Case Study: College of the Desert boosts completion and transfers and closes equity gap with Ellucian Colleague Student Planning (Ellucian)

Improving outcomes with pathways reforms

College of the Desert, a 16,000-student Hispanic-serving community college in Palm Desert, sought to boost completion and transfer rates, shorten wait times for services, reduce excess credits, and implement guided pathways reforms. To streamline degree planning and improve advising and student self-service, the college adopted Ellucian Colleague Student Planning from vendor Ellucian.

Using Ellucian Colleague Student Planning to power guided pathways, open‑lab planning, and always‑available degree audits, COD increased degree and certificate completions by 42% (2012–2018), raised four‑year university transfers by 41%, saw a 782% jump in student education plan completions (and a 400% increase in students using plans), and reduced average units to transfer‑ready levels (about 70 units), while largely closing retention and persistence equity gaps. Ellucian’s solution also freed advisor time for deeper counseling and improved data-driven course scheduling.

College of the Desert

Amanda Phillips

Dean of Counseling