Santa Rosa Junior College OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

Prioritizing Research Requests

The role of the Office of Institutional Research

The Office of Institutional Research exists as a service to the institution to provide both required and requested data analysis and reporting, particularly to support the district planning process. In addition, the research staff is a resource, available to consult with individuals and groups regarding their own research projects and to refer individuals and groups to existing sources of data and information.

As the Office of Institutional Research is relatively new, we need to establish a distinction between what we do and what other offices on campus do. Some entities, such as Admissions and Records, produce some of their own statistical reports, and we expect that to continue. The greatest potential for institutional role confusion seems to be between OIR and Computing Services. After consulting with Computing Services, we developed a working distinction between the services of the two offices:

Institutional Research Computing Services

Data Analysis and Reporting Data Extraction

Surveys Standard (existing) data reports

Thus, requests for institutional data should be referred to computing services; requests for data that include data analysis should be referred to Institutional Research.

2. Requesting research from the Office of Institutional Research

A Research Request Form has been developed and is available from the Office of Institutional Research.

3. Prioritizing research requests

The Institutional Research Advisory Group will prioritize research requests, with three exceptions. These three exceptions, where the Director and staff of OIR will prioritize research, are in the areas of mandated research (since it must be completed), research that supports institutional planning, and relatively minor research requests (requiring less than 6-8 hours of OIR time). Please refer to the table below.

Type of Research:	Examples:	Group Responsible for Prioritization:
Institutional Planning Information	Fact Book	OIR
Federal or State Mandated	IPEDS Assessment Validation Equity in Athletics	OIR
Grant Proposal Support	Noncredit ESL	IRAG
Campus or Department Project	COMPASS pilot test Transfer Center Survey Developmental Education Task Force	IRAG
Individual Faculty/Staff Project (requiring more than 6-8 hours of OIR time)	Philosophy Tutoring Survey Staff Development Survey	IRAG
Individual Faculty/Staff Project (requiring less than 6-8 hours of OIR time)	Academic Senate Requests Matriculation Requests	OIR

Criteria for prioritizing research requests

Factors that impact the prioritization process:

Will the research inform and/or support the college’s planning process?
Is the research required by state or federal mandate?
Will the research support the college’s research agenda, as formulated by the Institutional Research Advisory Group?
How will the research impact current practices?
Is there any fiscal impact (costs or potential revenues) involved with the research?

Mandated research is be the top priority, followed by research that links directly with the institution’s planning process and that supports the mission of the college. This includes program review, master planning, accreditation self study, etc. The lowest priority goes to ad hoc requests that do not directly fulfill the overall institutional research agenda.