Academic Support and Technology,Kaplan University

Overview

1. Kaplan University “at a glance”

2. Goals of our academic support efforts

3. A current project

4. Lessons learned

1. KU “At A Glance”

• Proprietary, for-profit institution• Division of Kaplan Higher Education of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly

owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company• KU includes eight campuses and an online division, including

Concord Law School• Approximately 35000 students from 50 states, several foreign

countries• Open enrollment in most programs• Typical online student:

- 30-35 years old- Female- Mid- or inter-career

1. KU “At A Glance”

• Outcomes-based assessment • Metrics-driven environment • Data-driven decisions

2. Goals of Our Academic Support Efforts

• Student success!• Measured primarily in terms of:

- “U Rate”: a metric measuring percentage of students who pass a course

- “Q Rate”: a metric measuring term-to-term retention

• Desire to see students graduate and make use of their education

3. Current Projects

• Wonderlic SLE:- Administered pre-admission- Online exam - Results used to determine need for remediation

• KU math and writing assessments- Students’ math and writing skills assessed in first-term Academic Strategies course

- Students needing subject-specific remediation are directed to appropriate courses

• Student Coaching pilots• Tutoring Impact Analysis

4. Lessons Learned

• Design of the experiment- Cost of implementation and ROI- What to measure and how to measure it- Defining “success” (when to end or expand a pilot)

• Thoughtful implementation- Ability to implement quickly can be two-edged- Manual vs. automated processes (when to invest in technology)

• Scalability- Pilot-sized processes vs. full scale- Pilot participants can be more enthusiastic than the institution at large