First-year retention is UMBC’s single biggest point of loss during the lifetime of a freshman cohort and a key focus area of the university’s student success efforts. To support this work the Data Science Team (from DoIT and the Provost's Office) and its campus partners have worked with our HelioCampus to produce the first of a series of predictive analytics reports or “playbooks.” 

The first playbook, just deployed on analytics.umbc.edu, predicts the likelihood of a first-time full-time freshman returning for their second year.  It is being used by the Academic Advocates in Undergraduate Academic Affairs to help identify students who may be at risk of not returning next fall. (Access to the playbook is role-based.)

On February 25th, at noon, the REX Analytics Group will meet to explore the factors that make these predictions change the most, how to read the dashboards, and how to interpret and use the playbook.  Please join us! Contact lmancini@umbc.edu or kjoseph@umbc.edu for meeting details.

Len Mancini

Data Scientist and Statistical Specialist

HelioCampus is a data analytics platform that provides UMBC with the next-generation decision support services.  Helio integrates our enterprise data warehouse with advanced reporting and visualization tools.  

With Helio, we can use information from our systems to answer key questions through analytics, data storytelling, and data science and do it easier and faster.  Helio is a key component of an integrated infrastructure for academic planning, assessment, and analytics.  

We’re delighted to tell you that the project and platform are starting to roll out to the campus. 

We have deployed the platform and provided initial training to a first wave of approximately two dozen people who are active users of our existing data warehouse.  This initial training focused on four key sets of dashboards:  Admissions, Enrollment, Student Retention, and Graduation.  

We will continue to conduct training sessions to additional waves of the community and provide resources for self-guided training in the use of Helio and Tableau, the platform’s visualization tool.  Tableau is easy to use, and you can learn the basics in as little as 45 minutes using our curated self-training curriculum.  

Access to the Helio platform can be found at analytics.umbc.edu.  Request access to the platform or a Tableau license at https://analytics.umbc.edu/support/request/.  Please note that there is a role-based approval process similar to that granting access to REX.

We’re grateful to our campus partners who participated in the validation and “soft launch” phase of the project.

In this first of a series of updates, we’ll give a description of what HelioCampus (Helio, for short) is and why we’re investing in it, provide an overview of UMBC’s goals for the project, and summarize what we’re currently working on and what’s next.

HelioCampus was established as an independent company after being formed at UMGC. It provides a data analytics platform covering the student lifecycle, institutional finance, and advancement.  Designed to run using Amazon Web Services, Helio provides UMBC with the next-generation decision support services we need to operate more strategically and sustainably (from a financial perspective).  

Put simply, Helio integrates our enterprise data warehouse with advanced reporting and visualization tools.  With it, we’ll be better able to share information from our systems and answer key questions through analytics, data storytelling, and data science and do it easier and faster.  Helio’s a key component of an integrated infrastructure for academic planning, assessment, and analytics and it helps to support our strategic plan, strategic enrollment plan, and the recommendations of our Middle States accreditation Self-Study.  

Our goals for Helio are to broaden and deepen our use of analytics to increase enrollment, improve student success, shorten time to degree, ensure financial sustainability, and accelerate gift giving...all key elements of UMBC’s plans to weather the current environment and position ourselves for growth and success going forward.  

Helio uses Tableau visualization software.  The first set of visualizations and tools, often called dashboards, has already been deployed to a small group of campus users to allow them to test the platform.  These dashboards focus on metrics related to admissions, enrollment, retention, and graduation.  People using Tableau have had very positive reactions to its ease of use and power.