Analytics & Decision Support

Overview

We provide data, analysis, forecasts, and consulting services to ensure CU Boulder has the information needed to support strong decision-making.

Data Analytics

With a broad expertise in a variety of analytic methods we help to support CU Boulder’s analytic needs. We serve as a partner to many units across campus helping to analyze relevant data and build a stronger understanding of the state of the unit, assess the impact of an initiative or intervention, and other areas that may benefit from data analytics.

Through exploratory data analysis we uncover patterns hidden in data. Curious what students are saying about something? We uncover themes from free-response survey answers. We can also tackle causal questions such as “Is this program increasing retention of students?”, even when a randomized trial has not been performed. And for situations where we don’t have data on what might happen, we are able to explore a full range of possible scenarios through simulation.

Dashboards and Data Visualization

Data visualization can provide tremendous insight. In addition to visualizing data during analyses, we also provide dashboards of data that update on a schedule and can be explored by our campus partners.

Predictive Modeling (Machine Learning)

  • Predictive modeling (Machine Learning) uses patterns from the past to predict future outcomes. We often use this to increase operational efficiency.
  • Forecasting is used to predict group-level things such as how many students will be enrolled at the university in future terms.

For example, we predict term GPA for first-year students so advisors can proactively outreach to individual students early in the semester that are likely to have a low term GPA.

Design and analysis of randomized control trials

Randomized control trials are the gold standard in answering questions of causality such as, “Is this program working?”. If you’re interested in using experimentation to decide what to do more of and what to do less of, we can help.

 

Get started 

For more information, please use our Request Form.