Libsyn Directory

Student Retention: Using AI to Spot Disengagement Before Dropout

Release Date: 07/07/2026

Building Fairleigh Dickinson’s Lifelong Learning Ecosystem Across Five Generations

Changing Higher Ed

Program discontinuation is usually the fight presidents avoid. Fairleigh Dickinson University put a significant slate of program discontinuations and consolidations to a faculty referendum, and roughly 88 percent of the faculty endorsed it. The vote reflects a larger redefinition underway at FDU: a shift from the four-year degree to a university built around lifelong learning. In this episode of the , Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with and the first FDU graduate to hold the office, about the four-P framework guiding that redefinition: programs, people, partnerships, and place. Avaltroni...

Pairing Liberal Arts with Tech Readiness: Five Institutional Decisions from Manhattan University

Changing Higher Ed

At Manhattan University, the case for the liberal arts is being made with outcomes, not nostalgia. Its graduates rank in the top 2% nationally for mid-career salaries, and The Wall Street Journal ranked the university 73rd in the country for graduate salaries, social mobility, and cost-effectiveness. The more useful story for institutional leaders sits underneath those numbers: a set of deliberate decisions about , technology preparation, faculty adoption, hiring, and alumni engagement. In this episode of the , speaks with , President of , about how the institution pairs a liberal arts...

Student Retention: Using AI to Spot Disengagement Before Dropout

Changing Higher Ed

Most retention systems flag struggling students through grades and attendance. By the time those indicators fire, many students are already halfway out the door. Elvee's survey of 1,050 U.S. college students shows why: 86% start college highly motivated, 42% come close to dropping out at some point, and only 17% of those who struggle ever request help. In this episode of the , speaks with , CEO of , whose work with U.S. colleges centers on reading behavioral data for early signals of student disengagement. Drawing on his background in commercial technology, Dar explains how patterns in...

Higher Ed's Trust Problem Isn't a PR Problem: AAC&U's Trust Agenda

Changing Higher Ed

Half of college presidents worried about public trust are answering with a public relations campaign. According to the AAC&U report at the center of this episode, that is a reasonable instinct but the wrong one. Public confidence in colleges and universities has slid for more than a decade, and messaging alone will not turn it around. In this episode of the , speaks with , lead author of and he co-directs AAC&U’s Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education initiative, about why trust has eroded and what campus leaders can actually do about it. Their conversation moves past naming...

Why Research Funding Cuts Are a Strategic Risk, Not a Budget Problem

Changing Higher Ed

When the federal government freezes research funding, leaders tend to treat it as a budget problem: a number that was cut and might later be restored. The harder truth in this conversation is that much of the damage cannot be undone. Halted studies, shuttered labs, and departed early-career researchers do not simply resume when the money comes back. Research funding cuts are a strategic risk, not a line item. In this episode of the , speaks with , President and CEO of the and former chancellor of UC Berkeley. Dirks , reflecting on the protests that had put Berkeley at the center of national...

When AI Finds the Administrative Friction Higher Ed Leaders Miss

Changing Higher Ed

Most AI conversations in higher education focus on the academic side. The administrative side gets less attention and is producing the bigger near-term financial wins for institutions willing to govern the rollout. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how AI is being applied across enrollment and advancement at institutions including Empire State University, Florida Southwestern State College, and Boise State University. Drawing on his career across Blackboard, Instructure, Kaltura, and now Gravyty, Beck walks through the specific case studies behind administrative AI adoption: a...

Inside CSU’s ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities

Changing Higher Ed

AI implementation in higher education is often framed as a technology question. California State University treated it as with technology as the catalyst, rolling out ChatGPT Edu to 22 universities in 18 months while running the largest AI survey ever conducted at a single university system. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how the system designed and executed its generative AI implementation and what the of 94,060 respondents reveals about AI adoption, faculty engagement, and student behavior. Drawing on her work co-leading the academic side of CSU's GenAI initiative,...

AI in Higher Education: Bias, Procurement, and Human Oversight

Changing Higher Ed

At sixteen, with straight A's in math and science, Dr. Karen Panetta's school career assessment told her to sell makeup or be a cook. A male friend with lower scores got engineer or politician. No AI was involved. Just a rules-based system applying gender and biographical filters to two teenagers. That same logic now sits inside AI tools landing in admissions offices and HR systems across higher ed, with one critical difference: AI does not eliminate human bias, it removes the human accountability that used to make bias correctable. In this episode of the , speaks with , Dean of Graduate...

AI-First Business Education: How Kogod Transformed Culture, Curriculum, and Faculty Adoption

Changing Higher Ed

Most business schools are still forming committees to figure out what to do about AI. Kogod School of Business at American University formed a committee, but far from the typical higher ed standards. Leadership gave it six weeks and a five-page limit, and used the recommendation to integrate AI into every department, major, and minor. Three years later, undergraduate enrollment is up 40%, applications are up 50%, and more than 90% of faculty are using AI in the classroom. In this episode of the , speaks with returning guests , Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University, and ,...

Closing Higher Education’s AI Readiness Gap with Human-First Transformation

Changing Higher Ed

AI adoption in higher education is moving faster than institutional change models were built to handle. Students are already using AI at high rates, while many institutions are still trying to decide where AI belongs, who should lead it, and how much change is required. In this episode of the , speaks with , serial entrepreneur and founder of , about why higher education’s traditional playbook will not work in the AI age. Drawing on her work with Fortune 500 companies and AI implementation, Barua explains why AI should be treated as institutional infrastructure, not an IT project. She...

More Episodes

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Raz Dar, CEO of Elvee, whose work with U.S. colleges centers on reading behavioral data for early signals of student disengagement.

Drawing on his background in commercial technology, Dar explains how patterns in study time, login frequency, and forum participation reveal disengagement before exam period and before failure reaches the gradebook. He and McNaughton examine why motivated students still leave, why institutions that wait for students to ask for help miss most of the students who need it, and why intervention without follow-up monitoring routinely fails.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, student success executives, enrollment executives, and board members looking to move retention from reactive support to proactive, early intervention.

Topics Covered

Why grades and attendance are lagging indicators that flag students too late
What disengagement looks like in behavioral data, and why a single dip can be benign
The help-seeking gap: 17% ask for help, 52% try to solve it alone first, 30% never reach out
The top dropout drivers: balancing work and school (72%) and mental health or stress (71%)
How the most successful institutions build a personalized bond from day one
Scaling a dozen advisors across thousands of students through prioritization and automation

Real-World Examples Discussed

A freshman who skipped two exams under acute stress and recovered because the institution initiated contact
Institutions that call students at term start to confirm they have books, Wi-Fi, and a computer
Cambridge's bridge week for first-generation students and Yale's required freshman life-skills course
The corporate benchmark: turnover above 10% triggers alarm in business, while higher ed absorbs far worse

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership

Build trust with students before they struggle; outreach in crisis only lands if a relationship already exists.
Move from reactive to proactive; only 17% of struggling students will ask for help, so use behavioral signals to know when to reach out and monitor afterward to confirm the intervention worked.
Make retention a strategic, measurable KPI from the top, and resource it with a real team.

This episode offers a practical look at what becomes possible when institutions stop waiting for students to raise their hands and start reading the signals students are already sending.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/using-ai-behavioral-signals-student-retention/

#StudentSuccess #StudentRetention #HigherEducation #HigherEducationPodcast #AIforStudentRetention

Topics Covered

Real-World Examples Discussed

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership

TOPICS