TAIR Online Workshops provide opportunities for institutional research and effectiveness professionals to share practical knowledge, tools, strategies, and lessons learned with others in the field.
Workshops are part of the TAIR Professional Development Certificate of Completion Program. Each workshop is held online and is designed to support professional growth in one or more certificate tracks.
Submit a Workshop Proposal
Interested in presenting a TAIR Online Workshop? Use the form below to submit a proposal for review.
Contact professional-development@texas-air.org with any questions about online workshops.
Upcoming Workshops
Exploring IPEDS: A Guided Tour of the “Use the Data” Tools
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 24 from 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: $75
Description: The IPEDS “Use the Data” page offers a powerful suite of free public tools for exploring, analyzing, and downloading higher education data—but many institutional researchers only scratch the surface of what’s available. This session provides a live demonstration of the most useful IPEDS data tools, including Compare Institutions, Summary Tables, Data Trends, and Custom Data Files. Participants will learn how to select the right tool for their task—whether benchmarking peer institutions, exploring faculty salary trends, or creating visual tables for reports. The session also previews features for saving sessions, uploading variable lists, and accessing data efficiently.
Outcomes: Participants will:
1. Understand the various IPEDS tools.
2. Know which tool to use efficiently and effectively.
Presenter: Carolyn Mata (Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas)
Beyond Good Analytics: Building Great Teams
Date and Time: Wednesday, July 15 from 9:00am-12:00pm
Cost: $75
Description: Transform your data practice from transactional to transformational. This intensive leadership workshop synthesizes insights from four groundbreaking business books—Be Our Guest (Disney Institute), Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink), Radical Candor (Kim Scott), and Good to Great (Jim Collins)—to help data professionals build exceptional teams, deliver insights that drive action, and create stakeholder relationships that elevate institutional impact.
Participants will move beyond technical competence to develop the leadership mindset that separates good analysts from great ones. Through interactive exercises, case studies, and peer collaboration, you’ll learn to view stakeholders as “guests” deserving exceptional service, take radical ownership of data quality and outcomes, master difficult conversations about findings, and build sustainable excellence into your analytics culture.
This workshop addresses the unique challenges data professionals face: delivering bad news to leadership, managing conflicting stakeholder priorities, building trust when data reveals uncomfortable truths, and creating team accountability in decentralized environments. You’ll leave with concrete tools, templates, and an action plan to immediately apply these principles.
Outcomes:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Use Disney’s Guestology framework to deliver exceptional transactional experiences that drive institutional decisions;
- Practice extreme ownership when communicating data limitations, project setbacks, and quality issues to build credibility and trust with leadership and team members;
- Apply radical candor techniques to deliver difficult findings, provide meaningful feedback to analysts, and create psychologically safe teams that maintain high performance standards;
- Identify and activate flywheel initiatives for sustained greatness through disciplined people, thought, and action;
- Develop a 30-day action plan integrating service excellence, accountability, candor, and disciplined execution principles tailored to their specific institutional context.
- Lead cross-functional conversations that position data professionals as trusted advisors rather than order-takers by aligning analytical work with what stakeholders truly need.
Presenter: Kenna Cavnar (Nelson University)
Introduction to Machine Learning
Date and Time: Wednesday, July 22 from 9:00am-12:00pm
Cost: $75
Description: Machine Learning offers powerful tools for predictive modeling. As IHE leaders increasingly look to IR for forecasting and decision-support, ML knowledge has become essential. However, the ML toolkit looks very different from traditional IR and classical statistics. This course’s goal is to build ML expertise on top of IR professionals’ existing domain knowledge and technical skills but does not require prior experience with ML. We will cover the core concepts of ML, introduce the Python ML stack, and work through example project(s). We hope to offer a 2nd, intermediate-level ML workshop at the 2027 TAIR conference which will build on this intro course.
Outcomes: Participants will:
– Understand core machine learning concepts
– Recognize common ML challenges
– Explore a hands-on ML project using the Python ML stack (using free cloud-based Google Colab service)
Presenter: Scott Cook (Tarleton State University)
Streamlining IPEDS Submissions: Creating Uploadable Flat Files for Accuracy and Efficiency
Date and Time: Wednesday, August 5 from 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: $75
Description: Tired of manually entering data into IPEDS? Discover a smarter, faster way to manage your submissions in this hands-on workshop designed for institutional researchers and data professionals.
Manual data entry is not only time-consuming—it’s also prone to errors. By learning how to create reproducible flat files for IPEDS uploads, your institution can save valuable time and improve data accuracy. This session will walk you through the entire process, from locating the necessary documentation to generating and uploading your files with confidence.
Outcomes:
- Understand the Benefits of using flat file uploads to streamline IPEDS submissions and reduce errors.
- Find Key Resources for building files that meet IPEDS specifications.
- Create Upload-Ready Files using a step-by-step approach that ensures completeness and compliance.
- Define Required Variables to ensure your data is accepted and accurately reflected in the IPEDS portal.
- Review the Upload Procedures and best practices for validating your data post-submission.
- Explore SQL/SAS Code Examples that automate file creation and enhance reproducibility.
Presenter: John Carroll (Tarleton State University)
SQL 101: A Hands-on Introduction for Institutional Researchers
Date and Time: Wednesday, August 12 from 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: $75
Description: Institutional researchers with little or no SQL experience will explore the fundamentals of SQL through interactive exercises. Using an online SQL tool, participants will utilize a sample student database and execute basic SQL queries to manage, filter, and analyze data. The session focuses on building a solid SQL foundation while providing practical skills directly applicable to real-world data analysis tasks. Attendees will learn how to retrieve, filter, and summarize data from relational databases, join tables, and apply conditional logic. Step-by-step instructions, practical exercises, and sample code will allow participants to follow along and practice each new skill in real time.
Outcomes: By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Retrieve, filter, and organize data from relational databases using fundamental SQL commands like SELECT, FROM, WHERE, and ORDER BY.
• Join tables, apply conditional logic, and summarize data through aggregate functions.
• Use GROUP BY, HAVING, and UNION to analyze and combine data.
Presenter: Emily Rhodes (UT Health San Antonio)
Additional Workshops Coming Soon
More TAIR Online Workshops will be added as proposals are reviewed and sessions are scheduled.
Completed Workshops
SQL 101: A Hands-on Introduction for Institutional Researchers
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 10 from 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: $75
Description: Institutional researchers with little or no SQL experience will explore the fundamentals of SQL through interactive exercises. Using an online SQL tool, participants will utilize a sample student database and execute basic SQL queries to manage, filter, and analyze data. The session focuses on building a solid SQL foundation while providing practical skills directly applicable to real-world data analysis tasks. Attendees will learn how to retrieve, filter, and summarize data from relational databases, join tables, and apply conditional logic. Step-by-step instructions, practical exercises, and sample code will allow participants to follow along and practice each new skill in real time.
Outcomes: By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Retrieve, filter, and organize data from relational databases using fundamental SQL commands like SELECT, FROM, WHERE, and ORDER BY.
• Join tables, apply conditional logic, and summarize data through aggregate functions.
• Use GROUP BY, HAVING, and UNION to analyze and combine data.
Presenter: Emily Rhodes (UT Health San Antonio)