ANNUAL REPORT 2023
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MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Sherry Marlow-Ormsby, PhD Executive Director for OPEIR
OPEIR serves the UTC community through research, planning, and evaluation efforts to drive data -informed decision-making at the institution. Throughout the year, OPEIR completed hundreds of standing and ad-hoc requests, supported several university strategic initiatives and committee work, conducted feasibility studies for new program development, and facilitated the Student Success and Retention Committee. We maintained compliance with mandatory federal and state reporting. Additionally, we have updated Factbook pages, made improvements to our report style format, progress towards automating standing reports, and developed workflows and department standards – all geared to increase efficiency and readability of data reports.
2023 was the year of the dashboard! OPEIR increased access and transparency of UTC’s data with the publication of several rebranded and newly designed institutional dashboards. These dashboards cover topics such as enrollment, retention, degrees awarded, student credit hours, peer institution comparisons, and student experience.
In addition to dashboard creation, OPEIR has spent time and attention devoted to several major initiatives, many of which are detailed in this report. To accomplish this work, it was important to engage with internal and external stakeholders. OPEIR sustained community partnerships with the Public Education Foundation and Chattanooga State Community College. Internally, we collaborated with many different departments outside of Academic Affairs (ORPS, Research, Veteran and Military Services, University Registrar) to provide actionable data reports to enhance their operations.
A great deal was accomplished in 2023. Looking forward to 2024, OPEIR anticipates continuing to meet the institution’s data and analysis needs. Several initiatives are underway that the department will support such as participating in the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, collaborating on the prep and planning of new student information system (DASH Student), engaging in AI work, and building more institutional dashboards.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
MISSION STATEMENT
The Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Institutional Research (OPEIR) supports the University's efforts with planning, assessment, evaluation, and improvement by maintaining the integrity of institutional data and coordinating the flow of management information both within the University community and to external agencies.
3 OPEIR Overview 4 Data Requests & Reports 6 Institutional Dashboards 8 Academic Program Development 10 Team Spotlight 12
OPEIR OVERVIEW
Mandated Yearly Reporting
IPEDS
• Timely, accurate data submissions
• Develop IPEDS data capabilities from SIS
• Maintain official university statistics
THEC
• Timely, accurate data submissions
• Develop reporting capabilities from SIS
• Maintain official university statistics
• Communicate potential data errors with other units
Official University Metrics
Factbook
• Released each Fall and Spring term
• Official reporting data in static format for accreditation
• One of the most visited pages on OPEIR website
• Used to create historical database of institutional metrics
UT System
• Timely, accurate data submissions
• Develop reporting capabilities from SIS
• Maintain official university statistics
• Communicate potential data errors with other units
Dashboards
• Maintain metrics and templates for all Institutional Dashboards
• Develop, collect, organize, and present data for strategic metrics
• Continuously search for useful attributes to interact with data
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Student Success September Fall Enrollment November Student Life December
Additional Data Requests
Internal
• Over 250 data requests from UTC community
• Primarily enrollment, student success, faculty, and survey data analysis
• Provide up to date data for program and university accreditation
Other Services
External
• AAUP
• Common Data Set
• CGS/GRE
• CSRDE
• FISAP
• NCAA
• NC -SARA
• Veteran Affairs
Academic Programs
• Maintain Academic Program Inventory (API) for UTC
• 54 total academic actions for 2023-24
• Facilitate proposals for new units, new programs, and program modifications
• Provide evidence of academic program alignment to labor market needs.
Rankings
• BigFuture
• Petersons
• US News
• Knoxville News
• NSF
Service & Committees
• Student Success and Retention Committee
• Strategy 2030 Steering Committee
• Operation Excellence Subcommittee
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Employee Details December Spring Enrollment February Financial Details April
DATA REQUESTS AND REPORTS
Each year, OPEIR is responsible for maintaining and reporting institutional data both internally and to external agencies such as the University of Tennessee System and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). Additionally, OPEIR is frequently requested to provide data and analysis used to inform institutional decision making and initiatives. Beyond the annual requests, OPEIR completed over 250 data reports in 2023. Of these ad hoc requests, 36% came from administrative units at UTC, 33% came from UT System or other external entities, and 31% came from UTC colleges and departments.
Requests by Month
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UTC Administrative Units UTC Academic Units External to UTC UT System & Board of Trustees Other External Reporting Academic Affairs College of Engineering & Computer Science College of Arts & Sciences Enrollment Management & Student Services Executive Leadership Finance & Admin Rollins College of Business College of Health, Education & Professional Studies Other Academic Units Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 5 20 35 50
OPEIR Insights from 2023
OPEIR conducts a variety of in-depth research projects, often motivated by requests from units across campus or from UTC leadership. The focus of these projects is typically to better understand UTC's students and to examine how the institution's programs and policies affect students and academic outcomes.
OPEIR Insights is a repository of analyses, reports, and white papers completed by the team that we feel have broad applicability across the institution and are of general interest to both the campus community and associated external constituents. While general information is useful, the reports in OPEIR Insights are meant to uncover new knowledge, give units actionable data, and recommend potential first steps to implement change.
Fall 2023 Enrollment Overview
With the largest class of first- time, full- time freshman in UTC history, enrollment grew almost 1% from Fall 2022 with a total of 11,380 students.
Transfer Student Analysis by College
Although the number of new transfer students has decreased from 2018 to 2022, the average first term GPA for these students has increased.
Why UTC? – Incoming Freshman Survey Analysis
Based on the Academic Interest Questionnaire, location, academic programs, and campus feel were common reasons for choosing UTC.
Employment and Salary Overview of UTC Graduates
From 2016 to 2020, 80% of UTC graduates secured employment in Tennessee within the same calendar after graduating.
Adult Undergraduate Student Enrollment Trends
Between Fall 2019 and Spring 2022, students aged 23 or older accounted for approximately 21% of total undergraduate student enrollment at UTC.
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INSTITUTIONAL DASHBOARDS
In 2023, OPEIR began creating interactive data dashboards representing a wide variety of institutional metrics. Each of these dashboards allow users to explore point-in-time data regarding admission and enrollment, student outcomes, and various institutional characteristics. By using the various filter options, the data can be analyzed in an interactive way to assist with annual goals, outcomes, program review, and accreditation. OPEIR published a total of 11 different dashboards for public access and continues to add to these existing dashboards to increase the accessibility of meaningful data.
Data collected from UTC website traffic between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, show that 47% of the 10,992 total OPEIR website page views came from users accessing the Institutional Dashboards. Specifically, the Student Enrollment dashboard had the second highest number of page views (following the OPEIR Homepage) with 2,212 page views.
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9 Homepage 27% OPEIR Staff 8% Factbook 7% Other Webpages 11% Enrollment 43% Dashboards Main Page 7% Admission Pipeline 16% Graduation & Retention 12% Employee Details 10% Degrees Awarded 8% Student Credit Hours 4% Others 1% Institutional Dashboards 47%
Website and Dashboard Page Views January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023 Dashboard Webpage Dashboard Description Views Enrollment Official student enrollment data per term of past 5 years. 2,212 Admission Pipeline Application, admission, and enrollment data of past 5 years. 648 Graduation & Retention Success metrics by first-time, full-time freshman cohort. 540 Employee Details Essential characteristic data of all UTC faculty and staff. 397 Degrees Awarded Official current and historical completions data. 361 Student Credit Hours Six-year trend for distribution of student credit hours by term. 186 Strategic Plan Metrics data for Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and decade review. 12 Peer Comparisons Comparison of metrics for UTC and designated peer institutions. 9 Non-Pass Rates Course D, F, and W rates across institutional levels. 8 General Education Enrollment, completion, and credit hours for each category. 6 Student Experience Data analysis from National Survey of Student Engagement. 6
OPEIR
ACADEMIC PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
OPEIR maintains the UTC Academic Program Inventory as reported yearly to the University of Tennessee System and Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). In 2023, OPEIR facilitated the proposal and notification processes for a total of 54 academic actions implemented in academic year 2023-2024. Adapting to ongoing policy changes, OPEIR also launched a New Degree Development cohort and workshops in which faculty are guided step-by- step through proposing new academic degree programs.
Master of Science in Management
In July of 2023, UTC received approval for the new MS Management degree to begin in Spring 2024. Through analysis of existing programs, survey data, and labor market data, OPEIR provided vital evidence to support the development and subsequent implementation of this program.
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New Academic Departments 5 New Certificate Programs 10 New Degree Concentrations Level Programs Concentrations Baccalaureate 47 116 Master 23 48 Education Specialist 1 3 Doctorate 6 7 Certificates 24Total 101 174 Academic Programs AY 2023-2024
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Feasibility Studies
Similar Programs Offered
Comparison of programs by CIP code, name, and/or objectives.
Student Interest Survey
Survey creation and distribution for target student population.
Labor Market Demand
Alignment of labor market data to program outcomes.
In September of 2023, full- time faculty had the opportunity to apply for OPEIR’s first New Degree Development Cohort. With approval from their College Dean, applicants provided a basic overview of their new degree program along with any supporting evidence of need or demand. Selected for the cohort were proposals for a BSBA Supply Chain Management program and a PhD Health Sciences program.
From October through December, cohort members were required to attend three to five workshops in which they would be guided through the multistaged proposal process required by UT System and THEC, starting with the Letter of Notification (LON). These workshops also featured presentations the Vice Provost for Curriculum and New Program Development, the Executive Director for Budget and Finance, the University Registrar, and THEC Director of Academic Affairs and liaison to UTC, Dr. Katie Brackett.
As part of the process for exploring new academic programs, OPEIR conducts indepth feasibility studies that include data regarding the current supply of similar programs and workforce demand to demonstrate the need for degree production in these areas of study.
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TEAM SPOTLIGHT
Sherry Marlow-Ormsby, PhD | Executive Director
As the Executive Director, Sherry Marlow Ormsby leads OPEIR to support UTC's planning, assessment, evaluation, and institutional effectiveness efforts. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research with a concentration in Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2017. Sherry also earned a Master of Public Administration from UTC and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from Washington State University.
Kelli Baker | Program Coordinator
Kelli Baker serves as the Program Coordinator for OPEIR, in which she facilitates the academic action policies and conducts analysis of labor market data to align academic programs to regional workforce needs. Prior to working at UTC, Kelli served ten years in collegiate athletics at Iowa State University, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree.
Brad Kiser | Assistant Director
Until September 2023, Brad Kiser was the Assistant Director for OPEIR having served almost six years at UTC. In this role, Brad heavily contributed to the many initiatives included in this report prior to returning to his hometown of Knoxville. Brad earned both of his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in Mathematics and Statistics.
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Sarah Olivelli | Research Data Analyst
Sarah Olivelli began her roll as a Research Data Analyst for OPEIR in August 2023. After seven years of service as a music teacher, she decided to pursue a career in data analytics. Sarah received her undergraduate degree in music education from Tennessee Technological University and went on to earn her Master in Music from Middle Tennessee State University.
Oscar Vazquez | Research Data Analyst
As one of OPEIR’s data analysts, Oscar Vazquez works to provide meaningful and comprehensive analyses for how UTC can best support our students and employees. Having worked in the Enrollment Management and Student Affairs department prior to joining the OPEIR team, Oscar provides a knowledge of the varied needs for each academic discipline at UTC.
Stephanie Virgo | Research Data Analyst
Stephanie Virgo has served as a Research Data Analyst for OPEIR since 2016. She has been the respondent for various external reporting organizations such as IPEDS and US News along with her work on Institutional Dashboards and other OPEIR initiatives. Prior to working at UTC, Stephanie spent five years at the University of Alaska System office in Fairbanks, Alaska.
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