Survey Glossary (Analytics Services/CDS 2023)

You can view definitions by hovering over underlined key terms within the online survey, or you can view all terms at once in the list below.

• Academic technology and support (IT service)

  Ensuring that physical classrooms, specialized learning environments, and virtual learning environments (e.g., immersive learning, augmented reality) are suitably equipped and functional to meet the needs of the education experience.

• Academic early alert

  System to identify students at academic risk within a course based on defined risk factors. May also involve communication of risk status to students and other appropriate parties and intervention tracking and management.

• Access or leaf network layer

  Wired network switches closest to wired network access or edge, where compute devices such as desktop computers are connected.

• Administrative and business (IT service category)

  Services that support the administrative and business functions of an institution. Includes business capability and process automation, financial and procurement systems, human resource systems, library systems, and student information systems.

• Administrative unit

  The system or central office in a multi-campus organization.

• Advising case management

  System for capturing advising information and advice received by a student over time and across different interactions and advising sources, such as course recommendations or comments/notes.

• Advising customer relationship management (CRM)

  A technology that allows higher education institutions to manage their interactions with students throughout the advising process.

• Alumni and advancement (IT service)

  Alumni portals and offerings that support university and college advancement and development.

• Alumni or advancement office (functional unit)

  An administrative unit that manages activities related to alumni engagement and/or donor relations.

• Application Programmer Analyst

  Develops, supports, maintains, and tests software applications for business units. Designs, develops, and implements various business-related applications. Conducts case studies to determine required functionalities.

• Artificial intelligence expenditures

  Includes expenditures for the integration of AI capabilities or products (for example: natural language processing [NLP], cognitive systems, and analytics) into applications, systems, or bots.

• Assessment systems and learning analytics (IT service)

  Support for assessing learning outcomes and learning analytics.

• Athletics (IT service)

  Athletics administration, recruiting, procurement, and ticketing systems.

• Athletics department (functional unit)

  An administrative unit that manages the university's athletic teams, staff, and resources.

• Audio/Visual Technician

  Supports audio/visual equipment in a vast range of venues e.g., huddle spaces, conference rooms, classrooms, multi-purpose event locations, and auditoriums. Transports, sets up, installs, configures, operates, maintains, and troubleshoots audio/visual equipment and support tools.

• Automatic call distributor (ACD)

  A specialized telephone system that automatically distributes calls to available agents throughout an institution (e.g., admissions, athletics ticketing, IT help desk, etc.)

• Auxiliary systems (IT service)

  Support for auxiliary or ancillary campus systems, activities, and operation. Might include legal management, childcare, mail services, recreation services, art collections, etc.

• Business Analyst

  Responsible for creating, enhancing, and documenting maintainable analytical solutions in solving strategic problems for a business unit, department, or school. May lead or assist in gathering stakeholder requirements, translating those requirements to technical solutions and providing support for application enhancements and products. May work with outside vendors in developing solutions. Collaborates with stakeholders in communicating solutions and iterating on project efficacy.

• Business capability and process automation (IT service)

  Practices, frameworks, and technologies that automate, improve efficiencies, and measure the effectiveness of business processes. Includes IT service management; ticket management; operations, business, sales, and marketing management platforms; document and signature management services; customer relationship management; job scheduling; and workflow management.

• Business continuity and disaster recovery (IT service)

  Business continuity consulting and planning, as well as disaster recovery planning, including disaster recovery exercises and execution.

• Business Intelligence Specialist

  Strategically designs and implements BI software, systems, and analytics, including integration with databases and data warehouses. Selects, blueprints, gathers requirements, designs, and rolls out BI solutions to end users. Maintains existing BI capability through support functions and in-depth testing.

• Campus site

  A campus site refers to a non-temporary physical location or campus associated with a single educational institution. Campus sites may be academic or administrative in nature and are considered distinct if they are physically located beyond a reasonable pedestrian commuting distance (e.g., five or more miles apart).

• Center for teaching and learning (functional unit)

  A unit dedicated to providing resources and assistance for faculty and other instructors at the institution.

• Central IT

  The centralized IT services and support organization reporting to the highest-ranking IT administrator/officer in the institution.

• Central IT capital expenditures

  Expenditures to buy, install, maintain, or improve an institution's information technology fixed assets, such as equipment or systems (including cloud-based systems or offsite server space). Generally, these assets exceed an established "capitalization" dollar threshold and are expected to provide service for more than one year.

• Central IT capital expenditures

  Expenditures to buy, install, maintain, or improve an institution's information technology fixed assets, such as equipment or systems (including cloud-based systems or offsite server space). Generally, these assets exceed an established "capitalization" dollar threshold and are expected to provide service for more than one year.

• Central IT functional responsibility

  The institutional units or departments for which central IT is responsible for their functioning. By "functional responsibility," we mean that central IT does more than provide IT services to those units. For example, at some institutions, central IT primarily funds, organizes, staffs, and delivers services for the university library.

• Central IT one-time expenditures

  Expenditures for services, activities, or things that are not expected to re-occur on a regular basis and do not fall under the institution’s typical operations (central IT operating spending) or capital expenditures. (Expenditures of this type include unforeseen spending that was not necessarily budgeted. For example, COVID-19- specific spending or spending using grant funding for COVID-19- related expenditures.)

• Central IT operating expenditures

  Expenditures for providing regular, ongoing infrastructure and services necessary for the operation of the institution (e.g., annual software contracts, utility payments, maintenance agreements, supplies, vendor payments, and other expenditures for daily activities to keep central IT running).

• Central IT services

  End-to-end IT services that deliver value to customers, typically not identified by specific product or application names. A service combines people, processes, and technology to provide outputs or results that enable business capabilities or an end user's work activities and desired outcomes.

• Central office

  In multicampus university or college systems or community college districts, the central office is a central administrative unit headed by the chief executive officers of the system or district. Most central offices include a central IT organization, which sometimes provides a wide range of services to individual campuses and sometimes focuses on coordinating the activities of IT organizations on the campuses.

• Chat

  A technology that enables text or multimedia communication over the internet.

• Cloud-based services expenditures

  Includes expenditures for storage, compute, networking, security, and other monitoring services provided via a public cloud tenancy (examples include, but are not limited to, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform). Does not include SaaS expenditures outside of a public cloud tenancy.

• Communication and collaboration (IT service category)

  Services that facilitate institutional communication and collaboration needs. Includes conferencing and telephones, email and collaboration services, media and audio/visual, and web services (including both internet and intranet web services).

• Conferencing and telephones (IT service)

  Telephony, including voice/VoIP, teleconferencing, and web conferencing hosted either in cloud or on-premises.

• Consortia

  Membership-based groups of institutions defined by a common characteristic or interest.

• Continuous improvement and innovation (IT service)

  Consulting unrelated to a specific technology service, such as business process streamlining, business relationship management, and business analysis.

• Core or spine network layer

  Technology that handles central switching at the backbone of a wired network.

• Credit transfer and articulation

  Provides information about the transferability of a student's earned or potential course credits from one institution to other institutions.

• Data Analyst

  Performs analytical and reporting responsibilities for unit, cross-functional, or institutional data. Projects may include building dashboards or reporting systems for end users, performing ad-hoc analyses, reporting to inform decision-making, and designing predictive modeling or other data-mining capabilities.

• Data center services (IT service)

  Strategy, planning, architecture, and operation of physical and virtual data centers, including on-premises, remote, and cloud-based data centers.

• Data, reporting, and analytics (IT service)

  Business intelligence platforms, data warehouses, dashboards, analytics tools, transactional reporting, operational data stores, and data governance when offered as a service.

• Data Scientist

  Responsible for analyzing complex data and providing data-driven advice for the unit. Manages statistical data and creates predictive models based on the unit's needs. Possesses advanced analytical skills, as well as oral and written communication abilities. Processes research information for easier consumption and transforms it into actionable plans. Provides value to the unit through findings and thoughtful insights.

• Database Administrator

  Maintains effective and efficient operation of a computer database. Ensures database runs properly, keeps database current, makes access readily available and timely, and formulates and designs new database applications. Makes decisions regarding procedures for set up of, access to, and operation of database. Refers decisions relating to major policy changes or the purchase of new software to the supervisor.

• Database Management (IT service)

  Hosting and administration of databases, physical and virtual.

• Degree of centralization

  A measure of the centralization of an institution's IT staff and resources based on the proportions of IT expenditures in central IT as compared to elsewhere in the institution.

• Deployed technology

  Full, production-quality technical capability, including ongoing maintenance, funding, etc., with access available to intended users.

• Desktop and mobile computing (IT service category)

  Services that support access and use of community members' devices and related peripherals. Includes desktop and mobile device support, printing and related services, and software and applications distribution.

• Desktop and mobile device support (IT service)

  Support for all types of end-point devices, including laptops, desktops, mobile devices, and related peripherals that are not in the printing service. These devices might be personally or institutionally owned (including loaner equipment) and might be part of a shared pool or a computer lab. Includes support for the associated operating system, hardware, and systems that provide enterprise management of computing devices.

• Desktop Support/IT Client Support Specialist

  Specific title will vary. Responsible for supporting, maintaining, monitoring, updating, troubleshooting, and repairing one or more of the following: computer systems (including servers and workstations), network components, software, and applications.

• Desktop video conferencing

  A technology that enables video communication between two or more people stationed at traditional office desktop locations versus a conference room with equipment other than a laptop computer.

• Digital accessibility (IT service)

  Assessing or enabling accessibility of academic software, enterprise applications, or electronic/digital resources. Might include accessibility reviews, defining standards, analysis, or end-user training/awareness.

• Distributed IT

  All staff with IT responsibilities who do not report to the CIO and all resources that are not within the CIO's purview (including decentralized IT). The CIO often has some level of authority and/or responsibility over the distributed IT services.

• E-portfolio management (IT service)

  Creating and managing e-portfolios, including the consumption or use of e-textbooks and other online self-curation.

• Education plan creation/tracking

  System for creating and monitoring a student's detailed, long-term educational plan, typically leading to degree or credential completion.

• Email and collaboration services (IT service)

  Electronic message, information sharing, productivity, and integrated collaboration suites used to facilitate interactions between individuals and work groups as they create, share, and exchange information. Includes services such as email, calendaring, productivity suites, file sharing, instant messaging tools, and web-based collaborative platforms used strictly for collaboration.

• Endpoint detection response (EDR)

  An integrated endpoint security solution that combines real-time continuous monitoring and collection of endpoint data with rules-based automated response and analysis capabilities.

• Endpoint detection and response expenditures

  Includes expenditures for technologies, products, or systems focused on detecting and investigating security threats by real-time monitoring of endpoint data.

• Exchange rate

  Because all financial data in CDS survey modules are in U.S. dollars, participants outside the United States are asked to provide the conversion rates from local currency to U.S. dollars.

• Facilities management (IT service)

  Support of room and facility systems, including event management (room management, hotel, concierge, seating, conference registration, etc.), mapping, building security, safety and risk management, dining systems, point of sale, transportation, laundry, and parking systems.

• Faculty information systems (IT service)

  Administration and maintenance of faculty administration, review, and promotion and tenure systems.

• Financial and procurement systems (IT service)

  Administration and management of financial services, procurement, travel, budget, vendor relations, and equipment purchasing systems.

• Firewall

  An application or an entire computer (e.g., an internet gateway server) that controls access to the network and monitors the flow of network traffic.

• Fixed-term employees

  Non-permanent staff working for the institution for a specified purpose and for a specified period of time (e.g., limited positions, temporary employees, one-time funding positions, labor for specific one-time projects, one-time staff supplementation).

• Full-time equivalent (FTE)

  A combination of full- and part-time personnel (or enrolled students) into a single measure as determined by formula. For non-student personnel counts in the CDS, please calculate FTE based on a 40-hour work week over the course of the full FY (or approximately 2,080 hours per year). For student employees, the following methods may be used to calculate this number: (1) If you know the total number of student worker hours allocated to central IT during the fiscal year, divide that number by 2,080 (number of hours/year based on a 40-hour work week), OR (2) If you know the total number of dollars used for student workers, divide that number by the average hourly wage and then divide the result by 2,080.

• Hardware lifecycle services (IT service)

  Purchasing consultation, hardware procurement, device refresh, leasing, and technology recycling.

• Help Desk Specialist

  Responsible for front-line support of institutional users of enterprise applications, desktops, networks, and information resources.

• HIPAA compliance status

  An institution's designation for adhering to HIPAA regulations.

• HIPAA covered entity

  A health care provider, health plan, or health care clearinghouse. When an institution provides health care to students in the normal course of business, such as through its health clinic, it is also a “health care provider” as defined by HIPAA. If an institution also conducts any covered transactions electronically in connection with that health care, it is then a covered entity under HIPAA. (see Covered Entities and Business Associates; Does FERPA or HIPAA apply to records on students at health clinics run by postsecondary institutions?)

• HIPAA hybrid entity

  A single legal entity that is a covered entity, whose business activities include both covered and non-covered functions, and that self-designates the health care components that it provides. Covered functions include functions that make the entity a health plan, health care provider who transmits any health information in electronic form, or health care clearinghouse under HIPAA. To qualify as a hybrid entity, an institution must properly distinguish and identify which functions within its purview are covered functions and which ones are not. The entity must then designate those covered functions with HHS to achieve hybrid entity status. (see Can a postsecondary institution be a "hybrid entity" under the HIPAA Privacy Rule?)

• Human resource systems (IT service)

  Administration and management of core human resource systems, including recruiting, position management, performance review, workforce development, and time and attendance. Might also include payroll and benefits administration systems.

• Identity and access management (IT service)

  Identity and access management, including accounts, authentication, access, and role-based provisioning at the enterprise level.

• Information desk (functional unit)

  A service that provides general support to the institutional community that may or may not provide IT help desk support.

• Information security (IT service category)

  Services that provide security, data integrity, and compliance for institutional activities. Includes identity and access management, security consulting and education, incident response and investigation, and security policy and compliance.

• IT Architect

  Administers the integration of the IT department’s various computer applications and provides direction for the IT architecture. Based on overall enterprise plans, proposes the architecture and integration for all infrastructure, including storage, servers, networking, data center, and various software-based systems.

• IT communications and documentation (IT service)

  Development and delivery of IT communications related to delivery of IT services. Might include communications related to system changes, service offerings, or service outages (planned or unplanned). Functionally, might include maintenance of support documentation and/or the service catalog.

• IT professional services (IT service category)

  People-based services that support the management of IT for the institution. Comprises consulting services not related to specific services identified in other categories. Includes enterprise architecture, continuous improvement and innovation, digital accessibility, IT communication and documentation, IT service delivery and support, portfolio and project management, and training and outreach.

• IT Project Manager

  Works with user departments, programmers, and programmer analysts to develop, monitor, and manage large-scale IT projects

• IT service delivery and support (IT service)

  Includes design and maintenance of the capabilities, tools, and service points needed to deliver IT services or provide end-user support. Includes service desks, call centers, and online support delivery. Might include concierge support or special event service delivery.

• IT strategy, governance, and enterprise architecture (IT service)

  Enterprise-level strategy and planning.

• Infrastructure (IT service category)

  Foundational services that support the operation and management of the enterprise IT environment. Includes data center services, database management, network and connectivity management, and server and storage management (including on-premise, remote, and cloud-based data centers).

• Institutional research (functional unit)

  An institutional unit whose work supports administrative decision-making and planning in areas including admissions, financial aid, student success, recruitment, institutional staffing and finances, and others.

• Instructional Designer

  Provides support to faculty, programs, and schools in the development and conversion of courses and programs to innovative online and other technology-assisted educational venues or face-to-face courses using cutting-edge and creative design and course delivery options. Responsibilities include analysis, design, development, and implementation of online courses, web-based training, and face-to-face training curricula; proactive consultation with subject-matter experts to identify and obtain training objectives and content; draft storyboards and mock-ups; and write and develop content as needed.

• Instructional technology and design (IT service)

  Ensuring that faculty and other course creators have the knowledge and assistance they need to optimize their effectiveness in using teaching and learning technologies, including e-text development and online course development.

• Instructional Technology Specialist

  Responsible for working with faculty to promote the effective use of IT in support of teaching and learning.

• Integration services (IT service)

  Consultation and integration services, when offered as a consolidated service.

• Lab management systems (IT service)

  Recording and tracking lab experiments, equipment, and specimens.

• Learning management (IT service)

  Offerings that relate to the management of academic course materials (e.g., videos, documents, spreadsheets) and that facilitate teaching and learning using online portals. Includes learning management systems and other learning platforms, as well as services that provide on-demand, usually modular skills-based learning to employees and/or students.

• Lecture capture (IT service)

  Recording, storing, editing, and publishing lectures.

• Library (functional unit)

  A library associated with an institution whose purposes include supporting student learning and research by university faculty, staff, and students.

• Library systems (IT service)

  Administration and management of systems that provide access to local and remote information in support of teaching, learning, and research. Includes acquisitions, catalog, circulation, serials, a public user interface, interlibrary loan, discovery tools, and infrastructure services specific to library systems.

• Mass communications and emergency notifications (IT service)

  One-way communications and emergency communications to the entire campus or other defined groups. Includes campus alert systems, broadcast email and text messaging, electronic newsletter distribution, enterprise mailing list management, and digital signage.

• Media and A/V (IT service)

  Broadcasting, live streaming, video recording, and media production. This area includes audiovisual-related event support.

• Medical and health systems (IT service)

  Systems and technologies in support of clinical processes, including health record management, pharmaceutical data, medical appointment scheduling, and residency placements.

• Medical center or hospital (functional unit)

  An institutional unit that provides hospital and/or medical services, is associated with the academic institution, and usually supports the institution's medical school through training and research.

• Monitoring and alert management (IT service)

  Monitoring of IT services, including the underpinning technologies.

• Multicampus system

  See system

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) expenditures

  Includes expenditures for electronic authentication methods in which a device user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism.

• Network and connectivity management (IT service)

  The architecture, installation, and operation of infrastructure items required to offer network connectivity, such as network cabling, routers, and firewalls. Includes connecting devices (including Internet of Things devices) to the network, network access management, securing access to networks, and appropriate authentication (e.g., network registration systems, VPN, and NAC).

• Network detection and reporting (NDR)

  A technology that primarily uses non-signature-based techniques (for example, machine learning or other analytical techniques) to detect suspicious traffic on enterprise networks. NDR tools continuously analyze raw traffic and/or flow records (for example, NetFlow) to build models that reflect normal network behavior. When the NDR tools detect suspicious traffic patterns, they raise alerts. In addition to monitoring north/south traffic that crosses the enterprise perimeter, NDR solutions can also monitor east/west communications by analyzing traffic from strategically placed network sensors. Response is also an important function of NDR solutions. Automatic responses (for example, sending commands to a firewall so that it drops suspicious traffic) or manual responses (for example, providing threat hunting and incident response tools) are common elements of NDR tools.

• Network distribution layer

  An intermediate layer of wired network switching between the access layer and the core layer.

• Outsourced/Outsourcing

  Refers to services purchased from external providers (i.e., what you pay someone else to do). Examples include externally provided help desk, data center, as well as associated one-time project costs and professional services.

• Password managers

  A technology that provides users with the means to reset their own passwords after an account lockout or when they forget their passwords. These tools can also synchronize passwords for users across multiple systems, allowing users to access multiple applications with the same password.

• Polling and surveys (IT service)

  Polling and survey offerings used to solicit feedback from a group of individuals for academic or business purposes. Includes application-based, online, and device-specific polling or survey systems.

• Portfolio and project management (IT service)

  Project portfolio management and related project management services.

• Printing and related services (IT service)

  Technology associated with printers and copiers, such as copy, scan, fax, and print. Includes supporting technologies such as copy centers, print quota systems, 3D printing, and other replicating technologies.

• Prior fiscal year

  The most recent fiscal year ending before September 1. In the United States, most higher education fiscal years end in May, June, or August; accounting practices vary internationally.

• Professional development expenditures

  Expenditures to support staff development and/or training through either formal coursework, conferences, or informal learning opportunities (including associated travel expenditures).

• Professional schools (functional unit)

  Academic degree-granting programs that prepare students for careers in specific fields, such as law, pharmacy, business, and others.

• Public switched telephone network (PSTN)

  A system that provides the infrastructure and services for public telecommunication.

• Research (IT service category)

  Services supporting the institution's research activities, including advanced or specialized storage and applications, research data services and software, and lab management systems.

• Research administration systems (IT service)

  Systems used to secure and facilitate research funding and compliance.

• Research data services (IT service)

  Support of the data life cycle, including data creation; discovery and collection; analysis and visualization; storage, backup, and transfer; and research data policy compliance.

• Research software (IT service)

  Software package management, research software development, research software optimization or troubleshooting, workflow engineering, containers and cloud computing, securing access to software, and software associated with physical specimens.

• Research support office (functional unit)

  An administrative unit that provides resources related to grants, research funding, and other administrative or operational support related to research activities at the institution.

• Research-specific computing and applications (IT service)

  Computing and storage resources that support research that uses specialized or highly intensive computation, storage, bandwidth, or graphics. Includes advanced or specialized applications, such as plotting, visualization, modeling, rendering, animation, graphics programming, and image manipulation.

• Security Compliance Specialist

  Reviews security standards risk assessment results for areas that may include one or more of the following: athletics, copyright and intellectual property, PCI, and protection of minors. Creates action plans to address issues, monitors performance of action plans, and elevates exceptions for resolution.

• Secure computing (IT service)

  Offerings that provide a secure computing environment for end users. Includes network security, system security, application security, and threat monitoring and management.

• Security consulting and education (IT service)

  Security assessment, education, and awareness of campus security requirements, policies, and guidelines. Includes contract reviews and risk assessments.

• Security incident response and investigation (IT service)

  Offerings that respond to, remediate, and seek to prevent security incidents and vulnerabilities.

• Security information and event management (SIEM)

  A technology that supports threat detection, compliance, and security incident management through the collection and analysis (both near real time and historical) of security events, as well as a wide variety of other event and contextual data sources.

• Security policy and compliance (IT service)

  Offerings relating to institutional policy or compliance guidelines and requirements. Includes support for audit processes.

• Server and storage management (IT service)

  Provisioning, hosting, and administration of physical and virtual servers and related storage. Includes the maintenance and provisioning of core storage capabilities such as server storage and database backups.

• Software and applications distribution (IT service)

  Distribution, installation, and troubleshooting of software and licenses via media, online methods, and license servers. Includes both cloud-based and desktop software.

• Student employee FTE

  See Full-time equivalent (FTE).

• Student information systems (IT service)

  Admissions, enrollment, registration, orientation, financial aid, student accounts and collections, advising, and career services systems.

• System

  An organization of two or more institutions of higher education under the control or supervision of a common administrative governing body. Governing bodies generally have the power to act in their own name, to hire and fire personnel, enter into contracts, etc. A coordinating body without these powers or a section of a state agency usually would not be considered a system office. (see IPEDS Glossary)

• Systems Administrator

  Installs, configures, monitors, upgrades, and maintains systems, including email, web servers, operating systems, and security tools. Monitors data integrity and system security.

• System institution

  A single institution within a multi-campus organization.

• System institution/administrative unit

  An institution of higher education within a multi-campus organization that also acts as the administrative unit for the multi-campus organization.

• Systems Programmer

  Analyzes, documents, installs, develops, and maintains operating system software. Provides technical support to users concerning system software and utilities.

• Teaching and learning (IT service category)

  Services providing instructional technology and resources directly supporting teaching and learning. Includes learning management systems, instructional technology and design, assessment and learning analytics, lecture capture, and polling and surveys.

• Training and outreach (IT service)

  Developing, delivering, or coordinating end-user technology training for applications and systems. Functionally, might include organizational change management and/or development and delivery of digital literacy campaigns.

• Underrepresented groups

  Refers to groups of the population that have historically held a smaller percentage of professional roles within a field or institution as compared to the percentage of that group in the overall population. Examples of the characteristics these groups are based on include, but are not limited to, race and/or ethnicity, sex and/or sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability status, and veteran status.

• Unified communications (telephone)

  A telephone system that unifies communication across multiple modalities.

• Virtual reality / augmented reality

  Includes expenditures for software, headsets, body tracking cameras, holographic projectors, and other controllers.

• Web services (IT service)

  Content management systems, portals, web hosting, web analytics, user experience design, and URL management. Also includes website and mobile application development.

• Wi-Fi analytics and monitoring

  Specialized tools that monitor the Wi-Fi network and traffic crossing the Wi-Fi network.

• Wireless access points

  A hardware device that enables wireless connectivity to a wired network.