Online Course

• September 13 – October 24, 2023
• $650 member/$775 nonmember  

Optional Face-to-Face Seminar

• Dates and location TBD

About the Online Course

During the six-week online course, participants examine challenges and explore solutions relevant to the rapidly changing field of IR through readings, discussions, exercises, and videos. Each week, participants follow Barbara (a Director of IR) and Mark (her new employee) as they consider what it means to be an institutional researcher in the current higher education landscape.

Weekly Schedule

• What is a holistic approach to IR? In week 1, we provide an overview of the course and you meet your cohort colleagues through the course discussion board.
• What does it mean to be an IR professional? In week 2, we explore the profession, including its history, where it stands today, and where it is headed, and introduce the AIR Statement of Ethical Principles and Duties and Functions of IR.
• What is decision support? In week 3, we focus our attention on the why of reporting and analysis and stress the importance of knowing your audience and identifying best practices when transforming data into information.
• How are data managed and governed? In week 4, we discuss data as institutional assets and address the importance of data quality, security, privacy, and access to ensure that institutions fully utilize data as valuable resources.
• What is research in institutional research? In week 5, we discuss what research is and is not, and highlight the important role in addressing questions, finding answers, and uncovering new lines of inquiry.
• How does IR contribute to data-informed decision cultures? In week 6, we discuss data-informed decision environments and highlight the ways in which IR professionals help foster and support them at their institutions. 

The online course is asynchronous, but within a timeframe. That is, each core lesson has a dedicated week in which participants engage with the lesson content (papers and videos) and complete the relevant exercises.