Over the past three years, UIA campuses have awarded over $3 million in completion grants to more than 4,000 low-income students. If you’re considering implementing new types of just-in-time financial aid (such as completion grants, retention grants, or emergency aid) at your institution, here are four key lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Before the global pandemic, the UIA launched a project to scale the use of chatbot technology to support student success. We wanted to understand how artificial intelligence like chatbots could improve access to information in areas like admissions, financial aid, and student services. As it turns out, in this time of COVID-19, UIA campuses that participated in the chatbot project have found their chatbots particularly helpful in keeping students up-to-date on health information and policy changes.
Last week, 130 UIA campus colleagues and partners joined our first-ever virtual convening. The two-day online event focused on how UIA campuses are adapting their student success work amidst COVID-19, what we’re learning from our completion grants and college-to-career projects, and an array of breakout topics related to online student success, digital student engagement, analytics, and supporting vulnerable students during and after COVID-19.