WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) selected Rio Salado College as a 2023 WOW awardee for its development of RioPACT (Persistence and Completion Tracking), a program-level predictive analytics system that provides insight into when students may need assistance. The recognition highlights Rio Salado’s early success in predicting student persistence and enabling early intervention to enhance student outcomes.
WCET is a recognized leader in the practice, policy, and advocacy of digital learning in higher education. This award follows RioPACT's previous acknowledgment earlier this year by the Strategic Data Project during its annual convening, marking the WOW award as the second national recognition of the RioPACT project in 2023.
“It signifies that these organizations are finding it rare that a community college is generating this valuable work internally,” said Zach Lewis, associate dean. “There are many third-party vendors that offer these services but because our institution functions in non-traditional ways, we just haven’t had luck with some out-of-the box solutions. With in-house expertise and ingenuity, we created a successful prototype.”
The RioPACT model is a pioneering predictive analytics tool that analyzes three crucial areas to determine a student's likelihood of persisting and continuing their studies:
- Student engagement levels (such as how often they engage with the coursework),
- Previous academic success (such as prior experience in college), and
- Demographic characteristics (such as whether or not they are a first-gen student).
The development and refinement of the RioPACT model were undertaken by a dedicated team, led by Lewis and Dr. Fermin Ornelas, senior research analyst. During the 2021-22 academic year, they developed and tested the machine learning model that underpins RioPACT. The initial results were promising, with a predictive accuracy rate of nearly 75 percent.
“The development of RioPACT is a reflection of our dedication to addressing the barriers of higher education head-on,” said Rio Salado President Kate Smith. “This recognition inspires us to continue pushing boundaries and developing solutions that empower our students to thrive in their academic journeys. We are immensely proud of our team's hard work and vision, and we look forward to making an even more significant impact on student outcomes."
Today, RioPACT is being used more intentionally by two key student support teams: the Office of Academic Advisement and the Office of Disability Resources and Services.
“They’re using RioPACT to help identify students who may need additional support and dedicate more outreach time to those students,” Ornelas said.
Ornelas and Lewis will use their time as fellows for the Strategic Data Project to fine tune the data captured and collaborate with other like-minded researchers to identify avenues for further use.
“For a community college, it is a big step up to create this internally,” Ornelas said. “Usually when you see work like this from a community college, it’s published with some consulting firm. What is changing is that we ourselves are taking the lead. The timing is about right to have this kind of approach and the impact will be significant for Rio.”
RioPACT exemplifies WCET's mission to promote innovative and effective practices in higher education. The WOW award acknowledges Rio Salado College's outstanding contribution to student success and highlights RioPACT as a pioneering solution for higher education institutions nationwide.
In 2019, Rio Salado received a WOW award for the Dynamic Assessment Data Display, or DADD, a tool that allows faculty to use performance data from all students to make informed decisions on instructional interventions.