2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: A Knowledge Graph to Share and Discover High-Impact Practices and Support Decision-Making

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 8

This work-in-progress paper describes a Student Success Knowledge Graph (SSKG) that provides the foundation for documenting a shared understanding of student success and effective practices and discovering sources and experts of such efforts. The initiative contributes to a larger effort to create a culture of equity-minded, knowledge-driven decision-making. Using a participatory process that involves faculty, researchers, and administrators across campus, the research team documents information and knowledge centered on high-impact practices, student resources, student opportunities, identity and belonging in STEM, and components of inclusive excellence. Such a process involves diverse stakeholders in co-creating and validating the content of the SSKG and identifying relevant data sources. Through navigation of the SSKG using the custom-built interface, faculty, and administrators can discover practices used by departments and experts, adopters and experts associated with those practices, and supporting literature that informs the practices. This work aims to assist in knowledge-driven decision-making as chairs, faculty, and administrators seek to improve student retention and advancement in academic programs. This paper describes the creation of the SSKG and the implementation process, including the graphical interface and the question-answering that supports knowledge discovery.
Presentation type: Regular lecture.

Authors

Dr. Natalia Villanueva Rosales The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Natalia Villanueva Rosales is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at El Paso. Her work aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the discovery, integration, and trust of data and models. Her approaches link human and machine knowledge to address societal-relevant problems in areas that require interdisciplinary research and collaborations across borders, such as sustainability of water resources and Smart Cities.
Dr. Ann C. Gates The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Dr. Ann Quiroz Gates is the Senior Advisor to the Provost for STEM Initiatives and an AT&T Distinguished Professor in the Computer Science Department at The University of Texas at El Paso. Gates is the Executive Director of the NSF-funded Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Lani Nicole Godenzi The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Lani Godenzi is a Masters student at The University of Texas at El Paso pursuing a MS in Data and Information Science. She received her BS Chemical and Biological Engineering from Tufts University E'16. Her scholarly interests center bridging communication challenges between multidisciplinary teams to enable execution of technical projects that empower the next generation of engineering students.
Francisco Osuna The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Francisco Osuna is a Software Engineer with a Master’s in Computer Science from The University of Texas at El Paso with over 15 years of experience designing and developing robust software systems. Francisco spearheaded the design and development of Engage, a groundbreaking student success information management system that has been adopted by over 25 national academic institutions. This project alone has transformed academic administration by streamlining processes, reducing reporting overhead by an impressive 95%, and delivering on-time results through meticulous project management.
Angel U. Ortega The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Angel U. Ortega is a Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science Department at The University of Texas at El Paso. His area of research is in context-aware scientific natural language generation. Currently a Ph.D. Research Assistant, Angel also serves as a graduate advocate for CAHSI (The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions), a mentor for the Coding Interview Club, and has interned at companies like Google, Redfin, and Bloomberg. Passionate about inclusive excellence, Angel shares CAHSI's mission to accelerate the progress of Hispanics in computing through his outreach, mentorship, and program development efforts.
Veronica A. Carrillo The University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Veronica A. Carrillo is a staff member at The University of Texas at El Paso who provides administrative and project management support. She earned a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Notre Dame. Beyond her professional responsibilities, Veronica is deeply passionate about civic engagement. Her involvement in her neighborhood association provides helpful insights into community building and engagement strategies that support the university’s mission to enhance student success.

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