Dive Brief:

• During his session at the Association of Community Colleges' annual meeting this week, Casper College CIO Kent Brooks said enterprise software is not keeping up with a need to provide students a highly customized, Netflix-and-Amazon-like experience.
• Citing Facebook's aggregation of content to provide a more personalized experience for users, Brooks asked, "Shouldn't we be able to use our LMSes to aggregate the experience of every student based on the DNA of their self-selected digital assets?"
• A hyper-personalized application program interface (API) integration suggests courses, times and instructors for students, includes preferred products and on-campus experiences, such as computer lab availability, and ultimately lets students chart out their own paths to the workforce.

Dive Insight:

Providing students with a highly personalized matriculation experience may have more benefits than just providing a shiny-new-toy in an institution's slate of offerings: It could actually help improve retention and boost graduation rates. Imagine if a student could get app-based advising or career advice from off-site or after-hours to supplement the often formulaic advising that comes with the required face-to-face check-ins. Or the impact phone notifications alerting one to lab availability could have on success in a given course. The ability to combine personalized learning with intrusive advising and allow students to customize their collegiate experiences based on their own preferences could be a game-changer.