Case Study: Penn State World Campus achieves improved retention and operational resilience with Adobe Workfront

Building Resilience in the New Normal

Penn State World Campus, the online arm of Penn State University serving over 20,000 fully online students, faced rising competition and growing demand that exposed fragmented planning and siloed work across units. Leadership launched an organizational excellence effort to move from activity-based work to an outcomes-centered model, break down silos, and scale more efficiently—an approach that also helped prime the campus for resilience when the pandemic struck.

By adopting cross-functional processes, portfolio management, and Workfront tools (Goals and Scenario Planner) to align projects to strategic objectives, World Campus improved prioritization, resource allocation, and agile planning. The changes increased predictability and impact: retention rose 2 percentage points, efficiency ratio fell 2 points, conversion (matriculation after acceptance) improved by 3 points, and year-over-year scholarship and financial support for students grew.

Penn State World Campus

Jen Krempa

Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Administration