The Data Warehouse now has an updated "cube" containing 2010 data. "Yippee! An early Christmas gift!" I can hear some of you say, while others are scratching their heads, "What's a cube?"
"Cubes" in the Education Data Warehouse (also known as Cognos PowerPlay) are predefined data tables that make on-the-fly data manipulation possible. The cube's crosstab display (a data table) allows for dragging and dropping of various data elements in order to create new tabular displays of data. These tables can then be displayed in chart form, or exported to Excel for further analysis.
Chapter 3 in the EDW User's Guide gives more information about use of the cubes, for those who are new to its use. The ESE also provides materials for a half-day course on the cubes, which can be found linked to the EDW Welcome screen under "Training Materials." [I do offer regional cube workshops from time to time, so please contact me if you're looking for training.]
If you've played around with the cubes before, but need a bit of a refresher, I've created a "how-to" sheet which illustrates the use of the cube to explore trends in performance by standard and strand over time. There is no pre-defined report in the Education Data Warehouse that provides this information, but it can be pulled from the cube using these instructions. Your feedback on this document is welcome!
Finally, I would love to know how schools and districts are using the cube. Please contact me and let me know your cube uses...I will share what I find out in a future blog post. Also, the ESE folks will be producing and sharing a set of cube views in the EDW which can serve as starting points for for targeted inquiries. Stay tuned!
