Product News

Vol 9, Issue 2
April 14 , 2008

eCollege’s Enterprise Reporting Quickly Provides Data for Online Learning Success

New Reporting Tool Offers Deeper Insights into Online Learning Programs’ Daily Activity Trends

eCollege has launched an early access release of Enterprise Reporting—a powerful reporting suite that delivers extensive program information in an accessible, Web-based tool. Enterprise Reporting places student activity, course progress and a variety of online data at administrators’ fingertips.

“One of the inherent benefits of online education is that student and instructor activity can be measured,” said eCollege President Matthew Leavy. “We are continually working to give eCollege customers the very best tools and resources so they can make informed decisions to improve their online learning programs. With Enterprise Reporting, our customers have the ability to quickly gather up-to-date information about their online learning programs. Instant access to data across programs allows institutions to act on key-performance indicators that can improve learning and student success.”

To provide this robust reporting suite, eCollege has partnered with Cognos, an IBM company and the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions. Cognos’ proven software approach provides an adaptive analytics framework that eCollege has leveraged for Enterprise Reporting’s powerful trending and monitoring capabilities.

“Our partnership with eCollege is an exciting step forward into the fast-expanding online learning market. With a zero footprint and quick time to deployment, our IBM Cognos BI solutions are perfectly suited to empowering eCollege customers with the enterprise reporting and analysis they need to optimize program management,” said Ted Jandl, Vice-President of Global OEM Partners at Cognos.

Enterprise Reporting is the evolution of eCollege’s reporting strategy. It combines eCollege’s analytical, trending tool, Program Intelligence Manager, with the ability to monitor daily program information, such as course enrollments, student activity and grades. Institutions will use Enterprise Reporting to quickly create customized reports about their online learning programs.

Enterprise Reporting provides a flexible user interface in which users can drag and drop desired fields to execute ad-hoc reports. This reporting tool pools granular and historical course performance data, allowing users to monitor trends in daily occurrences.

The Enterprise Reporting package will allow institutions to identify at-risk students early and provide assistance to help them succeed. Enterprise Reporting gives eCollege customers the tools they need to make informed decisions that will improve learning throughout the institution, increasing student success and retention.

Enterprise Reporting will give institutions the ability to analyze data from a program-intelligence perspective. These capabilities allow administrators to make specific, measurable decisions for implementing strategic improvements to their online learning programs. These strategic improvement decisions offer increased program effectiveness and quicker return for the institution’s online education investment.

Highlights of the Enterprise Reporting tool include:

Advanced reporting capability that allows institutions to monitor key performance indicators on a daily basis
Analyzes historical data to determine key drivers of operational and program success
Flexible user interface with drag-and-drop capabilities for defining ad-hoc reports
Provides comparative reports of the institution’s online enrollments, activity and grades
Monitors student grade and activity levels, identifying at-risk students for follow-up action
Provides current seat counts to ensure optimal resource levels for targeted student retention
Efficient report creation for accreditation and regulatory compliance needs
Five eCollege customers will pilot the program, including Westwood College Online. eCollege will work closely with these institutions to evaluate their feedback and refine the tool before making it available for all clients. The final launch of Enterprise Reporting is targeted for 2008.

“Enterprise Reporting enables our customers to quickly and dynamically generate useful operational reports. They can pick and choose the desired data fields and filter on any parameter,” said Katy Kappler, Product Director of Administrative Solutions at eCollege. “Now, with this effective tool, administrators can run complex, aggregate reports quickly.”