UA envisions data strategy on graduation

Aim is early identification of at-risk students, it says

FAYETTEVILLE — A data-driven approach to improving graduation rates will soon take root at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, with the state’s largest university set to enter into an agreement with Austin, Texas-based Civitas Learning for computer modeling services.

A two-year, $396,846 deal is expected to undergo a standard review by state lawmakers on Nov. 20. If approved, the state’s largest university would join the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the UA System’s new, online-only eVersity as institutions working with Civitas Learning to sort and analyze student data.

During a semester, computer modeling can help faculty members and advisers reach out to students who are at risk of having academic problems, said Ashok Saxena, UA’s provost.

“I think they will find that suddenly the faculty are more engaged,” said Saxena, describing how quiz results, for example, can be better used early on for prompt outreach efforts. This might mean calling a student or reaching out to set up a meeting, with either faculty or advising staffs reacting to early signs of trouble.

The computer model would be built using existing student data collected by UA, Saxena said. The pending deal with Civitas Learning requires paying a yearly licensing fee, which in contract documents is listed

as $160,923.

Saxena said the program also can help in identifying potential roadblocks to degree progress when students make out their schedules or switch majors.

UALR began working with the company last year, said Zulma Toro, the school’s provost and executive vice chancellor.

Testing on the reliability of data in the model has been “a long process,” Toro said, though it will be completed within about four weeks.

She said she expects the tool to be ready for wide use during the spring semester. The initial goal is to identify any “bottleneck courses.”

“It might be that we realize that students need more assistance in certain courses, and we don’t have the tutoring in those courses,” Toro said.

Saxena said he thinks UA can have the tool ready for the spring semester.

The university will have a new chancellor, Joseph Steinmetz, beginning Jan. 1.

“There’s room for predictive analytics for looking at student success,” Steinmetz said, noting that Ohio State University, where he serves as provost, has been working with another company for similar purposes.

Civitas Learning began about four years ago, said Mark Milliron, a co-founder of the company and its chief learning officer. It now has about 80 contracts that involve about 800 campuses, he said, including schools similar to UA — like the University of Arizona and the University of Oklahoma.

The company offers a “core app” called Illume, although now there are others being developed, Milliron said.

“Everyone begins with Illume, and they decide which apps they want to use,” Milliron said, adding that universities are able to collaborate with one another and share data.

Milliron praised UA System leaders for signing on earlier with the company to help build the online-only eVersity, which began enrolling its first students this fall.

UA’s interim chancellor, Dan Ferritor, who earlier this year stepped down from a UA System post related to educational technology, said the Civitas Learning system will help faculty members in their teaching.

“Civitas doesn’t just tell you on day one who might have problems, but on day five and day 10 and day 15, who’s actually having problems,” Ferritor said.

Saxena tied the effort to improving UA’s graduation rate, with the latest data showing 62.5 percent of incoming

students earning degrees within six years, which fails to meet the 2015 goal of 66 percent that was set under former Chancellor G. David Gearhart. Another goal, for the six-year graduation rate to be 70 percent by 2021, also was set under Gearhart.

“Any progress we make from this point on will depend on a number of factors, and I think if you ask people what those issues are, you will not get a uniform answer because it is that complicated,” Saxena said.

He said the program also will give the university a way to better analyze outreach efforts and results, given the large numbers of students attending UA.

“We want to boil it down to ‘OK, we have had some success, what are the root causes of that success? What did we do differently to make it happen?’” Saxena said. “When it comes down to that level of detail, you can either describe those details anecdotally, or you can describe them with some good information behind it.”