Georgia Northwestern Technical College

The Solution:

Using Data to Improve ROI

During the pandemic, GNTC sought out Ad Astra’s assistance in revamping manual scheduling processes across its six-campus institution. Over the last year, GNTC worked closely with Ad Astra to implement the background work necessary to build a strong scheduling foundation. This included conducting an inventory of seats and room spaces, identifying scheduling bottlenecks, and solidifying pathways, or e-maps, across all its campuses.

Using Ad Astra’s analytic tools, the college realized it had too many sections and students were spread too thin. Additionally, heat map reports allowed the college to see where most students were registered and highlighted additional classes students could take during the same day.

These findings prompted the college to add Friday classes along with evening options for core Gateway classes beyond its traditional Monday-Thursday schedule. New telepresence technology also allowed GNTC to offer live classes synchronously, allowing students to stay closer to their home campus, attend classes in a face-to-face setting, and complete core classes in a timely manner.

“We wanted to help students stay at their home campus as much as possible,” said Jennifer Loudermilk, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, GNTC. “As a college, we also did a lot of outreach to students, including implementing a new orientation and advisement process, which allowed students to register earlier in the semester.”

With the changes implemented, GNTC moved forward with a data-driven scheduling process for Fall 2023. Usage of data analytics and the efforts mentioned above allowed the college to realize a 9.8% growth in enrollment from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023. Buoyed by its success,  the institution is currently building out its Summer 2024 schedule with confidence.