My Favourite Tipples from a data analyst
Jinfo Blog

By George Peckham-Rooney

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by George Peckham-Rooney, who manages and analyses data to support university strategy and data governance at a university in the southeastern United States. He shares his go-to sources for finding out about coding, enterprise IT and the future of education.

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Datasets in production systems are constantly changing. Data constantly evolves as users update records, perform business-related transactions, and otherwise work with the system. Being a data analyst, especially in higher education, means being aware of how live data changes, the data needs of users, and how it relates to your data reporting. Here are some of my favourite resources for data management and database information:

• CIP Codes: The Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) taxonomy is essential for tracking and reporting educational information. The US Department of Education provides a discoverable interface for code lookup via search or browsing. It is essential when looking at some reporting requirements.

• Stack Overflow: Described as "an online community for anyone that codes", this knowledge-sharing website is aimed at more mainstream developers. It has interesting information for anyone looking for SQL coding information or even Excel tricks.

• Toolbox: A combination of news and knowledge-sharing, Toolbox is aimed at IT professionals. It has information on enterprise software and also allows users to share coding samples.

• Future U Podcast: This is a weekly podcast that looks at the future of higher education. It provides information on changes within higher education from different thought leaders, which provides a good overview of the changes in this space.

For fun:

• The Sweet Setup: This is a blog for those interested in iOS and Mac software. It constantly reviews and provides information on the best software within several categories, and advice on being productive. As someone who is perennially looking out for the best to-do app and trying to be as efficient as possible, this is a great resource.

An article in Jinfo I found particularly interesting:

• Our users are often unaware of the data we possess, or the tools we have to access the data, so I found the article, "Representing a Centre of Excellence online" by Steve Bynghall insightful. In the article, Steve provides a blueprint for outreach efforts, how to change stakeholders' perception of your work, and also some next steps to begin the change-management process. This is useful as we try to increase our user outreach and improve service offerings. If you manage any sort of information repository and work with outside users, I recommend checking out this article.

Contribute your "My Favourite Tipples"

Would you like to share your "My Favourite Tipples" with the Jinfo audience? For contributor guidelines email catherine.dhanjal@jinfo.com or visit the Publish with Jinfo page.

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