How Student Engagement Data and AI Can Boost Retention and Graduation Rates

Here’s a secret (well, sort of): students who are engaged in their studies and active on campus become graduates. And if you’re a campus leader, you know accurate student engagement data is the key to ensuring student success.

With new AI-enabled technologies, tracking student engagement data is easier than ever, even in real-time. In this post, we’ll cover why you need accurate student data and how to use Cadence to boost your retention and graduation rates. 

Let’s get started.

The Importance of Student Engagement Data

There’s no way around it: you need student engagement data, especially if you want to boost your retention and graduation rates. As a campus leader, it’s your job to understand why students check out and unenroll from your programs. That’s why tracking student engagement data is essential.

Student engagement data helps you and your team pinpoint issues that might cause students to call it quits on campus. With this data, you can better address potential issues before they become problematic.

Your data can help your team:

• Nail down a timeline to encourage students to complete admission applications 
• Remind students to sign up for the following courses
• Connect students with counselors
• Identify students at risk of dropping out

Your data is critical for ensuring student success. And with new AI-powered technology that can help provide data in real-time, it’s even easier for your team to make necessary changes to ensure your students graduate on time.

How to Leverage AI for Better Data and Tracking

You most likely already have some sort of student data management system and tracking in place. But does your management system provide real-time data to help you better identify student issues before they become problematic?

If not, adding an AI assistant to your existing technology stack can help uncover valuable student engagement data. And you can use that data to support your students better. Here’s how. 

1. Personalized Academic Support Suggestions

Your students might consider dropping out because of a lack of academic support, especially when choosing a major or degree track. 

While your academic advisors do a phenomenal job meeting students where they are, there are only so many hours in a day to help advise them. As hard as your advisors try, sometimes a student query is missed, which could lead to frustration and, ultimately, dropping out.

An AI assistant, like Cadence, can be a 24/7 academic advisor. Adding a chatbot to your advising web page can provide intuitive answers to student questions about potential degree tracks or programs.

It can also collect data so you and your team can better understand your students’ questions about your programs. That means your team can provide more appropriate and comprehensive answers from the start.

2. Instant Connection to Counselors

Academic stress, financial strain, and college transition challenges can be why college students become disengaged with their courses. And when these mental health stressors become too heavy, students might be tempted to drop out. 

Incorporating an AI assistant like Cadence into your web pages can help support students who need it. An AI assistant can provide instant support, like suggestions for mental health enrichment activities and phone numbers for crisis support lines, or connect students to live support counselors. 

And while your students are receiving the best support your campus can provide, your AI assistant is continually compiling and analyzing data. Using this data, you and your team can pinpoint at-risk students and provide additional needed support.

3. Course Registration Assistance

One of the easiest ways to prevent students from dropping out of college is to make your course registration process more accessible. This includes reminding students when it’s time to register for their next semester’s courses and allowing them to chat and ask questions if they run into problems. 

An AI assistant, like Cadence’s Otto, can quickly provide this kind of assistance to students. Use Cadence’s texting templates to send scheduled SMS reminders about course registration. And incorporate a chatbot into your website to act as an advising assistant to guide students through registration.

With the data collected from your chatbot, you can change areas of the registration process that might be a hangup for students.

4. Academic Progress Alerts

It can be challenging for students to juggle their class and assignment loads. With multiple demanding courses in the same semester, it’s also easy for them to get behind. For students who need this kind of support, using AI technology like Cadence can help keep them organized.

Your student engagement data can uncover a lot of valuable information concerning the point of the academic semester where students are most likely to become overwhelmed with their coursework. Sending gentle SMS reminders of academic progress can help keep students on track and passing their courses. 

5. Multilingual Support

International students are an important part of your campus’s student body. While these students are eager learners, they likely need extra support in their native language to ensure they stay engaged with their studies.

Hiring multilingual academic support staff would be ideal. However, it’s not always feasible for various reasons. Instead, you can incorporate an AI chatbot into your web page to help support multilingual students. AI chatbots like Cadence can provide immediate support in multiple languages to help ensure seamless and inclusive communication for all students.

Real-time data can help you identify areas where your international students need assistance, allowing you and your team to devise strategies to best help your students visiting your campus.

Need Better Student Engagement Data? Try Cadence

Analyzing student engagement data can help your team understand the points of your student’s academic journeys that will most likely cause them to unroll from their programs. The key to good student engagement data, though, is implementing what you and your team learn to make meaningful changes to better support your students– from deciding to apply to your campus all the way to graduation day.
If you’re ready to enhance your current student management system, consider pairing it with Cadence. Cadence is an intuitive, communicative AI that can help you uncover critical student engagement data. Ready to chat? Book a demo with our team today.

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