Facing a new round of criticisms on the quality of undergraduate education in American colleges and universities, higher education administrators are eager to find--or create--effective programs and practices that can enrich student experiences and enhance outcomes. In order to do that, those who work at colleges and universities need to have a better understanding of their students. Institutional researchers, with access to a wealth of student data, have the analytical expertise to supply information that can guide institutional policy and practice. Typological frameworks particularly can...

American community colleges represent a true success story. With their multiple missions, they have provided access and opportunity to millions of students. But community colleges are held accountable for their services and must be able to show that they are indeed serving their variety of students appropriately.

This volume speaks of the multiplicity of data required to tell the community college story. The authors explore and detail how various sources--workforce data, market data, state-level data, federal data, and, of course, institutional data such as transcript files--all...

Multilevel modeling is an increasingly popular multivariate technique that is widely applied in the social sciences. Increasingly, practitioners are making instructional decisions based on results from their multivariate analyses, which often come from nested data that lend themselves to multilevel modeling techniques. As data-driven decision making becomes more critical to colleges and universities, multilevel modeling is a tool that will lead to more efficient estimates and enhance understanding of complex relationships.

This volume illustrates both the theoretical underpinnings...

Faculty diversity is gaining unprecedented emphasis in the mission of colleges and universities, and institutional researchers are being pushed for relevant data. This volume examines faculty diversity from a variety of perspectives.

Together, they constitute a comprehensive outlook on the subject, highlighting factors including racial background, gender, citizenship, employment status, and academic discipline, and examining how growing diversity has affected the work experience and productivity of faculty and the learning outcomes of students. Special attention is given to...

While the term benchmarking is commonplace nowadays in institutional research and higher education, less common, is a solid understanding of what it really means and how it has been, and can be, used effectively.

This volume begins by defining benchmarking as -a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to identify opportunities for improvement.-

Building on this definition, the chapters provide a brief history of the evolution and emergence of...

All around the world, postsecondary institutions are facing competitive environments, declining resources, and changing societal needs. Institutions are affected by globalization, state and local government needs, economic restructuring, information technology, and student and staff mobility. Institutional researchers have a critical role to play in addressing these issues.

In this volume, we have embedded the practice of IR as experienced globally. We brought together a discussion that is delivered from multiple perspectives, but fundamentally one that draws from the collaborative...

This special volume highlights current trends and issues related to the emergence and development of a new instructional form in higher education: Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In these online distance education courses, enrollment is usually open to anyone who wishes to take them. This volume provides institutional researchers with information about the possibilities and challenges for current and future research on MOOCs.

Topics covered include:

• defining and...