Why Data Storytelling Matters for IT and How You Can Do It, Too

Reporting matters because visibility matters. It’s not just the data but how we tell the story about how digital transformation has shifted institutional practices and culture. Our team’s goal is to intentionally create data-driven content that inspires others to do the same so we can all connect instructors, students, and staff during a time when it is easy to be disconnected. Showcasing the use of academic technology was important when our normally 80% face-to-face university moved online due to the pandemic. While the specific tool or service may shift as we slowly return to campus, the affordances allowed by digital technology will not change. In this presentation, we will discuss the creation of the Academic Technology Systems and Services report that made the often under-the-radar work of the Division of IT visible to senior leadership. The key, however, is that we will also review how this report has changed over time from our own refinement and from feedback via usability testing. Lastly, we will describe a data jam session, in which directors within IT will come together and brainstorm what this sort of reporting would look like for their teams, how it is related to other teams, and who would want to know about it. The goal of this session is to discuss how to move beyond the insurmountable amount and complexity of the data in IT and higher education to meaningful reporting that connects and transforms the practices of teaching and learning in higher education.