D2L turned the Degree Compass idea into an AI system that serves millions of students. Students using it take 20% more courses toward their degree.
The situation
School dropout is estimated to cost the US economy about $459B in lost revenue, and 30% of university students drop out. Course selection was largely blind: students picked courses without much sense of which ones fit their aptitude or interests.
D2L, a global leader in educational technology, had partnered with Austin Peay State University on a patented technology called Degree Compass. What it did not have was a way to turn that idea into a product that could scale to millions of students.
Two sides of the work
The people involved: university students at risk of dropping out, and the institutions responsible for their outcomes.
The goal was to help students make a better first choice, so institutions are not left managing dropout after the fact.
How they worked together
The system recommends. Students and institutions still make the choices.
It was built on data from the Austin Peay partnership, then rolled out well beyond the original pilot group.
Results
Students using Degree Compass take 20% more courses toward their degree.
Dropout rates declined dramatically within the first year of use.
Publicly recognized by President Barack Obama and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Now supporting a platform with 100,000+ customers and millions of users.
What TetraNoodle did
In their words
TetraNoodle brought a very pragmatic, collaborative attitude to the work.
TetraNoodle is used to designing and maintaining mission critical implementations.
Technology project. Delivered by TetraNoodle. This was a technology engagement, not an AI Merge engagement.
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