Beginning in 1998, the University of Delaware began converting its administrative

Transcription

1 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 1 Karen A. DeMonte Instructional Design Professional Development Workshop EDUC640, Introduction to Curriculum and Instruction Beginning in 1998, the University of Delaware began converting its administrative computing systems from a centrally managed mainframe based legacy system to PeopleSoft, a distributed client server based system. Information Technology s role in this new environment is to support the overall system. As a result, functional units technical responsibilities increased; to include both ad-hoc and production reporting. The reporting tool provided by PeopleSoft, PSQuery, did not fully meet the needs of the University. In 2003, the University of Delaware purchased Cognos Suite of Business Intelligence tools to provide campus with enterprise reporting capabilities. In 2006, the Office of Institutional Research and Planning (IR&P), whose function is to provide data and create usable information for the institution s planning and management needs, assumed responsibility for university wide reporting. Faced with the challenge of providing functional units and departments with the ability to create easily accessible and accurate reports in a timely manner, IR&P created UDEW, University of Delaware Enterprise Warehouse. In an environment where change is constant, professional development is essential. On an ongoing basis, a web site providing updates to UDEW, Cognos documentation, information resource dictionaries, and on-line training will be available. In addition, periodic instructor led training courses on content-based, advanced topics will also be made available. For reporting professionals in IR&P and functional units, an in-depth course on Cognos Report Authoring will be offered on-site by certified trainers. Finally, a two-day workshop entitled UDEW it:

2 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 2 University Reporting developed for departmental professionals responsible for reporting is also under development and is outlined below. Unit Title: UDEW it: University Reporting Key Words: Cognos, distributive reporting, data warehouse, data mart, metadata Designed by: Karen DeMonte Brief Summary: The purpose of this workshop is to provide university employees responsible for reporting data and information the skills they need to easily and accurately create reports in a timely manner using UDEW, University of Delaware Enterprise Warehouse. An important element to the workshop is for participants to gain expertise on understanding the data as well as the importance of data interpretation (Frost, Dalrymple, & Wang, 1998). Data warehousing and metadata modeling concepts are also introduced. By teaching participants how data is derived, they will be better equipped to write efficient reports and effectively analyze their results. Participants will also learn how Information Management is administered at the University of Delaware and what resources are available. During the two-day workshop, employees are taught basic data warehousing terminology, are introduced to university data models, and are trained on how to use the Cognos BI reporting software. Day one focuses on information management at the University of Delaware and the basics of data warehousing. Also, considerable time is spent discussing the transformation process of the raw data into the UDEW data models and the business rules used to create the derived fields. Day two focuses on analyzing data requests, becoming familiar with the primary report packages, and the mechanics of creating list reports, cross tabulations, and report

3 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 3 distribution. Participants must have prior experience using PeopleSoft Query and competed the on-line Cognos Quick Tour tutorial. Stage 1 Identify Desired Results Established Goals: Employee participants will use the University of Delaware Enterprise Warehouse (UDEW) to effectively retrieve accurate student, financial, and human resources data using COGNOS tools. o Participants will gain a general understanding of the concepts and definitions of data warehousing as they pertain to UDEW. o Participants will understand the data models and elements in UDEW. o Participants will effectively gather specifications, write, and manage reports using COGNOS BI tools. o Participants will accurately analyze and interpret the data results. o Participants will understand the guidelines for responsible computing set forth in the Information Security Policy at the University of Delaware and FERPA. Essential questions o What is a data warehouse and what is UDEW? o How is enterprise reporting managed at the University of Delaware? o How does the PeopleSoft data get into UDEW? o What is FERPA and what is/is not permitted according to the University of Delaware s Information Security Policy? What are my responsibilities? o Of the hundreds of data elements available, how do you know which ones are appropriate to use for any given report?

4 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 4 o How do you create a simple list report or a tabulation report using Cognos? o Are the report results correct? Desired understandings o Enterprise reporting is a process that involves querying data sources with different logical data models to produce an understandable report. One example would be to query Student Records data, Financials data, and Human Resources data to compare how efficiently departments operate in terms of instructional costs and productivity. o A data warehouse is a collection of data from many systems brought together to support the needs of management. A data warehouse consists of fact and dimension tables that are logically joined together in what is known as a star schema. Fact tables consist of the measurements, metrics or facts about a business process, and dimension tables contain the data elements that categorize each item and describe each value. Cardinality describes the rules in which facts and dimensions are joined together. Understanding how the data is modeled will help participants conceptualize the results of their query requests. Data modeled incorrectly or not according to business rules may result in incorrect data results. o FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 that grants to students certain rights, privileges, and protections relative to individually identifiable student educational records which are maintained by the University. Access to secure data is dependent upon understanding FERPA. What key knowledge and skills will participants acquire as a result of this workshop? o Knowledge Participants will know

5 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 5 Key data warehousing and Cognos terms. How data models influence data results. What information is available in Cognos report packages. How to manage Cognos reports. The data security regulations and rules for information access. When or where to get help or assistance. o Skills Participants will be able to Analyze report specifications and query requests. Identify report package and data elements using resource dictionaries. Use Cognos Report Studio to create and edit private ad hoc reports. Use Cognos Connection to access public reports and administer ad hoc reports. Access on-line help and documentation. Stage 2 Determining Acceptable Evidence What evidence will show that participants understand? o Performance Tasks Exercise #1: Based on a copy of a list report that had been available in the legacy system, participants re-write the report using Cognos Report Studio and UDEW. Participants will also analyze the results of their report output with that of the original report. Note: Report results may vary slightly due to conversion issues. Exercise #2: Participants develop a reporting request specific to their area, write the specification for the report, create the report using Cognos

6 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 6 Report Studio and UDEW, analyze the results, schedule the report to run, and the results to the instructor using Cognos Connection. o Other Evidence Observation Monitor participants understanding via group discussion and instructor led Cognos training. Skill Check Compare two versions of the same report, the first correct and the second incorrect, and explain why the second report is wrong based on knowledge of data warehousing and cardinality. Also, explain how to correct the data model to produce correct results. Class prompts Give examples of report requests and ask participants to identify the correct package using the information resource dictionaries provided. Quiz - FERPA and University of Delaware Information Security Policy o Self-Assessment Using PeopleSoft panels or query, verify the data from Exercise #2. Stage 3 Plan Learning Experiences (using WHERTO elements) DAY ONE UDEW, Data warehousing, and report packages 1. The BIG IDEA What exactly is UDEW and how can it help me? H 2. Discuss the history of reporting at UD and the current organizational structure. Ask participants what they hope to get out of the workshop. W BREAK 3. Introduce the Essential Questions and discuss the cumulating performance tasks. W

7 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 7 4. Discuss key terms Information Management, enterprise reporting, data warehouse. Metadata modeling, report packages. E LUNCH (Provided) 5. Present concept attainment lesson on data warehouses using Visio diagrams. Have participants compare source documents with Visio diagrams and discuss the advantages of the transformed data in the star schemas. R 6. Give skill check exercise. Discuss as a group. R BREAK 7. Hand out copies of information flow-chart and resource dictionaries and review how to use them. E 8. Discuss FERPA and University of Delaware Information Security Policy. E, E2 9. Take quiz on responsible computing at the University of Delaware. R DAY TWO COGNOS REPORT AUTHORING (O) 10. Discuss with participants the type of ad-hoc reports they most frequently need. H T 11. Introduce Cognos key terms Cognos Connection, Report Studio, report types, query. E 12. Report Studio hands on exercises Instructor led. E, E2 i. Create a list report ii. Create a crosstab report 13. Assign Exercise #1. R, E2, T LUNCH (Provided)

8 Instructional Design K. DeMonte Cognos Connection hands on exercises Instructor led. E, E2 i. Work with reports ii. Distribute and schedule reports iii. Manage pages 15. Assign Exercise #2. R, E2, T 16. Administer workshop evaluation. R

9 Instructional Design K. DeMonte 9 References Frost, J., Dalrymple, M., & Wang, M. (1998, May). A new focus for institutional researchers: Developing and using a student decision support system. Paper presented at the 38 th Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Minneapolis, MN. McLaughlin, G.W., Howard, R.D., Balkin, L.A., & Blythe, E.W. (1998). People, processes, and managing data. Tallahassee, FL: The Association for Institutional Research. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2 nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.