Where are They: Using GIS Technology to Locate your Institution's Stakeholders

Last summer, institutional researchers in Penn State’s Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research were asked several time-sensitive geographic-related questions about university stakeholders:

  • What state-level legislative districts do our students, employees, and alumni live in?

  • What are the U.S. counties our out-of-state students come from?

What started off as simple questions to ask were, by no means, simple questions to answer. Given data source constraints surrounding the precision of zip code and county information, and the scope of the requests (600,000+ addresses to be analyzed), it became clear that there was a need to quickly develop a solution to provide executive leadership with information to make informed decisions on behalf of the university.

As a result of this webinar, participants will:

  • Understand what geocoding is and its applications in institutional research
  • Understand the method used to query the TIGER API

Registration Information

  • A recording of this webinar will be available for 30 days from the time of purchase.

Length/Time Commitment

One hour


Recorded Date: 03/10/2022

Format: On Demand

Topic: Institutional Effectiveness

Experience Level: All

Member/Non-Member Price: $0 members/$50 non-members

Presenter(s): Shannon Lee, Research Associate, The Pennsylvania State University and Daniel Nugent, Data and Reporting Analyst, The Pennsylvania State University.

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