Data-driven decision making isn’t just for business. Over the next five years, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) plans to turn its data into action.

According to a new document, UDC will connect faculty, staff, and students in information-driven ways by delivering actionable insights with new data capturing.

By 2022, the university aims to have 85 percent of its core functions using data analytics for decision making.

Currently, UDC is in the process of developing digital portfolios to encourage students and faculty alike to utilize e-portfolios that digitally collect and track their academic progress and achievements in ways that measure outcomes.

E-portfolios and Digital Badging

While transcripts and actual degrees will continue to serve as validation of academic achievement, a digital badge will offer new ways of communicating an individual’s knowledge, skills, competencies, professional activities, and interests, the university says.

The badge can be earned in any learning environment that is managed online.

“Employers increasingly appreciate the digital documentation of career readiness, while learners value the sense of ownership over their knowledge and growth that the badge provides,” the UDC document explains.

Digital badging is currently being used at the University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, and Purdue University.

UDC  anticipates that by 2022 sixty percent of their graduates will have three or more digital badges stored in their e-portfolios to serve as digital documentation of career readiness.

UDC also plans to use DegreeWorks to audit student retention and increase the portion of students considered on track for timely graduation and job opportunities.

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