2024 NCAIR Conference | North Carolina Association for Institutional Research

Theme: Institutional Innovation

Where: Benton Convention Center and connecting Winston-Salem Marriott

When: April 7-9, 2024. Click this link to see the Agenda at a Glance for each day which may be useful for travel purposes.

Costs: The negotiated room rate is $179 per night in the Winston-Salem Marriott; click link to view rooms or book at the group rate. The conference fee is $300 (or $150 for full-time students), which includes some meals as listed on the Agenda at a Glance.

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Keynote Speaker Announced! Haya Ajjan

Title of her talk: What ChatGPT’s Capabilities Mean for Institutional Research

Haya Ajjan is co-leading the Generative AI implementation team at Elon University in North Carolina. She is professor of management information systems, associate dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, and the Sheldon and Christine Gordon Professor in Entrepreneurship. Ajjan joined Elon in 2010 and teaches data analytics courses. She was named one of the “Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors” in the United States by Poets & Quants. Her research focuses on better understanding the impact of technology use on individuals, groups and organizations and has been published in journals like Journal of Business Research and Journal of Enterprise Information Management. Ajjan is also a co-author on the Essentials of Marketing Analytics 2nd edition, McGraw Hill 2024, and Analytics in Sales, Sage 2024. During her tenure at Elon, she has served as the president’s Faculty Administrative Fellow, and founded the Center for Organizational Analytics and Elon NEXT for professional advancement.

Conference Workshops and Concurrent Sessions

Note: the Pre-conference Workshops on April 7 require separate registration. A link to register follows the description of each below.

Volunteer at the Conference by Facilitating Sessions

Planning to attend one of the sessions, and willing to support the conference and association? Please volunteer to facilitate one or more sessions, or conference registration. The time commitment for each is minimal. Please sign up for one more more slots using the form at this link.

NCAIR Annual Association Business Meeting

Immediately following the last session on April 9th, NCAIR’s Executive Committee will convene its annual business meeting, from 11:30 to 12:30. Please plan to attend! It will include an update on the state of the association, election of new officers, and prizes which you have to be present to win.

Detailed Session Abstracts

You can view all session details including speakers and abstracts by clicking this link. You can also download it to Excel to filter and print it, or to PDF to view or print it.

Pre-Conference Workshops – free to registered attendees

CANCELED DUE TO LACK OF PARTICIPATION: IPEDS Workshop: IPEDS Data as the Public Face of an Institution, April 7 from 8:30-Noon

CANCELED DUE TO LACK OF PARTICIPATION: IPEDS Workshop: IPEDS Data Tools, April 7 from 1:00-4:30

UNC System Workshop & Working Session, April 7, 8:30-Noon (no cost; please register)

All users of the UNC System Data Mart are encouraged to attend this user group meeting hosted by the System Office. Share practices, hear updates, and build skills in this workshop and working session. Current and future plans for the UNC data marts: student data (SDM), human resource (HRDM) and finance data (FDM) will be discussed, along with the Insight analytics platform.

Topics will include:

Future plans and roadmaps, including anticipated features and enhancements.
Open forum/roundtable discussion — including suggestions for improvements or future capabilities for the roadmaps.
A discussion on UNC System Office policy initiatives.
We want to hear from you about campus initiatives relating to
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data governance
- How campuses respond to data requests from internal and external researchers and when you say no.
- How is your campus using human resources, finance data, and our other data systems such as Academic Program Inventory (API) and facilities (DAVE)
- Fostering communities of practice
Open discussion and other topics of interest.

Note: While this is free and open to any, please complete this registration form (click this link) in advance to help us understand who is planning to attend, and your areas of interest.

Workshop: Introduction to Power BI, April 7, 1:00-4:30 (no cost; please register separately)

Rhonda Belton from Elon University and Pete Benbow from Davidson College will provide an entry-level master class on Microsoft Power BI. From the basic principles of how the platform works to the best practices that you need to know as a Power BI developer, this workshop aims to educate you by providing practical examples of real-world Power BI projects in higher education. We will discuss how to connect to the myriad of data sources Power BI can use and demonstrate different techniques for preparing, modeling, and visualizing your data. We’ll also look at Power BI’s home in the cloud so you can see how to organize and share your data with your teammates and other users at your institution. This is a fantastic introduction for data professionals who are early in their Power BI journey and who want to learn fundamentals, tips, and tricks from seasoned experts who are based right here in the Tarheel State.

Note: Although free, please register separately for this session — click this link, then complete and submit the form.

Sponsorship Opportunities are Available

Vendors who appeal to institutional research, assessment, or planning professionals or their IT colleagues who support them, please consider sponsoring the conference. More information is available at this link.