Recent Blogs

Integrating Tech Through Peer Coaching

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 4 days ago
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Peer coaching is gaining momentum as a powerful tool for professional development and technology integration, especially in environments where teams want learning to be relevant, practical, and immediately impactful (Knowles et al., 2014; Robbins, 2015). Rather than relying on external trainers, peer coaching leverages in-house expertise, empowering colleagues to guide and support each other in solving real challenges and adapting to technological change (Robbins, 2015; Mattox, 2017). This article explores a scaffolded peer coaching approach based on a real example. Over six weeks, the coaching process centered on improving file management using Microsoft ...
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From Queries to Conversations: Humanizing Data Analysis in Higher Ed

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 11 days ago
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Inspired by Alex Green and the HEUG community Just yesterday, I found myself deep in conversation with my HEUG friend, @Alexandra Green , about the intersections of analytics, human relationships, and the daily grind inside PeopleSoft, Tableau, Power BI, BI Publisher, and Artificial Intelligence. Our takeaway? The best data work starts with people—not platforms. This post unpacks the five most common traps analysts fall into, and what to do about them, based on years of creating and reviewing reports across campuses and institutions. 1) Start with the Question, Not the Tool It’s easy to get excited by Tableau’s latest feature or a slick Power ...
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Learn more about Connected Query and BI Publisher at this year's Alliance!

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 15 days ago
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When it comes to delivering dynamic reports in PeopleSoft, PS Connected Query and BI Publisher are the ultimate power couple. Connected Query ties multiple queries together, streamlining data extraction across related records. This means less manual setup, fewer data joins to manage, and a smoother path to rich, reliable reporting. Here is the main point: You can create a set of linked, simple queries to collect data from multiple tables instead of creating a complicated query with multiple equal, outer joins, and grouping conditions. A single row of data from a parent query results in a set of rows in a child query. This data is processed row by row and ...
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Navigating Mixed Reactions: How Higher Ed Analysts Can Learn From Data Visualization Feedback

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 24 days ago
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Let’s be honest—getting a mix of feedback on a data visualization can feel like running a full emotional marathon. Some colleagues are delighted by the dashboards, saying things like, “The visualizations were really effective and helped me understand,” while others crave more familiar ground, hoping for tables or feeling lost in less user-friendly platforms. All these responses, positive and critical, are valuable signals for our work as data and business analysts in higher ed. Now, when negative feedback rolls in (“I don't like looking at graphs and am more of a numbers person”), it stings a little—but this is actually where the real growth happens. Research ...
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Did You Know? How Term Activation Impacts Student Records and Student Financials

By Caitlin Haswell posted 11-05-2025
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Welcome to the first installment of “Did You Know?” brought to you by the members of the Student Records Advisory Group. I'm Caitlin Haswell, Senior Assistant Director of Enrollment Services at The Catholic University of America, and I’ll be discussing how term activation impacts the Student Records and Student Financials modules. You might be wondering why a Student Records Advisory Group member is talking about student financials. My institution merged the Registrar and Student Accounts offices. My role in our Enrollment Services Office bridges both modules and has given me insight into how closely linked they are. (Note: For anyone less familiar ...
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Got Viz? From Sketch to Screen to Share

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 10-30-2025
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As a data professional in Higher Ed, I’m constantly inspired by the incredible work that colleagues across units—like the Registrar, Institutional Research, Student Affairs, and Alumni offices—are doing. Whether using Tableau, Power BI, Cognos, Oracle Analytics, or even MS Excel, there's a vast array of visualizations that showcase the creative potential of data. These works, often shared on platforms like Tableau Public, inspire me to think more about the process that goes into creating these visualizations and how sharing them helps us grow as a community. But, beyond the digital dashboards we create for work, there's an equally important process that ...
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2 Days To Go! Manchester Here We Come

By Tracey Einig Jones posted 10-27-2025
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Hi and welcome to our HEUG Europe Blog series to bring you all the action direct from HEUG Europe 2025 from Manchester, as we welcome colleagues from across the globe to the UK. The attendance planning is well underway, I've downloaded the HEUG App and had an initial browse through the many interesting presentations available. There will 35 sessions, presented by 35 brilliant people covering a multitude of topics from AI through to Transfer Credit and literally everything in between. HEUG Europe is a special conference and I can't wait to catch up with colleagues and friends and we (Sandra from the University of Nottingham and I) will blog as much as we can ...
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Refreshing Peoplesoft lower environments from Production using Oracle GoldenGate

By Jeffrey Fineberg posted 10-24-2025
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Hello All, We were wondering if anyone is using Golden Gate for keeping lower environments in synch with Production? It seems to be an interesting option for having near real-time data in lower environments and could be an interesting alternative to the complex refresh process we currently use. If you are using this, do you have any advice and lessons learned using this method? Thank you, Jeff ------------------------------ Jeffrey Fineberg Database Analyst University At Buffalo ------------------------------
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Meet the 2025 - 2027 GT eForms Advisory Group Leadership

By Leigh Ann Drevs posted 10-22-2025
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We are excited to introduce you to the GT eForms Advisory Group Leadership Team Clicking on the name will take you to their HEUG profile! Hannah Liu Professional Background Business Analyst, Concordia University, 10 years in higher education Admissions, Campus Community, PeopleUX, GT eForms GT eForms Background Since 2022 Campus Solutions Moving 5 major student request paper forms to digital format with augmented routing. Advisory Group Background I learned a lot from the people in the GT forum and I really like the group! Welcome new institutions who are onboarding GT eForms, create connections ...
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Building Stronger Relationships Through Feedback: A Guide for all Data People

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 10-15-2025
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A Real Feedback Scenario Negative feedback is a reality in higher education, but when approached with positivity and professionalism, it can transform working relationships and create new opportunities for growth and partnership. Have you ever received negative feedback from a colleague, faculty member, or administrator and didn't know how to react? Let me paint a scenario for you: A faculty member contacts you regarding delays, incomplete data, and struggles they face related to data requests required by their Department Head. The faculty expresses frustration at having to do manual work while waiting for additional data—specifically the “quality statistics ...
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A Day in the Life: Coaching a New Data Analyst

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 10-08-2025
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Imagine Maria, a brand-new data analyst at a university’s Institutional Research office. She’s excited but overwhelmed by the variety of tools—PS Query Manager, R, Python, SQL, Power BI, Tableau—and unsure how to fit them into her daily work. To make things easier, Maria’s team launches a structured coaching plan rooted in adult learning theory. On her first week , Maria sits down with her coach, Sam. Instead of jumping straight into technical lessons, Sam asks about the data challenges Maria faces. Together, they pinpoint that cleaning large enrollment datasets is her biggest pain point. They create a SMART goal : “By the end of month ...
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October Spotlight: Campus Student Financial Support (CSFS) Group

By Kristen McRoberts posted 10-02-2025
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October Spotlight: Campus Student Financial Support (CSFS) Group October is CSFS Group Spotlight Month, and we’re excited to showcase a full lineup of opportunities designed to learn, connect, and collaborate. This is your chance to share knowledge, tackle challenges, and strengthen our community across institutions. Don’t miss out—get registered today and join us in celebrating the CSFS community! 🌟 Alternative/Private Loan Processing Educational Series with Jessica Holler Join Jessica Holler as she walks us through the ins and outs of Alternative/Private Loan Processing—leading up to a collaborative community discussion where ...
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Compassion Meets AI Innovation: A Lesson from Breast Cancer Awareness Month

By Casey Hickman posted 10-02-2025
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Every pink ribbon represents more than awareness . I t represents a mother, sister, daughter, or friend whose life has been touched by breast cancer. Behind every statistic is a human story of survival, loss, and hope. According to the American Cancer Society , about 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. Early detection through screening and self-awareness is key to improving survival rates, and organizations across the country are working tirelessly to spread that message. Technology is playing a bigger role than ever before. AI-driven diagnostics are improving ...
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Turning Training Feedback Into Fuel

By Anna Kourouniotis posted 09-26-2025
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This article was originally published on the author’s LinkedIn page. On July 29, I taught a new course at a new venue, the College Business Management Institute (CBMI): Data-Driven Storytelling: Creating Engaging and Informative Presentations. Every time I teach, I remind myself: feedback is data . It tells me what landed, what fell flat, and where future iterations need to go. This round was no different. Here’s a snapshot of what participants shared: 🌟 The Super Positives: "Instructor was excellent and extremely knowledgeable." "Awesome class — I’d take it again." "Anna was great! The VISTA modeling was extremely helpful." ...
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Data Mapping Documents

By Sandra Asebedo posted 09-25-2025
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Data Mapping September 25, 2025 Sandra Asebedo UT Arlington COP- Connected Campus Definition from Wikipedia: “Data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models.” When receiving a new request for a custom report or interface, I prefer to have a functional specification with the record and field to pull the data from and where it should go in the custom interface or report. If the functional user does not have the record and field name where the data is stored, I ask for a screenshot of the PeopleSoft page that includes navigation and the field highlighted that they want to put in the report or custom ...
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Data Mapping

By Sandra Asebedo posted 09-25-2025
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Data Mapping September 25, 2025 Sandra Asebedo UT Arlington COP- Connected Campus Definition from Wikipedia: “Data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models.” When receiving a new request for a custom report or interface, I prefer to have a functional specification with the record and field to pull the data from and where it should go in the custom interface or report. If the functional user does not have the record and field name where the data is stored, I ask for a screenshot of the PeopleSoft page that includes navigation and the field highlighted that they want to put in the report or custom ...
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GPAM Blog Series - #3 – Global Payroll and Absence Management

By Dan Webb posted 09-24-2025
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This is one of the more exciting posts and I am glad to be able to share this with you! Compensatory Time in Absence Management concept The University of Texas System has conceptualized a successful prototype and method of generating Comp Time balances in Oracle PeopleSoft’s Absence Management module. This is exciting because businesses often cannot fathom the loss of a leave type that is accrued in another module that is not available for use with a complete cascading model in Global Payroll. Most public sector employers have some sort of Compensatory Time that needs to be awarded and used like all other leave types – except this leave is being accrued ...
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The Student is the Customer: Adopting a Learner-Centric Approach

By Houssein Saadeh posted 09-21-2025
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Blog Series: Product Management for Higher Education – Bridging Technology and Academia Post#2 The Student is the Customer: Adopting a Learner-Centric Approach For decades, universities focused on programs, policies, and operations first — students came second. But in today’s competitive education landscape, students are not just learners; they are customers. Why This Shift Matters More choices than ever → Students can choose between traditional universities, online degrees, bootcamps, or micro-credentials. High expectations → They compare campus apps and portals to Netflix, Uber, or Duolingo. Greater accountability → Institutions ...
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Solidan's PeopleSoft Office Hours

By Jessica Owens posted 09-18-2025
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Got PeopleSoft questions? We’ve got answers. Join us for Solidan’s PeopleSoft Office Hours — a relaxed, drop-in session where advisors, staff, and faculty working in Campus Solutions can connect, ask questions, and get help from experts who get it . No agenda. Just real talk and real support. Wednesdays | 9–10 AM EST Sign up here: https://slate.solidan.net/register/PeopleSoftOfficeHours We’d love to see you there! #PeopleSoft #CampusSolutions #OfficeHours #HigherEdSupport #Solidan #AskUsAnything #EdTechHelp
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