London School of Economics: Data Processes for External Relations Department Dashboards
What did London School of Economics need?
We were commissioned by the LSE to provide them with a way of analysing large volumes of raw data for their External Relations Department (ERD), including:
- Web server log text files (including IIS, Sitestat and Apache sources)
- Press coverage data in Excel
- Events data in Excel
The analysis would help the ERD understand the impact of their outreach work, and also support their evidence base for their Research Excellence Framework (REF) return.
LSE also wanted to visualise the wide range of high profile academics that had contributed so much to the academic research base and public policy over the history of the university.
What we did
Data processes
Using Python, we first authored a library of code to script the pre-processing and cleaning of web log data collected in a variety of formats into datasets which could then be loaded into a central SQL database. This database was then optimised for analytics given the volume of data produced. From this point, we used Tableau to enrich the data with local LSE information on topics such as press mentions and timetabled events to provide a range of customisable analysis which could be used to explore these datasets and their impacts in more detail. We also integrated information on IP addresses and web traffic sources to provide geographic reach.
We generated innovative, detailed Tableau analysis in the form of maps and time series charts allowing them to evidence the impact of school activities and events. One important piece of analysis for this project was providing choropleth heat maps of hits and usage across countries, with city level information layered over the top which allowed users to drill-down into more detail on particular hot spots.
We also trained LSE staff to develop further Tableau dashboards themselves and repeat the analysis as more web log data was produced.
Influential academics timeline
As a separate deliverable, we created a unique interactive, public-facing dashboard to allow the exploration of the key list of LSE academics, with links to rich content such as articles, papers and videos. The dashboard was built to align with LSE’s very strict design and accessibility standards.
The impact of our work
The Influential Academic Timeline was selected as the Tableau viz of the day when it was released, and it has since been viewed nearly 10,000 times. You can view the interactive version here.
The web log data we produced had never previously been analysed by LSE, and became a rich new source of insights for the External Relations Department, evidencing the amount of traffic that particular promotion had. This, plus other sources of evidence brought into Tableau, enabled ERD to provide a much richer view of the impact of LSE’s academic work for their Research Excellence Framework exercise.
