We all need to report on our annual goals, strategic initiatives, and continuous improvement but that is easier said than done. Let Anthology Planning help simplify the work for you. If you need to report on it, you can build it into Planning. Creating customized, consistent plans for any area of your institution can elevate your data collection processes and greatly reduce the time it takes to pull data together for your reporting needs.
When translating your reports or processes into Anthology Planning, here are some things to consider:
What areas are currently collecting data? Whether it’s Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, or other departments, you can build multiple plans to accommodate all reporting needs. Within each plan, you can customize templates for specific subsets of units to optimize reporting needs. There is no need to try to force different reporting needs into a single process.
How is data being collected? It may be difficult to conceptualize your current annual assessment processes if data is collected several different ways; especially if collected in different ways within the same area. Think about what data needs to be collected and which field types will optimize reporting. Choice fields are a great way to filter your reports and relating data can bring optimal data organization.
Who is responsible for providing and compiling data? We often see one assessment person or perhaps a small committee that will embark on the often times challenging task of creating cohesive reports from a multitude of varying data collection processes. Planning allows granular permission structures to delegate data collection to individuals providing data for their area. You can set permissions differently by plan, functional area, and template. Also, to better identify gaps in data, Planning offers assessment cycles to help with data management.
How does your data connect? Different plans yield different initiatives. Building multiple templates within a plan allows you to collect departmental projects that relate to divisional initiatives that relate to institutional priorities. Utilizing related items in Planning will organize these relationships with the click of a button for nuanced reporting at different levels.
How do you account for future action items? Continuous improvement is the name of the game! You can easily build action plans into Planning and copy them year-to-year for reference. This is a great way to keep data flowing to reflect and build on past results.
All in all, whether it’s streamlining processes or organizing reporting, Planning elevates your data collection through relationships and delegation. If you’d like to learn more about the features discussed, please see the related articles below.