Using QuickBase in Higher Ed
February 03, 2017
Using QuickBase in Higher Ed
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with QuickBase
We are using Quickbase to track our various programs, participants, projects, and key documentation. The university as a whole has access to the product. Within our center, each program manager has their own databases set up to track the data they need. We're working towards using a center-wide database to understand how participants move through our various programs.
- Ability for non-experts to learn the system and create effective database and project management systems.
- Automatic visualization of key data points.
- Ability to bring together quantitative and qualitative reporting.
- Figuring out how to import linked data (e.g. profiles for participants and the programs they participate in; a "many-to-many" relationship) - this feature is more complicated for non-experts to learn.
- Getting the right output format for reports can be challenging.
- There are so many functions available (good!) but it does take time to find the right resources when you're trying to learn how to do something. It would be great if a complete guide to QuickBase were more readily available.
Since we're not a business but rather a center within a university, our needs and our processes are different than a business. However, we've found that QuickBase has allowed us to streamline our data management processes, and it's flexible enough that it can be used for many different types of organizations.
Instead of using Word documents and Excel files to track participation rates and post-program milestones, QuickBase has allowed us to centralize our information. Eventually, we're looking forward to using it as a system to track data across all of our programs (which will give us a better picture of how students move across our programs), but there are certain tasks to set up an app this large that will require additional expertise that we don't have in-house.
Instead of using Word documents and Excel files to track participation rates and post-program milestones, QuickBase has allowed us to centralize our information. Eventually, we're looking forward to using it as a system to track data across all of our programs (which will give us a better picture of how students move across our programs), but there are certain tasks to set up an app this large that will require additional expertise that we don't have in-house.
Most of our work was previously done in Microsoft Word and Excel. We've also used GoogleDrive and DropBox for syncing information. QuickBase is a huge improvement upon these because of the security, the multiple user capabilities, as well as the ability to keep institutional records which can be passed on to future staff. Personally, I've also used Filemaker and Access, and QuickBase is a much more intuitive product for someone with no background in database development or management.
I would definitely call myself a "non-technical citizen developer," and I've found working with QuickBase quite empowering. Although it does take some time to familiarize yourself with the platform and all of the options, through some searches and trial and error one can usually figure out the answer. QuickBase also has a great support team that will respond to individual help queries. I've attended several online webinars about things like "Building Relationships" (i.e. tables of related data) in QuickBase, and have bookmarked those to return to them and walk myself through the process again and again. I would love to see more of a complete guide for new QuickBase users since it sometimes takes me a long time to find the answer I need, but on a whole, I've really enjoyed learning to work with QuickBase.
- Improving our ability to drive insights from our data
- Improving collaboration across one or more teams
- Solving a specific business challenge
We have created an app to track things like judges participating in a competition over many years. We send invitations to some of the same judges year after year, but other judges are new. We have several people managing the invitation list and tracking response status of our judges. We have found QuickBase to be a great solution for keeping a central record. I can quickly go in to update our invitation status, draw reports of confirmed judges' expertise, and see who participated in which years. It's been great!