The Management Information Dashboard (MI Dashboard) - Importance by Hierarchy will show you at a glance how importances are allocated to reading list items are distributed across different Departments or Schools in your institution.
The data is displayed via a pie chart representing the institution, with smaller linked versions also containing information on how importances are used in different areas of the University, allowing you to make comparisons between departments. Hovering over each section of the chart will provide you with more information about that particular section of the hierarchy.
The chart will give you an insight into how academic staff are choosing to structure their lists and has a number of potential uses. For example, many institutions choose to tie their acquisitions process to importances, making purchases to a set ratio of student numbers. In this scenario, it would be useful to understand how different Faculties or School allocate the importances to resources across lists when considering budgets. Other Universities may have adopted guidelines on how lists should be structured - for example, a maximum of 3 essential resources on a list - so this chart will help to ensure adherence to that policy.
To get the maximum value from the Importance by Hierarchy MI Dashboard, it helps if you have a well-structured hierarchy in your tenancy, as a flat hierarchy where modules are simply linked directly to the institution node won't provide the level of detail you'll need to assess where importances may need some attention. For more information on updating your hierarchy, do take a look at Hierarchy - upload full process.
In common with other charts in the MI Dashboard, the raw data used to create the chart is available for export to CSV further down the page. The data is also responsive to the chart - ie if you click on a particular section of the chart, then the figures at the bottom of the page will update to reflect the area you're currently looking at.