Meghan Holden

Journal & Courier

Purdue University knows a lot about its students.

It knows how often they're at the rec center, how many times a week they log onto the school's online course management tool, Blackboard, and how much time they spend on campus.

And the university has a fairly good idea how well students will perform in their classes based on some of that data. The trick is using that information to help students succeed.

Purdue believes it might have found a way to do that with a new online application it's developing that will allow students to see how some of their habits could affect how well academically they'll do at the school.

“We try to find behaviors that correlate with success and then try to encourage students to adopt those behaviors," said Steve Beaudoin, academic director of teaching and learning technology and chemical engineering professor. "With time, we’ll be able to learn what it is about that behavior that leads to the success and then we’ll be able to be even more effective.”

The school used four years of data from about 24,000 students to test how their behaviors correlated with outcomes like how long it took them to graduate or what GPA they earned in a course or term. Only the behaviors with high correlation rates to academic success will be included in the app, which also will give tips and resources for succeeding.

For example, the app suggests students take classes with friends or make friends in their classes because data have shown those who do tend to earn higher grades. The page also has links to a list of student clubs and learning communities where they can meet people.

The app, tentatively named Forecast, should be available to students by mid-semester and will be free, Beaudoin said. Its features and suggestions will not be tailored to each individual student.

Some faculty members were skeptical of aspects of the app when Beaudoin presented it Monday to the University Senate.

A couple professors pointed to the app's suggestion that students balance course loads by avoiding taking multiple classes with high rates of D's and F's. It also includes a link where to look up a course's drop/fail/withdrawal rate. One professor worried that could encourage students to simply take easier electives to get better GPAs.

Another professor raised the question of whether students who typically don't do well will even use the app.

“Students will use it if they find it to be valuable, and so what we have to do is get as many students sitting in focus groups, as many students helping to shape it ... so that when it comes time to use it, students will embrace it,” Beaudoin said after the meeting.

Computer graphics technology senior Gavin Brown is a student intern developer for ITaP's Informatics team, which helped create the app. He didn't directly work on Forecast but has given the team some input on what students would want out of it.

Students will be more likely to utilize the app, he said, if it helps them plan what courses to take and has a friendly interface that promotes improvement.

“A student shouldn’t feel like Purdue is telling them that they’re terrible and they might as well end their time (at Purdue) now," Brown said. "It really should be more of an encouragement.”

Aside from using students' behaviors to predict their likelihood to succeed, the university also found students' backgrounds — gender, ethnicity, parent income — could predict how well they'll do before they even step foot on campus.

Beaudoin said the school doesn't yet know how to use that information to best help students who fall under an at-risk category, but the provost's office and other departments are looking into it.

“The real question will be: What do we think is appropriate, or perhaps imperative, to do as a university community as we become much better at understanding who’s going to struggle?” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said.