Indiana University’s Bloomington Assessment and Research (BAR) was given the Charles F. Elton Best Paper Award by the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). AIR is a global association that promotes the use of institutional data, analytics, and evidence to make decisions that benefit students and improve higher education. This award promotes scholarly research and recognizes the significant contributions to the fields of Institutional Research (IR), Instutional Effectiveness (IE), or Assessment.
BAR won the award for the research conducted on enrollment planning for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To be eligible for this award, scholarly papers must meet a wide range of criteria, including publication or acceptance in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and an active membership with AIR. In addition, the paper must include research questions, methodologies, literature reviews, and findings. The stringent criteria for this competitive award makes being chosen for it very meaningful to BAR.
Linda Shepard, BAR’s director said, "I'm thrilled for our team. They are an incredibly innovative, talented group of individuals, and have been on the cutting edge of using analytics to solve complex problems and ensure the safety of everyone at IU. It is an honor to receive this recognition and award."
BAR supports the IU community by using institutional data, research and analytics, to respond to the different needs of IU Bloomington’s campus. This award was given to BAR for the work it did early on in the pandemic. The researchers applied a network analysis to course enrollment data and offered proposals to administrators on how to reduce points of contact between students attending in-person classes on campus. This work allowed IU to bring students back to campus safely, keeping them connected to the campus community and resources, while minimizing the risk of spreading COVID-19 on campus.
The Bloomington Assessment and Research office supports faculty, programs, campus initiatives, and the student experience by providing data, research and analyses for decision support. To learn more or get involved with BAR, visit https://bar.indiana.edu/about/contact-us.html.