About LAU

Strategic Plan

SP Reporting

Digitizing SP Reporting

In a bold move to accurately track progress on its five-year Strategic Plan (SP), the Lebanese American University (LAU) adopted a digitalized process covering the definition of action steps at unit and school level, to holistic graph summaries highlighting the coarse-grained strategic pillars and goals at the university level. One major problem with SP implementation and reporting is the inherent difficulty in acquiring and compiling data from different university units and schools to track and evaluate work on the SP.

Since the inception of its first five-year SP more than 15 years ago through to SP-III, SP planning and reporting was conducted using legacy text-based and spreadsheet-based editing software. This led to gaps in reporting, difficulties merging the reports across schools, and a propensity to report only final outcomes rather than interim progress. Seeking a holistic solution, the Provost’s Office addressed this problem by adopting a customized software-based solution for the implementation and tracking of its current SP: SP-IV 2022-27.

User and admin sections login page. View full size
User and admin sections login page. View full size
SP Reporting page, allowing reporting on the defined targets, including status reporting, uploading supporting documents, and adding reporting comments. View full size
SP dynamic reporting pages, allowing school/unit statistics per pillar. View full size

The SP software was developed in AY 2022-23, and was put into action in AY 2023-24. It is a cloud-based multi-tenant solution, using Microsoft Office 365 database technology to store and manipulate SP data. Every unit and school (i.e., every tenant) has a dedicated software account to access its own SP data. The data includes a fully digitized version of the SP, from Pillars, Goals, Actions, Action steps, to status reporting, statistical reporting, allocated budgets, supporting documents, and reporting comments.

While the previous versions of the SP were designed for yearly reporting (i.e., setting targets and reporting on their statuses for every AY separately), the new SP software focuses on cumulative reporting with respect to the whole duration of the SP, adding SP-level targets and SP-level records in relationship to their yearly counterparts. Units and schools can fine-tune their reporting by dynamically choosing to disregard SP items they are not involved in, allowing for improved statistical visibility of the SP data. The solution also allows for production of a battery of automated reports describing yearly, aggregated, and cumulative SP targets, action steps, and action items, providing each unit and school, as well as for the Provost’s Office, full visibility regarding progress of every aspect of the SP.

School/unit statistics per pillar. View full size
Cumulative school/unit statistics per pillar. View full size
Global statistics per pillar. View full size
SP targets single-year report. View full size
SP targets aggregated report. View full size
SP 5-year general report. View full size

More advanced reporting features are available to the Provost’s Office to track and compare the evolution of the SP between units and schools, and across the university. Furthermore, the SP structure can be dynamically updated and reflected automatically for each tenant. Improvements in the near future include advanced data mining and data processing capabilities through dedicated machine learning and deep language models, to perform aspect inference, evidence-based analysis, and other advanced knowledge processing. Most importantly, the SP software solution serves to keep the SP at the forefront of everybody’s mind at LAU, which fundamentally promotes progress on the goals of the plan.

SP Oversight Committee

The Strategic Plan Oversight Committee or SPOC plays a key role in monitoring and guiding the implementation of the strategic plan to ensure proper institutional effectiveness. The SPOC implements the reporting mechanism that aids in monitoring the action plans and assessments performed by various university divisions. It also serves as a hub for effective communication, providing feedback and recommendations for improvements across all levels of the university.

Members of the SPOC: