Case Study: Jacksonville State University achieves faster analyses and improved scheduling productivity with Tableau Software

Jacksonville State University Optimizes Productivity with Tableau

Jacksonville State University’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, a four‑person team led by Dr. Alicia Simmons, supports nearly 100 academic and non‑academic departments across a campus of more than 10,000 students. The office struggled to make credit‑hour productivity and scheduling trends visible using pages of spreadsheets, which took too long to produce actionable insights (for example, identifying why an 8 a.m. course outperformed the same class at 3 p.m.), and there were no funds to hire additional staff.

JSU implemented Tableau to create visual, near‑real‑time analyses of the master schedule, giving everyone the same view of the data and enabling faster, data‑driven schedule adjustments before the next term. The tool cut analysis time dramatically, streamlined production of the annual Fact Book (saving months of work), and helped the office increase its support and productivity across campus—earning recognition for the university’s reporting.

Jacksonville State University

Alicia Simmons

Director of Institutional Research and Assessment