The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), one of the largest public, nonprofit online universities in the United States, recently announced extending an institution-wide coaching initiative to bolster its existing student success model. The University will collaborate with national student coaching nonprofit InsideTrack to enhance and broaden its in-house success coaching programme to increase support for online students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, such as working adults, part-time students, and first-time college students.
To help expand its wraparound support for its diverse first-time student population, the University has engaged with InsideTrack, which has served over 3.2 million students since its inception in 2001 and has developed a coaching model that has been shown to increase student persistence and graduation. Over five months, professional coaches from InsideTrack will work one-on-one with up to 600 first-time students, helping to provide newly enrolled students with personalized support needed to persist during the critical first year of study and provide short-term expansion of coaching support to UMGC’s growing number of new students.
InsideTrack is a mission-driven nonprofit offering coaching to empower and advance all learners towards their educational and career goals. It helps people receive the education they need to improve their well-being, generate opportunities, and find meaningful work, which promotes economic and social mobility.
Commenting on the initiative, Susan Hawkins-Wilding, Vice President of Student Success at UMGC, said:
Meeting the needs of today’s fast-changing workforce and society demands that college leaders continuously ask themselves what we’re doing to become student-ready, not the other way around. The simple fact is that there are many entry points to and through higher education, whether you are a first-time college-goer, a returning learner, a military service member or a working adult making a transition at the peak of your career. No matter the circumstance, our commitment to every learner is to meet them where they are—and work to remove obstacles every step of the way.
In addition to the initial focus on first-time students, UMGC has engaged InsideTrack to provide training, development, and certification to its student-facing staff and leaders, allowing the University to expand on its proven approach to serving learners. The University will expand its in-house coaching program based on InsideTrack’s evidence-based methodology by providing demanding coach training and development to UMGC staff and administrators.
Ruth Bauer White, President of InsideTrack, added:
The challenge for many institutions today is that they need support systems that are adaptable enough to meet the needs of today’s increasingly diverse student demographics but also consistent and proven to drive results at scale. This is about working with institutions to build their capacity to deliver impactful student support services in a highly cost-effective and scalable manner.
To build the coaching initiative, a core group of student support staff will participate in a series of InsideTrack Coach Development & Training programmes, which will equip staff with the principles of effective student coaching as well as the skills needed to train peers on best practices, resulting in a scalable model that will allow the University to maintain and expand the program in the coming years.
The University of Maryland Global Campus was established over 75 years ago to serve the higher education needs of working adults and military service members. The University provides affordable online programmes and student services to assist students in progressing their education and planning for their next achievement, regardless of where life takes them—even in the most challenging circumstances.
