visualization.
- Collaboration is key, especially with your IT colleagues. Campus rec professionals will have the proper motivation and in some instances be comfortable working in this space. However, a strong collaborative bond needs to be forged with your campus’ information technology professionals in order to navigate data integration, the fundamentals of dashboard building and troubleshooting.
- It is going to be time consuming at first. Dashboard conceptualization and building is a thought intensive, time consuming process. Be prepared to put in the time and effort, especially in the early days of the process.
Four Benefits of Using Dashboards
- You have hard data to back up your decisions. Detailed and well-organized data can help to better inform the decision-making process, eliminating “guestimates” and providing conclusive evidence that leads to smarter decisions.
- You gain a better understanding of the demographics of both your patrons and student employees. Every campus rec department has a good feel for who their patrons are, but quality data will provide the truest picture, and may even result in some surprises, both good and concerning.
- You enjoy the ease of having the data you need right at your fingertips. Dashboards provide an instantly accessible tool for storytelling to multiple audiences, including prospective and current students and university administration.
- You can maintain compliance with divisional and university reporting and assessment requirements. The heavy lifting often associated with collecting and organizing data for compliance or reporting is greatly eased through the use of dashboards. Dashboards provide regularly updated, streamlined data that is already available to promote, support, and justify your departments’ decisions and expenditures.
Undoubtedly, the benefits of utilizing data dashboards justifies the amount of effort that needs to go into launching this type of data visualization initiative. As Quinn pointed out, dashboards are an invaluable tool in the contemporary campus rec workplace. “In today’s environment where data has become so important, it’s important to take advantage of all of the data sources available to add that extra insight to your operations,” he said.
Toner summed up the dashboard creation process with one piece of advice. “Don’t reinvent the wheel. Talk to other campus rec departments and get examples of their dashboards to inform yourselves of best practices and — in this case — the best visualizations.”
