How Predictive Analytics Support Success Tracking for Persistence
By leveraging data to illuminate barriers and direct interventions, institutions can create a more supportive environment for adult learners to persist and succeed.
Adult learners face diverse and unique challenges on their path to completing their degrees. From balancing work and family responsibilities to overcoming financial and academic barriers, their journeys are complex and often marked by interruptions. For institutions working to support these learners from re-enrollment to graduation, predictive analytics offers a powerful solution, providing data-driven insights that can identify at-risk learners and enable timely, proactive interventions.
Below, we explore how predictive analytics is being used by institutions like Indiana Tech, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and the University of North Carolina Charlotte, and how ReUp leverages technology to take these efforts even further.
The role of predictive analytics in supporting adult learners
Indiana Tech: Understanding the benefits of dashboards
Indiana Tech implements a highly effective predictive analytics system that integrates academic data from its Canvas learning platform into a visual dashboard. This dashboard uses color-coded risk indicators—red, yellow, and green—to signify a learner’s level of engagement and performance. Faculty and advisors can quickly identify at-risk learners and take immediate action.
For example, if a learner’s engagement drops, or their grades significantly decline, the system alerts staff, prompting targeted outreach. This has led to better coordination between faculty and advisors, ensuring immediate support for learners in need. Simple yet effective visual tools make it easier for institutions to respond to warning signs and improve outcomes.
Download “Creating a Culture of Persistence: Success Tracking, a free guide with practical tools, insights, and examples designed to drive persistence and success.
Kalamazoo Valley Community College: Predicting early warning signs
At Kalamazoo Valley Community College, faculty support, strengthened by predictive tools, plays a key role in helping nontraditional learners persist.. The school’s predictive modeling focuses on tracking early indicators of disengagement, such as withdrawal patterns, GPA trends, and academic progress. This data is analyzed in near-real time using an early warning system embedded into their dashboards. “With predictive modeling, and action-driven metrics that are more or less in real time that we can collect and utilize, it’s giving us more tools to be able to feel like we can impact persistence,” said Evan Pauken, Director of Institutional Effectiveness.
The school uses these indicators to activate what they call “timely interventions,” ensuring learners at risk of dropping out are contacted before critical deadlines like midterms or withdrawal periods. By acting on these key insights, Kalamazoo Valley ensures that learners who show signs of struggling don’t fall through the cracks.
Owens Community College: Using Predictive Data to Drive Re-Engagement
Owens Community College uses predictive analytics to support its diverse student population, particularly adult learners, as they work toward their academic goals. Recognizing that returning adult learners have a persistence rate of just 55%, the institution established a re-engagement office dedicated to identifying barriers and tailoring strategies that promote persistence. By using early alert systems and retention data, Owens can pinpoint at-risk learners and provide targeted support based on enrollment trends and an individual’s unique needs.
For example, the college collaborates across departments to adjust outreach and communication strategies as needed. This proactive, data-driven approach ensures resources are allocated where they will have the most impact, supporting adult learners as they overcome challenges and stay on track toward degree completion. As Kris Bliss, Associate Vice President of Student Success, explains, “It’s been really helpful visually for us to see who’s at risk of failing.” These insights enable faculty and staff to implement timely interventions and to ultimately enhance learner outcomes.
How ReUp uses advanced technology to drive persistence
ReUp elevates predictive analytics by seamlessly blending advanced technology with personalized human insight. At the heart of its approach lies an innovative system powered by Personas and proprietary predictive modeling.
ReUp Personas and their impact on coaching
ReUp’s patented Personas technology creates dynamic, data-driven profiles that evolve with each learner. These Personas analyze a wide range of data points—including demographic, behavioral, and academic information—to categorize learners into tailored profiles. Each profile identifies specific barriers and motivators, making it easier to deliver the right intervention at the right time.
For example, a learner struggling with financial hurdles might receive resources about loan repayment plans, while another with strong family support but low academic confidence might be guided towards step-by-step academic planning. This level of personalization allows ReUp’s Success Coaches to provide customized guidance that directly addresses each learner’s circumstances.
Dynamic and inclusive support
Our system goes beyond one-time data collection, dynamically incorporating new information into our models every day. This ensures interventions remain relevant and responsive to changing circumstances in the lives of adult learners. Additionally, ReUp’s commitment to equity ensures that our models are designed to reduce—not replicate—systemic inequities. By prioritizing transparency, the platform ensures all learners receive the personalized attention they deserve, regardless of background.
This approach delivers tangible results. ReUp has supported over one million adult learners and facilitated over 48,000 re-enrollments, resulting in thousands of graduates.
The future of persistence is data-driven
Predictive analytics provides institutions with a powerful tool to better understand and support their adult learners. By leveraging data to illuminate barriers and guide targeted interventions, institutions can make meaningful changes that help more adult learners stay on the path to graduation.
Discover more strategies for success tracking to drive persistence
Setting measurable goals and actively monitoring adult learners’ progress allows institutions to spot challenges early, providing support to prevent stopouts. Get our free guide, Creating a Culture of Persistence: Success Tracking, for more examples and actionable strategies.
Let’s start the conversation
Schedule a call with a ReUp team member to learn more about what a ReUp partnership could do for your institution.