Campus Data Warehouse Discovery, Communication, and Support
Following nearly a full academic year of being live in our cloud-based Campus Data Warehouse, this issue of IAR Insights highlights discovery, communication, and support tools available to aid users in our new data analytics environment (QuickSight).
Discovery: How can users find available dashboards in Campus Data Warehouse?
Users can search for dashboards or browse within “Shared folders” in QuickSight, but to enhance discovery, our Institutional Assessment & Research and Campus Data Warehouse teams also created a Navigation and Help dashboard. This dashboard curates available dashboard content as “Featured” or explorable by “Role” and “Topic,” offering a more structured and targeted discovery experience.
The Navigation and Help dashboard includes three main views of available dashboards:
- Featured
- Role
- All Dashboards
Within each view:
- "Topic" checkboxes positioned to the left of each table can be used to narrow the dashboard pages displayed to be relevant to that topic.
- "Navigate >" links in the table's rightmost column open in a new browser tab, directing users to the selected dashboard page.
Featured
The Featured view curates dashboards with broad applicability across campus, such as overviews.
Role
The Role views curate dashboards applicable to specific employee roles, such as “Analyst” and “Chair.” These role views may be available to users outside of these job titles. Note: A “Program and Course Assessment” role is currently being developed and will be coming soon.
All Dashboards
The All Dashboards view lists all dashboard pages for which a given user has access in Campus Data Warehouse.
See the Campus Data Warehouse Knowledge Base for help finding the Navigation and Help dashboard and adding it to your Favorites.
Communication: How can users stay connected and follow updates on issues and enhancements in Campus Data Warehouse?
Launched in Fall 2024, the Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog serves as a centralized and timely communication channel for users of the Campus Data Warehouse. Previously, updates were only shared during monthly Data User Advisory Group (DUAG) workshops and via a static release notes document, which limited timely alerts and broader access
Our new blog-based communication strategy ensures users are kept informed through:
- Frequent and predictable updates about alerts, known issues, resolutions, new features, and enhancements.
- Push notifications via automated email updates to the Campus Data Warehouse Users Google Group.
- Pull communications by maintaining a living archive of updates on the blog that users can reference anytime.
Key features of the blog
- Quick updates from the IT ticketing system to update all users.
- Posts are categorized for easy searchability (e.g., Alerts, New Features, New Data, Known Issues, and Resolved Issues).
- Posts are labeled with dashboard topics to browse relevant topical updates.
- Alerts are embedded directly into the Campus Data Warehouse (e.g., visible on the Navigation and Help dashboard).
Alerts posted to the Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog appear directly on the Navigation and Help dashboard.
User benefits of the blog
- Stay informed about critical system changes and issues without relying solely on attending DUAG workshops.
- Opt in or out of email notifications.
- Access a complete, searchable history of updates at any time.
- Improve decision-making and avoid misinterpretation by seeing the latest issue status.
Support: Where can users find additional support for Campus Data Warehouse?
Self-Guided User Support Resources
Help Guides
In April 2025, we launched a new Getting Started With Campus Data Warehouse - QuickStart Guide.
In addition, comprehensive Self-Guided User Support Guides are available with more detailed documentation.
Tutorial Videos
Brief tutorials of the Campus Data Warehouse toolset and dashboard overviews are publicly available via Panopto after each of our monthly DUAG workshops.
Data Exploration Open Labs
Institutional Assessment & Research continues to hold weekly open lab opportunities via Zoom, alternating on Wednesday afternoons or Friday mornings.
See our schedule and register for an upcoming session.
Monthly DUAG Workshops
Our monthly DUAG workshops continue to be a critical pillar of our data user support. DUAG members provide crucial feedback that helps guide our development of new dashboards, enhancements, and bug fixes. Members also receive first updates on newly available and updated content to share back with their campus departments.
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