Starfish by Hobsons Expanded Impact on Higher Education Student Success During a Turbulent Year

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hobsons, the education technology leader behind Starfish, announces a milestone year in supporting student success in higher education despite the challenges of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Starfish's student success and retention platform increased student impact and functionality for existing clients, while growing relationships with its hundreds of college and university partners.

Students who respond to Starfish alerts have better completion rates and are more likely to return.

Although this was a challenging year for higher education institutions and their students, Starfish helped clients increase their impact on student success. Using Starfish, client institutions were able to track students' progress and provide the additional support they needed to stay engaged with their coursework. During a period when many classes moved online, academic advisors and faculty members raised more than 1.79 million alerts in support of students, and the number of students reaching out for help through Starfish increased 300% from the same period in 2019. This significant impact was recognized by clients and delivered a greater than 97% client retention.

"We have worked hard alongside our higher education partners to expand support for students this year, especially during the sudden shift to remote learning this spring," said Kate Cassino, Hobsons CEO. "Students who respond to alerts in Starfish have improved outcomes in dimensions such as course completion rates, GPA, and likelihood to return the following semester."

Starfish released several new product enhancements throughout 2020 in support of the unexpected virtual learning environment, including enhanced features for virtual walk-in advising appointments, text message reminders, and streamlined student mobile experience to make it easier than ever for students to access crucial campus resources from any device.

"No matter what 2021 looks like, the Hobsons team is prepared to further expand our support of higher education institutions' mission of increasing student success in the new year," added Cassino.

Starfish's powerful features for student engagement, advising, advanced analytics, workflow management, and academic and career planning help higher education institutions drive student success. To learn more about Starfish, visit hobsons.com/starfish.

About Starfish by Hobsons
The Starfish Enterprise Success Solution helps nearly 500 colleges and universities - more than all other organizations in the industry - scale their student success efforts so more students can achieve their academic and life goals. By helping higher education institutions leverage reliable data to pinpoint areas of concern and opportunity within courses and student populations, as well as institutional programs and services, Starfish connects these findings to action by identifying at-risk students, connecting students with valuable resources, and building career and academic plans to achieve student goals with the least momentum lost. To learn more about Starfish, visit hobsons.com/starfish.

About Hobsons
A leader in education technology, Hobsons helps more than 16 million students make informed choices and realize successes throughout their life journeys. Through our solutions, students are able to identify their strengths, explore careers, match to best-fit educational opportunities, create academic plans, and reach their education and life goals. More than 15,000 K-12 and higher education institutions leverage Hobsons' expertise and solutions - Naviance, Intersect, and Starfish - for the success of students. Learn more at hobsons.com.

For more information about Starfish by Hobsons, contact press@hobsons.com.

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