In 2021, Rio Salado College and InScribe partnered to launch RioConnect, a digital community that allows Rio Salado College’s students to easily connect with their peers, advisors, and faculty. A new effort announced this week aims to expand the reach and introduce new avenues of support networks in RioConnect to promote engagement and improve outcomes.
“Students regularly turn to RioConnect to find community, build connections between their peers, ask questions about classes, or even form study groups,” said Janelle Elias, Rio Salado executive vice president of strategy and academic affairs. “We look forward to this new partnership and opportunity to deepen the impact and outcomes of RioConnect.”
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Alamo Colleges District x Rio Salado College x WCET
Alamo Colleges District, in partnership with Rio Salado College and WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies), is launching a bold effort to improve retention for online students by addressing a known but often under-resourced challenge: the lack of connection and belonging among learners who are fully online. Despite being in good academic standing, thousands of students across both institutions do not persist each year. This partnership aims to reverse that trend by fostering more human, inclusive virtual spaces where students can build networks, access support, and stay on track to graduate or transfer.
With Axim’s support, the Alamo Colleges and its partners will scale the use of InScribe, a virtual community platform designed for broad access institutions, and pilot a new social capital feature called InCircle. Together, they hope these tools will help students form deeper connections with peers, advisors, mentors, and alumni. Peer moderators supported by AI assistants will help keep conversations responsive and supportive, while faculty will be scaffolded in embedding community tools into the learning experience. The initiative is expected to reach 22,000 students across the two institutions.
This partnership is designed to grow beyond the Alamo Colleges. With support from WCET, project findings and practices will be documented and shared broadly with other community colleges, helping to spark adoption nationally. InScribe will use the pilot to strengthen its product and scale it to other broad access institutions. The Alamo Colleges and Rio have also built sustainability plans to shift the platform into their core budgets if results prove effective. For Axim, this partnership is an opportunity to support building out an evidence-based model for online belonging and persistence, one that could shape the future of digital learning communities across broad-access institutions.
Collaborators
Luke Dowden, Ed.D, Vice Chancellor for Digital Learning & Transformation, Alamo Colleges District, Project Co-Lead
Monica Rogers, Director of AlamoONLINE Student Support, Alamo Colleges District, Project Lead
Janelle Elias, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Academic Affairs, Rio Salado College
Sasha Flores, Project and Change Manager, Rio Salado College
Van Davis, Ph.D., Executive Director, WCET and Vice President, Digital Learning, WICHE
Megan Raymond, Senior Director, Membership and Programs, WCET
Editor's note: This copy was updated by AXIM and reflected on this site as of March 3, 2026.