Institutional Assessment and Research

IAR Insights - Cal State Monterey Bay - Institutional Assessment & Research - Volume 16, Fall 2024

 

Modernized Campus Data Warehouse Go-Live 

Cal State Monterey Bay has completed the Campus Data Warehouse modernization project and the new toolset is live in production for all university employees. This upgrade provides better tools to help us make data-driven decisions and enhance student success by utilizing improved reporting and visualizations of our institutional student data.

The Campus Data Warehouse modernization project has given our data warehouse a new look with many new features, enhanced flexibility, and increased security. Here are several highlights we’re excited about:

  • Improved overall performance
  • A modern user interface
  • A richer set of reporting filters and controls
  • All browser buttons work as intended
  • VPN is no longer needed to access Campus Data Warehouse
Example of the DFW Grades Dashboard with dashboard selections processing quickly.

Dashboards processing large amounts of data such as DFW Grades have improved overall performance making insights to inform student success initiatives lightning-fast in the modernized data warehouse.

Modernization Project Goals and Architecture

The goals of the Campus Data Warehouse modernization project included:

  • Building a shared data model constructed to accommodate multiple institutions that involved a collaboration between Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal Poly Humboldt, and CSU Fullerton, with support from a vendor (ThoughtFocus)
  • Enabling multi-source capabilities beyond a Student Information System (e.g., incorporating Canvas data and opportunities to integrate data from other campus systems in the future)
  • Providing support for multiple front-end reporting tools
  • Ending license fees for the model
  • Paying only for computing resources used (cloud computing)
  • Delivering highly responsive dashboards via an in-memory engine

Functional Architecture

The modernized Campus Data Warehouse functional architecture includes data extracted from PeopleSoft, Canvas LMS, and other data sources. PeopleSoft data is fed into the CMS Data Lake in Amazon S3. All data is brought into the Campus Data Lake where it is transformed from raw data into curated datasets in Amazon S3 buckets. Data from are then loaded into data marts and presented in reporting tools

 

FAQs for Using the Modernized Campus Data Warehouse

This issue of IAR Insights provides resources to frequently asked questions for getting started using the modernized Campus Data Warehouse and the new toolset, Amazon QuickSight.

How do I log in to Campus Data Warehouse?

Log in by clicking on the “Campus Data Warehouse” app in your CSUMB Dashboard or the Okta dashboard.

VPN is no longer needed to access Campus Data Warehouse from off of the main campus network or from MAC computers.

Different user access levels are available within the Campus Data Warehouse:

  • General User: available to all university employees; provides limited access to Overviews, Faculty Student Success, and Academic Program Review
  • Consumer User: available to employees that complete the Alternate Data Access Request; provides access to most dashboards within Campus Data Warehouse
  • Elevated Access User: available to specific employee roles based on business needs and approval requested through an Elevated Access Service Request; provides access to some restricted dashboards such as Cost of Instruction
VPN is no longer needed to access Campus Data Warehouse

 

How do I navigate the Campus Data Warehouse interface?

See the Navigating the QuickSight Interface help guide and watch the Navigating the QuickSight User Interface tutorial video.

How do I use the Navigation and Help Dashboard to navigate dashboards?

See the Knowledge Base Article: Campus Data Warehouse and watch the Navigation and Help Dashboard tutorial video.

Screenshot of Navigation and Help Dashboard illustrating navigation features, additional resources, and data load status.

The Navigation and Help dashboard will help you find and navigate to featured dashboards, important dashboards by role, and dashboards by topic, and also provides links to additional resources and status for the freshness of the data loaded in the Campus Data Warehouse.

How do I interact with the dashboards in the Campus Data Warehouse?

See the Dashboard Interactions help guide and watch the Dashboard Interactions tutorial video.

How do I share, save, and export data in the Campus Data Warehouse?

See the Dashboard Sharing and Saving help guide and watch the Dashboard Sharing and Saving tutorial video.

How do I locate dashboards from our legacy system in the Campus Data Warehouse?

The QuickSight to Oracle Dashboards Crosswalk provides a tabular listing for each dashboard from our legacy system and the equivalent dashboard and location in the modernized Campus Data Warehouse.

What differences exist between our modernized Campus Data Warehouse and the legacy system?

The Features Crosswalk provides a tabular listing of common features from our legacy system and the equivalent features in the modernized Campus Data Warehouse toolset.

Where can I find additional information on the Campus Data Warehouse and Amazon QuickSight?

DUAG Campus Data Warehouse Canvas Course screenshot. See accompanying narrative for course description.

The DUAG Campus Data Warehouse Canvas course provides training tutorials on the dashboards and functions in the modernized Campus Data Warehouse, a forum for user discussions, and additional resources to support learning.

Where can I get help or report problems with the Campus Data Warehouse?