Three large online universities scaled student support without sacrificing human connection. See how.

Building high-touch student support models across the entire learner journey

Online education has become a central pillar of higher ed. Across the country, enrollment numbers continue to surge — with more than half (54%) of all U.S. postsecondary students now enrolled in distance courses. But this rapid expansion often creates challenges that affect the entire educational lifecycle: 

• When student and inquiry numbers climb, admissions and advising teams face bandwidth constraints, with many unable to respond rapidly or provide personalized guidance to every learner   
• Silence or automatic email responses can amplify student self-doubt and disinterest, leading many learners to abandon the admissions process or struggle to persist once enrolled

Left unaddressed, these gaps take a direct toll on prospective learner engagement, admissions yield, online learner persistence and degree completion rates.

But scaling reach doesn’t mean sacrificing human connection. To combat these challenges, institutions need solutions that can handle large student populations without reducing support to automated, transactional interactions. Evidence-based InsideTrack Coaching bridges the gap between staff bandwidth and student outcomes — with dedicated coaches operating as a seamless extension of campus teams. Coaches proactively outreach to students, respond to all student inquiries and maintain communication throughout the educational journey — allowing internal staff to focus on other pressing responsibilities.

Let’s take a look at how leading institutions are putting InsideTrack Coaching into practice to maintain a personal touch and achieve higher ed staff capacity building.

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Real-world examples of institutions that have scaled support through human-powered coaching

‍‍Penn State World Campus: Driving higher admissions yield and institutional belonging 

Penn State World Campus, the online campus of The Pennsylvania State University, offers more than 200 accredited undergraduate and graduate programs — growing from 8,500 enrolled students in 2010 to now serving more than 19,000 students.

Penn State World Campus and InsideTrack’s 16-year partnership has sustained that growth without compromising the student experience. By deploying high-touch Enrollment Coaching, the institution augmented its existing admissions staff, providing prospective undergraduate learners with prompt, 1:1 guidance from their initial inquiry all the way to day one of class. InsideTrack coaches operate as a direct extension of the university's admissions team, meeting prospective learners across their preferred channels — including phone, text message, video and email.

The results have been impressive. From 2021-2026 specifically, Penn State World Campus has seen: 

• 195,770 prospective learners outreached, ensuring a 100% timely response rate to inquiries
• 70,126 learners engaged directly with a coach, achieving a 35.8% contact rate
• 7x higher application rate for contacted learners (compared to non-contacted peers)
• ‍11x higher admission rate for contacted learners‍
• 10x higher enrollment rate for contracted learners‍
• 61.6% admitted student enrollment yield
  

Beyond driving metrics, insights gathered from more than 288K coaching interactions helped Penn State World Campus identify and eliminate enrollment barriers, streamlining its transfer evaluation process and embedding application fee waivers directly into the application.

"Managing the volume of inquiries is impossible without InsideTrack. They act as the air traffic controller for us — making introductions, building relationships and seamlessly handing students off to our staff. InsideTrack gives adult learners that individual attention that our internal team simply wouldn't have the bandwidth for otherwise." — Dr. Clayton Steen, Associate Vice President for Online Education Enrollment Strategy, Penn State World Campus

Get all the details of their enrollment success, and see where Penn State World Campus is heading next with InsideTrack Coaching.

READ THE FULL CASE STUDY

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‍University of Maryland Global Campus: Combating staff burnout with coach training

Serving 45,000 stateside undergraduate and graduate online students — predominantly adult learners, working professionals and military-affiliated students — University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) needed an advising model that supported staff wellbeing while elevating care consistency. They partnered with InsideTrack to train 189 of their success coaches in our evidence-based coaching methodology. 

The results transformed both employee retention and student academic momentum while curbing academic advisor burnout:

• +30 percentage-point increase in coaching staff retention
• 94.2% of assigned students established a current term plan within six months of coach certification
• 84% course success rate — a four percentage-point increase
• +2 percentage-point lift in one-year student retention rates

"Our coaches feel like they're providing more impactful and personalized support to learners when they use InsideTrack's coaching model. They can see direct connections between their coaching work and the changes in persistence and retention improvements. And because they feel better about the work they do and the way that they do it, they're more likely to stay with us." — Jennifer Weist, Director of Student Success Operations and Training, UMGC

Learn more about how UMGC is delivering personalized student support at scale.

READ THE FULL STORY

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Western Governors University: Elevating online university mentorship through a train-the-trainer framework

As the nation's largest nonprofit online university, Western Governors University (WGU) faced the challenge of unifying its student mentorship model across nearly 2,000 in-house Program Mentors serving 195,000 students.

To ensure every learner experiences consistent guidance, WGU launched a multi-phase Coaching Development and Training program with InsideTrack to establish the same personalized support for every learner, achieving:

• 8,253 total hours of staff training and development
• 121 Program Mentors earned InsideTrack Coaching Certification
• 35 leaders earned InsideTrack Coaching-Powered Leadership Certification
• 21 staff members completed InsideTrack Trainer or Developer Certification, allowing them to lead future training and development for the remaining Program Mentors in-house

"Scale and personalization are not competing priorities. The key is giving mentors a shared, evidence-based coaching approach that allows every student to experience meaningful support, no matter where they are in their journey. Our work with InsideTrack has helped us strengthen that foundation while continuing to invest in the people who make WGU's mentoring model so distinctive." — Malika Clinkscales, Vice President of University Mentor Strategy & Operations, Western Governors University

Our latest InsideTrack Impact Report shares more success stories like those found at Penn State World Campus, UMGC and WGU. Get the report to explore how combining human-powered coaching with tech-enabled outreach across our partner institutions yielded transformative outcomes across the entire student journey — from enrollment to degree completion.

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Achieving scalable student outreach and human-centered support

The narrative that colleges and universities must choose between reaching students at scale and providing individualized care is no longer true.

By pairing technology with evidence-based coaching, institutions can scale admissions, alleviate staff burnout and support online learner persistence through degree completion — keeping authentic relationships at the center of the student experience.

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