A Data Strategy Built One Phase at a Time

Arkansas State University (A-State) serves more than 18,500 students, and half of them study online. Many are the first in their families to attend college, and the university pairs big-school opportunity with the personal support those students need to finish.

That mission puts a hard question in front of campus IT and institutional research: how do you spot the students who are struggling early enough to help? For CIO Chris Boothman, the answer starts with data the whole campus can trust. A-State is building that foundation with Scaffold DataX from K16 Solutions, one phase at a time.

A-State's work with K16 started well before DataX. When the university moved its video library to Kaltura, K16 updated every media link in its Blackboard courses to point to the new platform with Scaffold Content Replace. K16 then ran A-State's move from Blackboard to Canvas through Scaffold Migration, followed by course archiving with Scaffold Archiving.

Each project gave A-State a reason to trust K16 with the next one.

“Working with K16 felt like working with an extension of our internal team. It never felt like a client-vendor relationship.”

— Chris Boothman, Chief Information Officer, Arkansas State University

Before DataX, the numbers a dean or department chair received depended on which office they asked. IT, institutional research, the registrar, and financial aid could each pull the same request and return different results. Each request required manual effort and relied on the few staff who knew how each data point was defined.

Without shared data definitions, leaders had no easy way to tell which number was right. And with retention and graduation rates below where leadership wanted them, A-State needed a faster, more reliable way to see which students were at risk.

“End users could go to IT, IR, or a functional office like the registrar or financial aid and get data from all three. The problem is that the data would probably be different in all three cases.”

— Chris Boothman, Arkansas State University

A-State started with a proof-of-concept pilot focused on retention. DataX combined Banner student records with Canvas activity data into a single, neutral data model, giving staff one place to flag at-risk students and intervene sooner.

A second use case surfaced during the pilot. Arkansas State University System President Todd Shields and the Board of Trustees wanted consistent, timely access to key financial metrics for the flagship campus and the other institutions in the ASU System. K16 adapted a blueprint it had built for the University of Louisiana System to give leaders a common source for measures such as days of cash on hand and reserve ratios.

The pilot also showed where the work could go next. Adding financial aid data to the Banner and Canvas records could help A-State gauge a student's risk before the first day of class, then track that student's Canvas engagement as the term unfolds.

For Phase 2, A-State signed a multiyear agreement to put DataX into production for Canvas backup and continuity. A campus-wide outage earlier this year made the case.

“When your whole campus goes down during finals week, it changes the conversation. I was able to say, ‘We already have a solution that can help us build a sustainable framework and ensure we have coverage if a future outage occurs.”

— Chris Boothman, Arkansas State University

Boothman sees the Canvas data as more than insurance. With 9,000 online students working in Canvas every day, his team plans to spend the next several months building student success blueprints from Canvas data alone, in support of A-State's retention and graduation goals.

A-State is two phases into a longer roadmap, and each phase has set up the next:

• Proof that one model works. The Phase 1 pilot showed Banner records and Canvas activity can live in a single data model, replacing manual pulls that produced different answers across offices.
• A shared financial view for the ASU System. A blueprint adapted from the University of Louisiana System work is designed to give System leadership and the Board a common source for metrics like days of cash on hand and reserve ratios.
• Continuity coverage in production. Canvas data now lives in DataX under a multiyear agreement, so A-State has a plan in place if Canvas goes down again.
• Student success blueprints underway. The same Canvas data is the starting point for retention work aimed at A-State's 9,000 online students.

A-State is considering a third phase for early 2027 that would connect Banner, Canvas, and Slate data in production, with sources such as SAP Concur and Raiser's Edge to follow. Plans include using DataX for institutional, state, and federal reporting.

Boothman wants the whole university to own that decision.

“The goal is for this to be an institutional decision, with stakeholders across the university having a voice in the process. We want this next phase to reflect collaboration and shared ownership as we determine the best path forward.”

— Chris Boothman, Arkansas State University

Arkansas State's partnership with K16 Solutions shows how a series of focused projects can add up to an institution-wide data strategy. The retention pilot proved the value of having Banner and Canvas data in one place, and the finals-week outage turned that Canvas data into production continuity coverage. The phase under consideration would add Slate and other campus systems to the same foundation. Each step moves A-State closer to the goal that started it: finding the students who need help early enough to make a difference.

To learn more, visit k16solutions.com