We received a call recently from Raul Matos, head of the Arlington Adult Education program, asking for help with exporting to Excel. Raul explained that he was trying to generate an Excel file to give him a special LERN, "Black Box," report. After getting some background information, we suggested that rather than hassle with exporting data and manually manipulating the formulas, that we build the report DIRECTLY in Student Manager, so, voila!!! The LERN Black Box Report.
When you import it, it will load into your "Deadbeat Report" area, and the name of the report is, "LERN Black Box."
Some Notes: This assumes that you use a, "normal," Student Manager year and term coding, with the first 2 characters of the course code the YEAR, and the 3rd character the Term (ie: 16FACE101, 16WACE101). It will group all courses by the catalog code (so all similar courses are grouped together by term), and uses the instructor pay total for the "direct cost". The, "revenue needed," is the Instructor Pay/Direct Cost multiplied by a constant. That is your desired operating margin. The default report uses a factor of 1.4 (ie: 40% operating margin). If you want to use a different constant, just modify the report and change it. Then the last column represents the actual operating margin.
One of the purposes of this report is to give you a way to evaluate performance of course categories (ie: Cooking courses v.s. Computer Courses, etc.). It also gives you a baseline to use as am estimate for the upcoming year (i.e., what level of enrollments can I expect from group xxx?). However, do note that Student Manager already has a number of built-in statistical reports that can help you evaluate course performance.
Two report areas that I'd point you to:
- Statistics/ Course / Course Data Summary: In the "Demographic Statistics Based on:" slot, pick Subject Code, and check [ ] Summary Report and [ ] Include Cancelled. Then for the query, pull a year's worth of courses (either course begin date between two dates, or Course Number Begins with). Typically you would use the default report. That gives you a comparison by Course Subject (a broader grouping of courses).
- Statistics/Course/Course Data Summary: This time, you'll pick the "Additional Report". So, same as above, in the "Demographic Statistics Based on:" slot, pick Subject Code, and check [ ] Summary Report and [ ] Include Cancelled, AND then choose ( ) Additional Report. Then for the query, pull a year's worth of courses (either course begin date between two dates, or Course Number Begins with). When you get to select the "Additional Report", pick: "Course Summary by Month". The value of this report is that it gives you a time reference to analyze course attendance (see the % age capacity). That is your "Butts in Seats" number. So you can evaluate general performance, and make decisions about course scheduling frequency.
If you have questions, about the use of the Black Box report, feel free to
email me.
Submitted by Chuck Havlicek