Georgia Mariani has spent nearly a quarter-century exploring and sharing how analytics can improve outcomes. As a Principal Industry Marketing Manager at analytics leader SAS, supporting the education industry, she passionately showcases customers using analytics to tackle important education issues and help students succeed. Georgia received her M.S. in Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics from the University of New Orleans.
When your job involves making decisions that affect thousands of college students, making the right decisions can have a large impact on the future. Giving college administrators easy access to reliable analytics can help improve enrollment and graduation rates – and find answers to complex questions that cut across many
Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. At this year’s SAS Global Forum 2016, so many exciting things happened that I have to share some highlights. From the use of analytics in college administration to the teaching of analytics in the classroom, the range of information presented was quite
It's a common problem in any industry: getting a large number of similar requests for information. But with limited resources and an already overburdened staff, how do you handle it? At El Paso Community College, analysts from the Institutional Research (IR) team enlisted the help of IT to create a data
How do universities predict which students will enroll? And how do they determine what actions recruitment officers should take to entice students to pick their university? These were two of the key questions tackled by Lisa Moore, Data Scientist at University of Oklahoma, during her presentation at The Texas Association
With the recent changes to federal education policy, I wanted to learn more so I interviewed Emily Baranello, Vice President SAS Education Practice and Susan Gates, SAS Special Advisor on Education. In part 1 of the interview, they were helpful in explaining the new policies, impact, opportunities and challenges for
With the recent changes to federal education policy, I wanted to learn more about those changes and the impacts they'll have on P-12 education across the U.S. So, I decided to interview Emily Baranello, Vice President SAS Education Practice and Susan Gates, SAS Special Advisor on Education. Here's part one
How do public higher education institutions get funded? In the past, state funding was tied to enrollment, but now more states are tying funding to institutional performance. State Legislatures want more accountability for money spent on higher education and have turned to performance-based funding (also called outcomes-based funding). As such,
Know your data. Do a needs analysis. Organize for success. Empower users. These are four best practices for data and analytics that you'll want to hear more about. In my first three posts in the Analytics in Real Life blog series, we learned how higher education customers are using SAS and why
Do you have a great idea for an analytics project but need approval to get started? Or maybe you've had some initial successes with analytics and you're ready to expand the program. We talked to four analytics leaders in the higher education industry to get their advice on how to
In my first post of the analytics in real life blog series, we heard four higher education customers discuss using SAS and why they chose SAS. Today we will hear the following three customers share the positive impact of using SAS and analytics for their users and institution. Karl Konsdorf, Acting
Recently, I interviewed four higher education customers to hear firsthand how each is using analytics in real life (IRL). In this blog series, we will learn how educators are using analytics, why they chose SAS, and the impact it has had on their users and their institutions. In addition, they
This is my final entry in the Education Meets Big Data blog series. Let’s review what we've covered so far… In my first post, I explained that statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) track student data from preschool through college and workforce across the state. SLDSs can be used to see one
In my first blog post in the Education meets Big Data blog series, I explained the need for Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems(SLDS). In the blog post following, I shared an interview with Armistead Sapp, one of the authors of the book, "Implement, Improve and Expand Your Statewide Longitudinal Data System." In this
In my previous blog post, I discussed the benefits of a Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) and shared a SAS book on the subject: Implement, Improve and Expand Your Statewide Longitudinal Data System by Armistead W Sapp III and Jamie McQuiggan. Today, I'm sharing a conversation I had with one of the book’s authors,
Yes, its true. Education has big data and always has. One perfect example? Statewide longitudinal data systems. Every state has one that tracks information on students from preschool until they enter the workforce (so some states call them P-20W). Think about all the schools and all the students across your state, now
Did you know that the education industry is heavily embracing data visualization to run their business? Just like any other industry, leaders in education need to understand their customers (i.e. students). They need to understand how the students are doing, how they're progressing and if intervention is needed to ensure
Everything’s bigger in Texas and that definitely held true at SAS Global Forum 2015. The conference was bigger and busier than ever, especially for the education industry. There were so many amazing presentations and announcements, that you may have missed a few -- here are the highlights. We had a several customer presentations on SAS Visual
It's a common problem: Your organization collects vast amounts and types of data – but it's spread across different departments and locations in various formats and systems. It’s a massive challenge to make all that data available, connected and usable to everyone who needs it. That was the scene at
So far in our Ask the Statistician blog and video series, we have heard responses from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference about: The many ways statistics benefit their organizations. The types of statistical analyses used to solve business issues. Best practices for explaining results. How they put statistical
In my previous post in the Ask the Statistician interview series, we heard from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss the how their statistical results are put into action within their organizations. Now let’s learn more about their specific examples of success they have had utilizing these results. Check out
So far in this Ask the Statistician series, we heard statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss the benefits of statistical analysis, the types of statistical techniques they use to solve their business problems and how they share their statistical results with non-technical audiences that need to use this information. So, the next step
In my last post in the Ask the Statistician series, we heard statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss what types of statistical techniques they use to solve their business problems. Given that these concepts are technical in nature, I wanted to better understand some of their best practices for sharing
So far in our "Ask the statistician" blog and video series, we have heard responses from statisticians to the following questions: Why is it important to celebrate the International Year of Statistics? How did you became interested in statistics? Why should students study statistics? How do you use statistics? What
Out of all the questions that we asked in our "Ask the statistician" blog and video series at the recent SAS Global Forum, I was most intrigued to hear the responses to this next question: What are the next big trends in statistics? Watch the latest video in the series
If you have been paying attention to the media, you might have heard that statistics is the hottest new field and career choice. According to a recent Wall Street Journal blog post, schools are seeing an influx of students interested in the field. Some students are getting an even earlier
In a recent blog post, I discussed how I enjoy working with the education industry because they are so eager and willing to help. While that post dealt with K-12, this one discusses higher education, specifically the University of Texas System and their public dashboard. If you are interested in
Did you ever experience a time where you hear or see the same thing over and over again? Whether you chalk it up to coincidence, immersion or saturation, you clearly start seeing the same ideas or topics discussed in multiple places. Lately, I have been hearing about the topic of
I love working with the Education industry and with our partners and customers. They are always so eager and willing to help that it really makes my job fun and easy. Plus, they are doing some amazing things to help districts, teachers and students. And everyone knows, teachers and schools
We have come very far in our journey (I started this series in March) to the 10 best practices from education customers for information management, reporting and analytics. Lets’ recap our journey of the previous nine blogs: Securing executive sponsorship. Identifying and involving stakeholders early and assessing their unique needs.
We have come very far in our journey to 10 best practices from education customer for information management, reporting and analytics. We are up to Best Practice #9: Empower Users by Providing Training and Self-Help Materials. Most education professionals will need training in order to understand data, reports and analytics.
