In The News

Colleges across the country are adapting to a new landscape in which prospective students are more carefully scrutinizing their choices. A 2018 survey of undergraduates by Civitas Learning found that about a quarter had gone more than six months without contacting their advisor—and about 3 percent had never done so.

When considering barriers along the journey to college success, course registration may not be the first that comes to mind. With the support of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Civitas Learning will expand the reach of College Scheduler to 25 institutions serving 250,000 low-income students, enabling more students to reach college graduation.

Responding to student demand for ways to reduce the cost of college, student success leader Civitas Learning today announced the launch of new search technology specifically designed to help students find courses that offer open educational resources (OER). This would allow students to reduce costs for required course materials while still accessing a complete educational experience.

Predictive analytics brought the leadership team at Lone Star College-Montgomery together. Michael Chavez, VP of Student Success details the five key elements that would make this effort successful through the use of tools (Civitas Learning).

Professors across the country want to find new ways to engage their students, and some believe technology can help them achieve those goals.”Inside Digital Learning” reached out to instructors in a wide range of disciplines to find out what’s new in their teaching this semester. Peggy Semingson, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, at the University of Texas at Arlington explains how she is increasing her strategic use of a predictive analytics software, the Inspire for Faculty tool from Civitas Learning to send strategic “nudge” emails to students as a type of virtual outreach.

Many forces are impacting the foundational pillars of higher education, from economic and demographic to social, cultural, and, especially, technological. APUS has been an early adopter of measuring learning at multiple levels, and uses a variety of home-grown tools and methods as well as third-party applications like Civitas Learning’s Inspire to gauge our students’ achievement of competencies and learning outcomes, and how well and how often they engage with learning materials and faculty members.

Angela Baldasare, our newest Senior Strategic Consultant reflects on her previous experiences with her work at University of Arizona as an Assistant Provost for Institutional Research. She shares some applied principles she learned along the way from her experiences forming partnerships and building out communities.

Today, we’re officially announcing the 50 people and companies that are crushing it in Austin. It’s been a year of change for Civitas Learning, which uses data science to help universities ensure more students graduate. Perhaps its biggest move came in June when it acquired ClearScholar, an Indianapolis-based student engagement startup.

ASU’s freshman retention rate has hit 85.2 percent in the latest data available, higher than the nationwide average and nearly 11 percentage points higher than 15 years ago. Among the ways ASU is working on retention is with Civitas, a platform that allows the university to detect signs in real time that a student is becoming less engaged, according to Frederick Corey, vice provost for undergraduate education.

USF and a small but growing number of colleges and universities are at the forefront of using information technology and advanced statistical analysis to see students in whole new ways. The numbers on the screen are generated by a private Texas-based company called Civitas Learning.