The document discusses the Salesforce Foundation's initiatives to enhance student success in higher education through predictive modeling and technology integration. It highlights the experiences of Western Governors University and George Mason University in utilizing Salesforce tools to better support student engagement and retention. Key outcomes include improved monitoring of at-risk students and a focus on providing personalized educational experiences to increase graduation rates.

1. Getting to Grad:
A Focus on Student Success
February 26, 2014
/Salesforce.comFoundation
@SFDCFoundation

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3. Our Mission:
Leverage our
Product,
Resources
and Time to
help improve
communities
around the
world.
Best-in-Class Technology
Made
Affordable
Our Communities
Nonprofits & Higher Ed
Strengthen
Invest
Technology Innovation
Grants
Employee Giving &
Volunteering

4. %
1
Product • Resources •
Time
20,000
Nonprofit
organizations
$53M+
530,000+
Grants
Hours Service

5. Become A Connected Campus:
Connect With Your Students in a Whole New Way
Connected
Faculty/Staff
Connected
Careers
Connected
Alumni
Connected
Students
Connected
Devices

6. Featured Presenters
Sandra Sanvido
HE Marketing Director
Salesforce.com Foundation
Chase Schults
Jim Gilbert
Manager Salesforce
Assistant Dean for
Administraton
Undergraduate Programs
Western Governors University George Mason University

7. Two Ways to Ask Questions
• Use question box on webinar
• Tweet questions with
#connectedcampus
To be contacted by a Higher
Education specialist, email:
events@salesforcefoundation.org

8. Chase Schults
Manager Salesforce Administration
Western Governors University
@David_Chase

9. About Western Governors University
Western Governors University is an online university driven by a mission
to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based
degree programs. WGU has flourished into a national university, serving
more than 40,000 students from all 50 states.
WGU was founded by the governors of 19 U.S. states. At no other time in
the history of higher education have the governors of several states joined
together to create a university. WGU is also supported by over 20 major
corporations and foundations who believe in WGU’s commitment to
producing highly competent graduates.

10. Course Communities

11. All That Matters To Us
Is student success as
measured by
Graduation Rates

12. The Challenge
The same Competency-based, Self-paced model that made
us innovators in higher education …
…creates barriers to knowing how best to help individual
students.

13. For Example
If a student has done nothing for two weeks, is the student on
vacation, slammed at work, or thinking of dropping out?
How can we know?

14. Example: Enrollment at WGU
Never Admit
These
Uncertainty
Always Admit
These
What Do We Do With These?
Red = Students
that will not
graduate, wasting
their and our time/
money
Yellow = Admissions tests?
Interviews? Resiliency
assessments? Get some
right. Get some wrong.
Green = Enroll
them Today!

15. What We Did
•
Used technology (a.k.a.“the black
box”) to create predictive models that
shift Yellows into Reds and Greens
•
The net result is not accepting 16% of students we
would have admitted at the cost of 1% of the
students that would have graduated

16. How it Looks
What we thought
was Important
What we learned
was Important

17. Applied to Courses
•
Combined enrollment profile with WGU History to predict
likelihood before a student begins a course.
•
Monitor course consumption to identify trends towards at-risk
or not at-risk

18. Example: Course Navigation Predicts
Success
Machine Learning algorithm can predict pass or fail with
77% accuracy after a student’s first session

19. How Faculty See It

20. Legacy Communities
• Old
and clunky – Lack of integration points
• Unable
to meet the demands of the
University –Inability to scale properly with the
enrollment demands
• Limited
social interactions – Very Limited
social capabilities – siloes for each course

21. What we are using…
• 3
Salesforce Communities
• Chatter Groups for each
course
• Salesforce KnowledgeBase
• Chatter API
• 1 Custom object
• 2 Triggers

22. WGU Commons
Community/
Social aspect
throughout the
entire student
portal.

23. Personalization
• The
prediction supports a
strategic goal of providing a
personalized highereducation experience
• Business
Rules vary based
on student profile:
A. Weekly contact vs. daily
B. Referred for tutoring
before a course starts

24. Early Results
•
•
•
Look very good
For a pilot of 1400 students,
a focus Red and Yellow
student has resulted in a
10% improvement in OnTime-Progress (OTP)
If history holds, this will
result in a significantly
improved graduation rate.

25. George Mason University
•
•
•
•
•
Founded in 1972
Largest public 4-year institution in Virginia
Approximately 34,000 students
Main campus in Fairfax, VA
Opening Mason Korea in March 2014
School of Management




5 majors and 2 minors 3500 undergraduates
Implemented Salesforce in May 2011
13 active users in academic advising, career counseling, and admin support
Approximately 2/3 transfer student population

26. Getting students here

27. Advising Commitments
Student
Development
Personal
Resource
Academic
Advisor
Academic
Resource
Uphold
Academic
Regulations

28. Salesforce in Advising
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who they are
Who they’ve seen
Prior conversations
Exceptions requested
Resource referrals
Special Populations
Notifications from us

29. Appointments and Walk-Ins

30. Removing the Barriers
– Academic preparedness
• Students not engaged with school
• Overconfidence regarding time management
• Large numbers of repeated courses
• Students getting “bottlenecked” with course prereqs
– External Circumstances
– Academic policies
• Students removed from majors after course repeats
• Students on suspension or probation

31. Student Advisor-Interactions
Students at risk of being removed by semester

32. Salesforce for Advising Admins
• Support your students,
Support your staff
• Track at-risk populations
• Academic Appeals
• Student development
• Assessment
• Resource data
Clarity
Consistency
Transparency
Advisor & Student
Accountability

33. Student Success and Retention
•
•
•
•
•
•
Maintain a relationship
Get to the real questions faster
Follow-up opportunities
Consolidated information
Reinforced expectations
Deliver a consistent experience

34. Thank you
Jim Gilbert
Assistant Dean
George Mason University
School of Management
E-mail: jgilbe11@gmu.edu
Twitter: @jedhunter1

35. Q&A