Using CEDAR
CEDAR is a web dashboard for exploring enrollment data, understanding student behavior, and generating reports that departments and colleges can act on.
Where to start
If you’re new to CEDAR, start with Dept Dashboard. Select a department and you’ll immediately see headcount trends, enrollment compared to historical averages, drop rate alerts, and student composition — all for the current term.
From there, use the guide below to find the analyses most relevant to your role.
Application overview
Dept Dashboard
The landing tab. Shows a snapshot of a department’s current term: headcount with trend sparkline, courses running above/below historical averages, new courses, missing courses vs. two years ago, early and late drop rates by course, cross-departmental minor overlap, and credit hour production by level over five years.
Best for: chairs, directors, anyone who wants a current-term picture quickly.
Enrollment
Section-level and student-level enrollment data with filters for campus, college, department, term, course, instructor, level, and part of term. Sub-tabs:
- DESR — section-level data with crosslist views (home, split-level, crosslisted, away, all)
- Classlist — student-level enrollment records
- Plots — enrollment trends with faceting by term type, campus, level, and more
- Low Enrollment — sections below configurable thresholds; historical concerns mode for future terms
- Trends — multi-year growing/declining course analysis using regression
Best for: schedulers, IR analysts, anyone tracking enrollment patterns.
Regstats
Registration statistics dashboard. Surfaces courses where enrollment pressure is concentrated — sections that are nearly full, have waitlist activity, or show unusual registration-timing patterns. Configurable signal thresholds. Produces a downloadable report.
Best for: schedulers and college analysts watching live registration pressure during active registration periods.
Pathways
Cohort-aware curriculum analysis. Build a student population (by program, entry type, campus), then analyze how students move through the curriculum: when they take gateway courses, where they stop out, what sequences they follow.
Best for: graduate directors, program review, understanding why some students succeed and others don’t.
Explore menu
The Explore dropdown contains analyses organized around specific questions:
| Tab | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Open Seats | Which courses have available capacity? Which ran last year but aren’t running this year? Guide → |
| Waitlists | Which courses have waitlist pressure? Who’s waiting (by major, classification)? |
| Headcount | How many unique students are declared in a major/minor/concentration, per term? |
| Course Dynamics | Deep dive into one course: enrollment trends, student flows, grade distributions, DFW by instructor type, retention impact, and sequence effects |
| Department Profile | Historical view of a department: headcount, credit hours, degrees awarded, faculty SFR |
User roles quick reference
| I am a… | Start here |
|---|---|
| Department chair | Dept Dashboard → Course Dynamics |
| Graduate program director | Pathways → Course Dynamics |
| Scheduler | Enrollment (Low Enrollment tab) → Regstats |
| Dean / associate dean | Headcount → Department Profile → Regstats |
| IR analyst | Enrollment → Pathways → Course Dynamics |
Notes on the data
Questions or suggestions?
Email fwgibbs@unm.edu.