Case Study: Wake Technical Community College boosts online retention and success (6–10 percentage point gains) with Ellucian Colleague

Leveraging technology to increase classroom engagement

Wake Technical Community College partnered with Ellucian and used Ellucian Colleague to address low retention and success in high‑enrollment online courses and to close persistent achievement gaps for students of color as part of Project COMPASS. The college’s challenge was to increase engagement, retention and success rates for online students through scalable, technology‑enabled teaching methods.

Using Ellucian Colleague to establish baselines, create control and test groups, and drive data‑informed interventions, Wake Tech implemented high‑tech, high‑touch teaching strategies. The effort yielded measurable gains: overall withdrawal and success rates improved by about six percentage points, while students of color saw even larger gains—withdrawal rates improved by nearly 10 points and success rates by almost eight points.

Wake Technical Community College

Laila Shahid-El

Grant Project Coordinator