Bellarmine wins national award for innovative technology use

Bellarmine University earned a national award for its innovative use of technology. The award recognized a campus-wide initiative to help undergraduate students stay enrolled and complete their degrees.

Bellarmine’s “ ‘first-year predictive model’ uses dozens of variables to predict when a new college student might be at risk of failing or withdrawing, based on student outcome data from previous years,” according to a news release from the school.

This model, the news release said, can generate automatic alerts based on those variables “allowing faculty and staff to respond quickly to individual student needs.”

The National College Learning Center Association will present its 2018 Innovative Use of Technology Award this fall. The initiative also received the American College Personnel Association’s 2018 Innovative Academic Support Initiative Award in February.

The project team included Dr. Kristen Wallitsch, associate dean of student success for academic support; Drew Thiemann, director of institutional research and effectiveness; Elizabeth Cassady, assistant dean and senior director of academic services; and Dr. James Breslin, dean of student success at Bellarmine, with support from the university’s Information Technology office. 

“The intentionality around including multiple Bellarmine offices is the real core of this project, and is what makes this model truly unique,” said Thiemann.

They will present their work at the National College Learning Center Association’s annual conference in October. They plan to continue refining the model “as they encounter new variables and as student needs evolve,” the release said.

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