Early Identification of At-Risk Students Leads to Increased Student Success

eCollege's Reporting Suite Helps Online Colleges Guide At-Risk Students Toward Successful Learning 

An online consortium of nine community colleges developed a reporting strategy to identify at-risk students early. The consortium’s strategy leveraged eCollege’s reporting suite to track key indicators of student performance and patterns for success. With eCollege’s tools providing efficient data trending and reporting, the online consortium identified at-risk students earlier and increased student success rates by nearly 10 percent.

With eCollege’s tools providing efficient data trending and reporting, the online consortium identified at-risk students earlier and increased student success rates by nearly 10 percent within two years.

Iowa Community College Online Consortium

The Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC) is comprised of nine Iowa community colleges partnered together to provide online education to Iowa students. The community colleges that make up the consortium are Clinton, Iowa Lakes, Iowa Western, Muscatine, Northwest Iowa, Scott, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western Iowa Tech.

With the eCollege eLearning solution, the multi-campus consortium delivers a variety of online courses to over 8,000 students across the state of Iowa every term. The consortium offers 11 fully online degrees and multiple certificates on the eCollege platform.

The Goal—Increase Student Success Rates

In 2005, only 77% of the consortium’s at-risk students completed their courses and only 57% of those students passed with a C grade or higher. The consortium recognized that 40% of their students were new to online learning and could benefit from increased guidance and preparation as a result.

The consortium sought to increase the student success rate to 85%. To accomplish this goal, ICCOC prioritized early identification of at-risk students and created a new administrative role—the Student Services Coordinator.

Rhonda McElroy, as the Student Services Coordinator, was tasked with the development of an at-risk reporting strategy that would enhance the program’s student retention and success. Additionally, McElroy would provide learning preparation resources to new students, develop at-risk identification criteria and intervene with these students when necessary.

eCollege Provides Effective Reporting for Student Performance

eCollege’s reporting suite provided McElroy and the consortium with efficient tools for identifying at-risk students across all courses in the nine colleges.  

“Once ICCOC had developed their reporting strategy, eCollege was able to provide more effective tools,” said Scot Chadwick, eCollege Vice President of Account Management. “Our reporting suite offered ICCOC centrally located, Web-based tools that provided enterprise-wide visibility of student activity and performance.”

Performance Visibility with Student Activity Reports

eCollege’s data warehousing and business intelligence packages are capable of discriminating and aggregating detailed levels of program data. For example, eCollege’s Student Activity Report displayed the time the consortium’s students spent within a specific course or across a program’s entire offering—in weekly snapshots or over a considerable period of time. Inactive students, or those who hadn’t logged into their courses, were labeled at-risk for failure.

In addition to the Student Activity Report, the ICCOC used eCollege’s reporting tools to define other at-risk criteria. ICCOC students were identified as at-risk if they had failed online courses in the previous two years, were registered for three or more courses simultaneously or were first-time online students.

With more efficient data trending and reporting, the consortium identified at-risk students earlier, allowing educators to intervene in time to guide students back to success.

At-Risk Notification Forms

The consortium also participated in an eCollege course communication tool that allows instructors to notify program administrators of specific at-risk behavior. The At-Risk Notification form was made available in every ICCOC eCollege course, providing instructors with a roster of students, a list of reasons for concern and a text entry box for additional information.

“With eCollege’s Student Activity Reports, I can remind inactive students that the semester has begun or inform them of an approaching deadline,” said Rhonda McElroy, ICCOC’s Student Services Coordinator. “The At-Risk Notification form provides me with enough information to provide students with the resources they need to succeed.”

Student Success Rates Increased by Nearly 10%

Although ICCOC’s reporting strategy has been in place for only a few years, the results have been significant. Between fall 2005 and fall 2007, retention and success rates have improved by as much as 9%.

At-Risk Students' Course Completion Rates
Fall 2005: 77%
Fall 2007: 82%

At-Risk Students' Success Rates (Grade of C or Higher)
Fall 2005: 57%
Fall 2007: 66%

“The eCollege reporting suite has evolved into an efficient tool which allows us to identify, track and target specific areas for improvement,” said Steve Rheinschmidt, Director of ICCOC. “We can now proactively target our communication, professional development and operational planning where they have the greatest potential for improving student success.”

The eCollege reporting suite has emerged as a comprehensive business intelligence solution that supports any institution’s at-risk strategy. These tools allow administrators to monitor daily performance trends, identify troubled students and provide assistance to help them succeed.

For more information about eCollege’s reporting suite, contact your Account Manager or Client Services Consultant.