Western Governors University Selects Aera Technology to Create Industry-First Decision Intelligence Ecosystem for Student Success
Enables AI-Powered Personalized Learning and Student Support at Scale
Mountain View, Calif. — August 27, 2024 — Aera Technology, the Decision Intelligence company, today announced that Western Governors University (WGU) — the largest nonprofit, competency-based, online higher education institution in the United States — selected the Aera Decision Cloud™ platform to create an industry-first Decision Intelligence solution for scalable, personalized student support. Using the platform’s decision capabilities, WGU will help close equity gaps, increase student course completion rates, and improve graduation outcomes in higher education.
"I am genuinely excited about bringing Decision Intelligence capabilities to higher education,” said Joe Dery, Vice President and Dean, Western Governors University School of Technology. “We can now bring decision modeling together with a digitized map of the student journey, and the right AI techniques, to predict outcomes early, guiding faculty interventions at an individual level to maximize student success. This is a big step forward in using AI to improve outcomes, while keeping human decision-making at the forefront."
With 74% of WGU’s approximately 176,000 students coming from one or more underserved populations, WGU is committed to improving graduation rates and equitable attainment. According to WGU data, cost of tuition is a main reason why many students leave college before earning a degree, but other reasons include a decline in motivation, struggles with time management, competing life responsibilities, and a change in focus. WGU’s research shows that timely intervention from faculty improves student success, particularly for students who have struggled academically.
By implementing a Decision Intelligence ecosystem — powered by Aera Technology — WGU can assist faculty in one-to-one engagement by identifying struggling students and determining the type of outreach and instruction needed to get them back on track given available resources. The Aera Decision Cloud platform will identify, generate, and automate recommended actions that enable WGU’s dedicated faculty members to provide the timely, focused support that students need and engage students in relevant ways at critical points in their educational journeys to improve course completion rates.
“Aera's leadership in Decision Intelligence provides the decision ecosystem capability we need to reinvigorate the promise of higher education,” said Jennie Sanders, Vice President of Instruction, Western Governors University. "There are many projects focused on using AI in higher education, but we are focused on something more fundamental — empowering better decision-making at the individual level to drive completion, return, and equitable outcomes for our students at scale."
Fred Laluyaux, Aera Technology CEO, shared, “We are proud to enable market-changing AI innovation that drives human success in higher education. Collaborating with the Western Governors University team, we are demonstrating the amazing power of Decision Intelligence and its ability to enable meaningful student and instructor outcomes and achieve new milestones for AI and human teams.”
Find out more about WGU’s mission and successful history serving students at https://www.wgu.edu/about/story.html.
For more information about Aera Decision Cloud and its Aera Skills™, visit https://www.aeratechnology.com/decision-cloud.
About Western Governors University
Established in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors with a mission to expand access to high-quality, affordable higher education, online nonprofit Western Governors University (WGU) now serves more than 175,000 students nationwide and has awarded more than 380,000 degrees to nearly 340,000 graduates in all 50 states. Driving innovation as the nation’s leading competency-based university, WGU has been recognized by the White House, state leaders, employers and students as a model that works in postsecondary education. In less than 30 years, the university has become a leading influence in changing the lives of individuals and families, and preparing the workforce needed in today’s rapidly evolving economy. WGU is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and has been featured on NPR, NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in The New York Times. Learn more at wgu.edu and wgu.edu/impact.
About Aera Technology
Aera Technology, the Decision Intelligence company, empowers global enterprises to make smarter, faster decisions. Its platform for AI decision automation, Aera Decision Cloud™, seamlessly integrates with existing systems and data sources to automate and scale decision making with accuracy and speed. Known for its proven, exceptional performance and value generation, Aera is the trusted choice of market leaders in consumer products, life sciences, education, chemicals and industrial, technology, and more. Partnering with Aera, enterprises are building more sustainable, intelligent, and efficient organizations. Learn more at www.aeratechnology.com.