Project for the development of a higher education management dashboard in R

Abstract

Dashboards are information management tools , for monitoring and analysing of different organization’s behaviour. The purpose of management Dashboards is to observe, identify and solve problems and to justify patterns with monitoring the key performance indicators. T he Dashboards are not just reporting tools , they are interactive communication tools with meaning and purpose. They can analyse big amount of data and return as a result complete storyline of information letting the audience to understand how an organizati on works. Thus, this Master Thesis aims to identify and analytically examine the key features, purposes, uses, and benefits of performance dashboards and to develop a Higher Education Management Dashboard in R for the needs of MASTEAM Master of the Polyte chnic University of Catalonia ( UPC ) . The Thesis is highlighting the methodology and the designing rules for creating dashboards and taking the full pote ntial and benefits of them. Based on them, in the Thesis is implemented a real education management Das hboard in R programing language . The fundamental rules are used for the implementation of the MASTEAM Master Dashboard . The Dashboard will include the most important features and information about the MASTEAM, which are pointed from the coordinator of the MASTEAM through an interview . T he main goal is to give the coordinator the ability to observe and analyse the behaviour of significant areas in the Master. For instance , some of the areas are the enrolment status, student’s information, grades, courses, graduated rates, etc. Finally, the results of the programing part will demonstrate the last version of the MASTEAM Dashboard web page that can be used from the coordinator . He can monitor the behaviour of the Maste r and take necessary decisions . A ccordin g to the visualised data, the maintenance of the good condition of the existing Master is also possible .