datamart

Introduction

In the interest of better serving the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s executives, faculty, staff, and students the Office of Institutional Research (IR) and Information Technology Services combined efforts in fall of 2004 to create the IR Datamart. The IR Datamart is a component of a larger UNO Datamart. The IR datamart will include point-in-time student, faculty/staff, course, and survey information and provides a single source for obtaining historical information.

There will be five sections in the datamart: Student Enrollment at Census, Student Graded Course, Central Administration Data at Census and Graded, Faculty/Staff Fall Extract, and Survey Data. All information is accessed via a secure website using Information Builders’ dashboard. All reports provide summarized information, so no personal information is revealed. Users can view reports in a web browser, PDF format, or download to an Excel spreadsheet.

Systems Configuration

• Hardware: Dell Poweredge 2950, using 4 Intel Xeon 2.66mhz processors, 8 Gb RAM, 438 Gb disk in Raid 5 configuration
• Server software: Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.0
• Database software: MySQL 5.0, using MyISAM DB engine (optimized for very fast reads)
• Logical design: OLAP modeled with the help of Dr. Peter Wolcott using a Star schema
• Includes Data Dictionary supporting table, with web-based query engine written in PHP
• ETL software: Data is extracted from the OLTP student information system (DB2 RDBMS), transformed and loaded into the Data Mart (MySQL RDBMS) using DataMigrator 7.6.4 from Information Builders
• Reporting software: WebFOCUS 7.6.4 from Information Builders, used for validation and reporting. Includes windows-based Developer Studio for development of parameterized standard reports, with end-user deployment under a Dashboard user interface.

Access

Permission to access the Datamart will be granted by the Vice Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs.

Student Enrollment at Census and Graded

The student enrolment at census and graded datamart is a hybrid of relational and dimensional modeling which includes four fact tables, fourteen dimensions tables, and twenty-one supporting tables. Click this link to preview a datamart diagram of the fact, dimension, and supporting tables in a PDF file. The file will appear very small, so you will need to zoom in to read the tables. As of 2008 Spring Census the Data Mart has over 841,000 rows. The Student Information System (SIS) is the source for all data. The census date is on the sixth day after the first day of classes each semester, except the summer semester. The timing for extracting the graded data is coordinated each semester with the finalization of entering student grades in SIS. This is generally a date after the beginning of the following semester.

An interactive web based data dictionary is provided to guide users in finding the information they need for creating reports. https://webapps.unomaha.edu/its/datamart/

Central Administration Data at Census and Graded

Provides a record of census and graded data that was submitted to Central Administration for each spring and fall semester beginning in fall 1999. The data in this portion of the datamart is one row per record per semester.

Faculty/Staff Fall Extract – in progress

The source of the faculty/staff fall extract is the NU Look Data Warehouse information extracted from the SAP Human Resource system. This data will be stored as one row per record per year.

Survey Data - in progress

The IR Office hosts campus wide surveys. The data collected in these surveys are made available for reporting need via the IR datamart. The data available at this time is data collected from students at the time of their application for graduation. This will be an area of continued growth for UNO.

Business Intelligence Dashboard

The Business Intelligence Dashboard integrates the reporting environment into one user-friendly interface. Each dashboard can be personalized to include only those report users assigned to the dashboard are allow to access. If you do have security access to the dashboard, follow the link below to the log in page. https://iuno.unomaha.edu/ibi_apps/bid-login

Click on this link to preview dashboard images in a PDF file.