Company: Alteryx
Company background: The Alteryx Analytics Automation Platform delivers end-to-end automation of analytics, machine learning, and data science processes that accelerate digital transformation.
Contact: Trey Waddell
Title: Senior Manager, Community Development & Operations
Related URLs: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/SparkED-Education-Program/ct-p/SparkED
Kudos Category: Engagement for Good
1. Tell us how you are leveraging Khoros technology to drive a positive social outcome in your community (think: inclusive campaigns, filtering out hate speech, driving donations, etc.).
The Alteryx Community has hosted a variety of programs focused on driving positive social impact. Our ADAPT Program focused on upskilling people whose careers and lives were impacted by the pandemic by offering free training, a free Designer license, and an opportunity to get a certification from Udemy.
Our Community also supports the Alteryx SparkED program, which empowers all learners, across all areas of study, to develop the skills they need to question, understand, and solve with data. Through this program, learners are provided free Alteryx Designer licenses, learning resources, and access to career opportunities aligned to their data analytics skill set. With custom Community boards for SparkED, these users have access to onboarding resources, dedicated discussion boards for students, educators, and career changers, and a job board that provides opportunities for internships and analytics roles.
2. What are some initiatives, causes, cultural moments, or social justice movements that you’ve been able to support or be involved in using the Khoros platform?
The most exciting program we’re currently supporting is our Alteryx SparkED program. Alteryx SparkED grew out of Alteryx’s corporate social responsibility program, Alteryx for Good, and is aligned in both mission and the company values on empowering the next generation of data workers to address the global skills gap in data analytics. Customers are not able to hire this talent fast enough, and SparkED is dedicated to providing learners and educators with everything they need – from free software, teaching and learning resources, and certifications – so that they are prepared to up-level their careers.
Through Community/the Khoros platform, Educators have the option of joining a private Educator board, where they can collaborate, network, and share curricular resources with other educators across the globe. Students and our scholarship recipients can participate in the Student board discussions, where they can work with each other to solve problems. Career Changers can also participate in discussions and mentorship events designed to help them upskill and reskill themselves so they can go after roles they may have previously been looked over for. All of these boards also drive traffic to the Alteryx Academy, where all learners have the same free access as our general Community users to learn the Alteryx platform and obtain industry-recognized certifications.
The SparkED team has also leveraged the capabilities of Khoros/Alteryx Community to build custom content that is now integrated into the Alteryx Academy. Our Data Essentials curriculum modules aim to broaden the reach of potential data analytics learners by offering more up-front coursework to learners who are at the very start of their data analytics journeys.
Finally, the SparkED program has leveraged the Khoros platform to design the first-ever custom Alteryx Job Board. Leveraging a knowledge base, we have customized an experience so that hiring managers can post open positions, and learners can upload their resumes. By using labels, both resumes and job opportunities are searchable by talent level and region, optimizing the matching capabilities of the right talent and the right open positions.
3. What were the results? Tell us how this helped your team uphold brand values, drive brand trust with your audience, reach your goals, increase cost savings, increase efficiency, etc. Please include metrics and examples if possible.
The SparkED program aims to reach 1 million users by the end of 2025 – and we are well on our way. Currently, we have over 130,000 learners from over 45 countries participating in this program – and we are aiming to make sure all of those are leveraging the Alteryx Community to develop their skills in data analytics. We have integrated the role of Educator and Student into the SSO capabilities so that we can better determine which of our community users are part of the SparkED program. Over the course of the last year, we have seen increases quarter over quarter of both Educators and Students who are part of the community, and now 36% and 46% of students and educators, respectively, with those community roles have obtained their free SparkED licenses. We also now have over 358 members of the private Educator discussion board and plan on launching a private discussion board for our scholarship recipients over the course of the next year. As the program grows, we are excited to continue to build the SparkED space in community to include Zoom integration and Events capabilities. We will continue to capture metrics to demonstrate the long-term impact of this program on learners across the globe.