MISO Survey Analysis · Class Project
Student Behavior Pre & Post-Pandemic
Northeastern University
- Location Boston, MA
- Duration January 2025 – April 2025
- Type Data Storytelling Project
The MISO survey is a recurring instrument used by colleges and universities to measure how students, faculty, and staff use technology and academic services. Three survey years (2018, 2021, and 2024) sat across the pandemic timeline, creating a rare longitudinal view of how the pandemic reshaped student expectations. The problem was that the three datasets were not easy to compare. Column structures differed across years, Likert scales used different label sets, and service names had changed over time (Blackboard Learn became Canvas). The data had a story to tell, but no one had unified it long enough to hear it.
The work split into four phases.
The first phase was data preparation. I worked in Python and Excel to clean and restructure the three survey years into a tidy, long-format dataset. That meant simplifying multilevel columns, normalizing Likert scales using reference mappings for each year, and manually standardizing response labels and service names so a longitudinal comparison was actually possible.
The second phase was exploratory data analysis in Tableau. I analyzed how platform usage, perceived importance, and satisfaction shifted across the three survey years, focusing on the institutional transition from Blackboard Learn to Canvas, the rising importance of digital services like Wi-Fi and IT Helpdesk, and the persistent gap between how much students relied on technology and how satisfied they were with the support around it.
The third phase was narrative development. Rather than presenting raw data, I built two student personas grounded in the actual usage patterns. The first persona represented the self-directed learner who fully embraces digital-first tools. The second represented the commuter student whose dependence on those tools collides with inadequate support when something breaks. Together they framed a single insight: the pandemic did not just accelerate digital adoption, it permanently changed what students expect from their institutions.
The fourth phase was visualization. I designed Tableau dashboards guided by Brent Dykes' principles for visual storytelling, using stacked bar charts to compare physical versus digital service importance, divergent stacked bars to show satisfaction shifts across services, and bubble charts to highlight preferred learning methods.