Examples: Acting on Insights
Plan for Success — Work with your Civitas Learning Director of Customer Development to develop a strategic enablement plan — a plan for how you will use your Analytics tools to guide your decisions, actions, and goals for lifting students.
- To start, define, align, and adjust your institutional goals for
- Persistence (enrolling in the next term)
- Completion (earning a credential on time)
- Adoption (of Civitas Learning tools by advisors, faculty, and students)
- To make best use of insights,
- Identify actionable insights
- Plan strategic activities across the product suite
- Measure the impact
- Hold biweekly or monthly strategic meetings to iterate throughout the student lifecycle
- Join Civitas Learning webinars and follow blogs to benefit from other institutions’ learnings
Examples — Analytics mean nothing if those insights are never applied to change outcomes. Following are examples of how to map a tangible path from data insights to effective action:
Struggling Transfers
Say that you are looking at your late-program (at least 90 credits) transfer students, particularly those who seem to be struggling:
- 3.0 GPA or lower
- 2.8 LMS logins per week or fewer
Insights — Suppose the findings show that the powerful predictors (which are your keys to intervention) for this group are these three:
- Ratio of credits earned to credits attempted
- LMS activity
- Days enrolled prior to start of term
Actions — Based on these findings, you’d target them for engagement in specific areas:
- Intervene to reduce course withdrawals and failures.
- Facilitate greater participation in LMS course features.
- Encourage them to register early for next term.
Hispanic Students
Say that you are looking at your Hispanic students, particularly those who seem to be struggling:
- 3.0 GPA or lower
- Only 85% or fewer of credits attempted were earned
Insights — Suppose the findings show that the powerful predictors (which are your keys to intervention) for this group are these three:
- Cumulative GPA
- Change in GPA
- Course load prior to term start
Actions — Based on these findings, you’d target them for engagement in specific areas:
- Recommend appropriate support actions.
- Increase their use of recommended services.
- Encourage them to register for additional credit hours.
Delayed Registration
Say that you are looking at your spring/summer students, particularly those still unregistered for fall.
Insights — Suppose the findings show these insights:
- 1000 active undergraduates didn’t register early for fall this time
- Over half (56%) have GPAs of 2.75 or higher
Actions — Based on these findings, you’d target them for engagement in specific areas:
- Immediately begin a series of outreach campaign nudges to engage them.
- Assure them that they matter to the learning community.
- Encourage them to re-enroll for fall promptly.
Summer Dip
Say that you are looking at your spring/summer students, particularly those whose grades dropped significantly compared to their last term.
Insights — Suppose the findings show these insights:
- 1100+ active undergraduates earned a GPA at least .5 points lower than last term
- 30% have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher
- Over 35% have not registered for fall term
Actions — Based on these findings, you’d target them for engagement in specific areas:
- Immediately begin a series of outreach campaign nudges to engage them.
- Assure them that students commonly experience barriers but they can overcome them.
- Encourage them to re-enroll for fall promptly.
Stalled Transplants
Say that you are looking at transfer students who are completing very few credits at your institution.
Insights — Suppose the findings show these insights:
- Nearly 400 transfer students earned 7 or fewer credits in 1 or 2 terms
- 33% of these are not registered for fall term
- 69% have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or lower
Actions — Based on these findings, you’d target them for engagement in specific areas:
- Immediately begin a series of outreach campaign nudges to engage them.
- Have a student ambassador call them with an encouraging “mattering” message.
- Connect them with an advisor to plan for fall promptly.