CIVITAS allows the College to examine student data in ways that were previously not possible! Over 30 MCC faculty and staff have been trained to use the CIVITAS suite of tools, and through their work, MCC has been able to identify groups of students at risk of leaving the College prior to completion. Although a decision to leave the college setting is complex, the CIVITAS tool has proven accurate at identifying factors related to student persistence when the student first enrolls, allowing the College to tailor outreach initiatives throughout the semester to improve student outcomes.
One frequently used CIVITAS tool, Illume Student, allows MCC to view student populations through dozens of filters, displaying persistence predictions for current students and ranking hundreds of contributing factors that increase or decrease persistence based on historical data. The information is dynamic, providing insights to that specific population. In response to findings, innovation teams (led by Assistant to the VP of Student Services Ryan Messenger) can quickly send personalized nudges to the identified student population through CIVITAS outreach (e-mail). Nudges are short, positive messages designed using <a href="https://www.civitaslearningspace.com/focusing-on-outcomes/">mindset or mattering concepts</a>- influencing mindset to affect a change in behavior that leads to success. They include a data-informed call to action and encourage behaviors associated with increased persistence. Thousands of MCC students have received strategically designed nudges, informed by CIVITAS data, crafted by MCC faculty and staff, through ten different communication campaigns in this last year. IR is evaluating the impact of those campaigns and reports the following preliminary outcomes:
<ul>
<li>8.7% of students who received the "one more class" nudge added credits. This nudge was created based on data from Civitas that part-time and light load full-time students performing well academically could benefit from taking one more course, increasing persistence and decreasing time to completion.</li>
<li>Persistence for students who received the Center for Academic Reading (CAR) nudge and went to the CAR was 10% higher on the Brighton Campus and 12% higher at the Downtown Campus than those who did not visit the CAR during the semester.</li>
<li>Students who received the Math Learning Center nudge and attended the Math Learning Center had a higher math course GPA for the term than their comparison group.</li>
<li>26.4% of fully online students on academic warning who received an e-mail nudge were in good standing after the end of the Spring 2018 term.</li>
</ul>
Another valuable tool in the CIVITAS product suite is Illume Courses. A group of twenty-two faculty and staff led by Dean of Health Science and STEM Dan Robertson and Associate Vice President for Student Services John Delate have utilized CIVITAS to focus on four highly enrolled courses in various disciplines. These courses are ones where students struggle and/or provide indications of likelihood to complete a degree. This team's work has led to useful conversations with the home departments of these courses and provided opportunities to delve deeper into the courses looking for both reasons why students may be unsuccessful as well as identifying methods that correlate with success. This has spurred conversations about courses that are more appropriate for a student's first semester, and by association, those better left until subsequent terms. This work will continue into the Spring semester.
If you are interested in learning more about the CIVITAS suite of products and how it is being used to predict student outcomes, watch for the upcoming IR newsletter in the Trib in December, or speak to one of your colleagues listed below, who have actively participated in improving student outcomes by assisting with implementing the CIVITAS suite of tools.
Data, Insights, Action, Learning (DIAL) Work Group: Kimberley Collins- Chair, William Dixon, Elina Belyablya, Christine Casalinuovo-Adams, Amanda Colosimo, Kimberly DeLardge, Bethany Gizzi, Kim McKinsey-Mabry, Todd Oldham, Holly Preische, Mike Quinn, Celia Reaves, Betsy Ripton, Eileen Wirley, Ryan Messenger, Julianna Frisch
DIAL 2.0 Work Group: John Delate- Co Chair, Dan Robertson- Co Chair, Victoria Boese, Laura Bond, Kathleen Borbee, Clint Cantwell, Marianne Dorsey, Larry Dugan, Mike Jacobs, Melissa Jarkowski, Jay Keith, Terry Keys, John Kulak, Matthew Lawson, Doug Miller, Vicki Pankratz, Medea Rambish, Brenda Smith, Michael Weingart, Sarah White, Sandra Wolf


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MCC Daily Tribune

Getting to Know CIVITAS

CIVITAS is one of the many data analytic tools utilized in the Institutional Research (IR) office. CIVITAS allows the IR office to quickly examine large sets of data and identify powerful student predictors of success without having to create complex algorithms. What would take the research office days to compute can be completed in a matter of minutes through CIVITAS.

CIVITAS allows the College to examine student data in ways that were previously not possible! Over 30 MCC faculty and staff have been trained to use the CIVITAS suite of tools, and through their work, MCC has been able to identify groups of students at risk of leaving the College prior to completion. Although a decision to leave the college setting is complex, the CIVITAS tool has proven accurate at identifying factors related to student persistence when the student first enrolls, allowing the College to tailor outreach initiatives throughout the semester to improve student outcomes.

One frequently used CIVITAS tool, Illume Student, allows MCC to view student populations through dozens of filters, displaying persistence predictions for current students and ranking hundreds of contributing factors that increase or decrease persistence based on historical data. The information is dynamic, providing insights to that specific population. In response to findings, innovation teams (led by Assistant to the VP of Student Services Ryan Messenger) can quickly send personalized nudges to the identified student population through CIVITAS outreach (e-mail). Nudges are short, positive messages designed using mindset or mattering concepts- influencing mindset to affect a change in behavior that leads to success. They include a data-informed call to action and encourage behaviors associated with increased persistence. Thousands of MCC students have received strategically designed nudges, informed by CIVITAS data, crafted by MCC faculty and staff, through ten different communication campaigns in this last year. IR is evaluating the impact of those campaigns and reports the following preliminary outcomes:

8.7% of students who received the "one more class" nudge added credits. This nudge was created based on data from Civitas that part-time and light load full-time students performing well academically could benefit from taking one more course, increasing persistence and decreasing time to completion.
Persistence for students who received the Center for Academic Reading (CAR) nudge and went to the CAR was 10% higher on the Brighton Campus and 12% higher at the Downtown Campus than those who did not visit the CAR during the semester.
Students who received the Math Learning Center nudge and attended the Math Learning Center had a higher math course GPA for the term than their comparison group.
26.4% of fully online students on academic warning who received an e-mail nudge were in good standing after the end of the Spring 2018 term.

Another valuable tool in the CIVITAS product suite is Illume Courses. A group of twenty-two faculty and staff led by Dean of Health Science and STEM Dan Robertson and Associate Vice President for Student Services John Delate have utilized CIVITAS to focus on four highly enrolled courses in various disciplines. These courses are ones where students struggle and/or provide indications of likelihood to complete a degree. This team's work has led to useful conversations with the home departments of these courses and provided opportunities to delve deeper into the courses looking for both reasons why students may be unsuccessful as well as identifying methods that correlate with success. This has spurred conversations about courses that are more appropriate for a student's first semester, and by association, those better left until subsequent terms. This work will continue into the Spring semester.

If you are interested in learning more about the CIVITAS suite of products and how it is being used to predict student outcomes, watch for the upcoming IR newsletter in the Trib in December, or speak to one of your colleagues listed below, who have actively participated in improving student outcomes by assisting with implementing the CIVITAS suite of tools.

Data, Insights, Action, Learning (DIAL) Work Group: Kimberley Collins- Chair, William Dixon, Elina Belyablya, Christine Casalinuovo-Adams, Amanda Colosimo, Kimberly DeLardge, Bethany Gizzi, Kim McKinsey-Mabry, Todd Oldham, Holly Preische, Mike Quinn, Celia Reaves, Betsy Ripton, Eileen Wirley, Ryan Messenger, Julianna Frisch

DIAL 2.0 Work Group: John Delate- Co Chair, Dan Robertson- Co Chair, Victoria Boese, Laura Bond, Kathleen Borbee, Clint Cantwell, Marianne Dorsey, Larry Dugan, Mike Jacobs, Melissa Jarkowski, Jay Keith, Terry Keys, John Kulak, Matthew Lawson, Doug Miller, Vicki Pankratz, Medea Rambish, Brenda Smith, Michael Weingart, Sarah White, Sandra Wolf

Julianna Frisch
President's Office
11/16/2018