Stellic Partnership

The university’s new online student success tool will streamline and consolidate existing technologies into a single online platform where students can build their degree plan, track their progress and visualize the impact of any decisions.

This new platform meets the needs of IU students by offering personalized, data-informed experiences. Students can build their degree plan, track their progress, and visualize the impact of any decisions inside the system. They will build schedules and register for classes directly through a custom degree map that will show an intuitive graduation progress bar. Students can also perform a “what if” analysis to explore adding a minor, pursuing a certificate, or even changing their major. They can do all of this through a modern and mobile-friendly interface.

This new platform will allow student success professionals to holistically monitor progress, identify students who are not on track, and activate earlier interventions. It will also help academic leadership more effectively plan future course offerings by analyzing what courses students plan to take in future semesters. 

Here are the ways that the new platform will allow student success professionals at IU to aid students more effectively: 

• Understand each student’s context at a glance: Access a clear ‘snapshot’ that captures things like majors, minors, what-if majors/minors, GPA, expected graduation date, and interests—all in one place. 
• Keep a continuous pulse on academic progress: See the completed, in-progress, planned, and remaining requirements for your students.  
• Quickly identify students who may need support: Use filters to find subsets of students, based on factors like unmet requirements, engagement, academic performance, and planned courses. Then, reach out to them seamlessly through email, text, or in-platform messaging.
• Access real-time reports: Build and save reports that track groups of students, based on criteria like GPA or unmet requirements, which update in live time. Get alerts when students fall behind to prevent mistakes before they happen. 
• Collaborate with students, asynchronously: Message students directly on the platform. Advisors can also review and approve student plans right from the platform. 

IU signed an agreement with technology partner Stellic in August 2023, following a process involving more than 400 members of the IU community across all campuses, including students, advisors, academic owners, enrollment managers, and faculty.

Discussions about a vended solution for student success technology began in summer 2022, and a process to identify potential partners occurred that fall. Funding was identified in spring 2023 via reallocation from existing technology expenses that will be replaced by the new platform. A formal RFP (Request for Proposals) process occurred in spring and summer 2023, including input from the stakeholders described above, before the final decision and agreement in August 2023.

Six of Stellic’s modules will be rolled out in phases. 

Phase 1: 

• Audit: Interactive & flexible graduation approvals; easy progress tracking for students & staff; powerful trend information. 
• Plan (Pathways): Helps students generate holistic pathways towards graduation; seamless advisor communication & approvals; predictive analytics for institutional planning & course demand. 
• Schedule: Helps students build holistic schedules, including courses and co-curriculars; simplified course search, including prerequisite checks and calendar drag-and-drop; proactive alerts to catch mistakes. 
• Report: Actionable insights for all stakeholders to boost student success; analyze historical trends & make proactive choices; analytics for engagement, course demand, accreditation, & more. (Previously part of Phase 2)

Phase 2:  

• Advise: Virtually & seamlessly collaborate on degree plans; advisor reports to enable outreach & help students stay on track; bulk messaging & text messaging.

Phase 3:  

• Transfer & Prospective Student Portal: A centralized location for applicants to envision their IU journey that leverages various data sources to simplify the application process. Stellic is currently developing & beta testing this module. 

In partnership with key academic advising leads, student success leaders, UITS partners, and other stakeholders, we are now beginning the evaluation of our existing tools so we can identify those that will be replaced by Stellic-vended systems. Currently, the following student success technologies are in use:

• AdRx: Advising Records 
• SOAR: Student Online Advising Records 
• Student Appointment Scheduler (SAS) 
• Student Center (vended Highpoint product) 
• Academic Advisement Report 
• iGPS

We know that the iGPS is already slated for replacement as part of this project.

UITS is currently leading a gap analysis to compare the functionality of current tools with Stellic-vended software. There will be several opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback and raise concerns, and more information about those events is coming soon.

This project is transitioning to a campus-by-campus rollout approach. In the coming weeks, campus leadership and core members will be contacted directly to provide detailed explanations about the rollout process and how it will affect operations moving forward.

Phase 1 includes the audit, plan, schedule, and report modules and kicked off in Spring 2024. Completion timelines will vary among campuses with roll outs occurring between Fall 2024 and Fall 2025. Phases 2 and 3 include the advise and transfer & prospective student functions, respectively. These modules are under review and development, and implementation timelines will be established once that work has concluded.

• Will there be periods when we’re using both old and new systems? Yes, we will have to use both systems for a while. We’ll find ways to minimize that, and we’ll be able to share more about that after the gap analysis is finished.
• What is the timeline for graduate programs? The strategy is to start with the undergraduate programs and then move to the graduate programs. The goal is to have the Stellic tools ready for the undergraduate programs by Fall 2024 (to register for Spring 2025 classes).
• Is IU one of the first to use the transfer portal? Yes, but the transfer portal is not ready to be turned on yet. The transfer portal is a new feature that Stellic is developing with IU and other partners to be released in a much later phase.
• How will the new students be communicated about the Stellic tools? There will be a communication plan and strategy to inform and educate the new students about the Stellic tools and how to use them. This plan will also include making sure that advisors and other student success educators are informed on the tool and able to discuss it in their communications with students. 
• Will there be training for the users? Yes, there will be a formal training plan and schedule for the users. 
• When can we see a demo of what students and advisors will see? Stay tuned. We plan to hold sessions for those demos. 

• Will users be able to see what students see? Yes, but not yet. The student view will be available later in the implementation process.
• Is the Stellic audit programming better and more efficient than the current system? Yes, but it is also different. The Stellic programming is based on a different logic and structure than the current system, and it may take some time and training to get used to it.
• Is there color coding in the Stellic tools? Yes, in the student view, there is color coding to indicate the status of the courses and requirements, such as completed, in progress, planned, or needed. We are exploring whether shapes can also be used in combination with color-coding to promote accessibility.
• Will the course catalog include older course numbers? A course must be active in the course catalog to be in Stellic.

• How far out does Stellic need the schedule to optimize the course selection? At least four years. The more courses and semesters are available, the better the Stellic tools can help students plan their academic paths.
• Are course descriptions visible? Yes, the Stellic tools can show the course descriptions and other information we send from the course catalog.
• Can we see an example of a course that’s already in Stellic? Student data is still being loaded, so not yet.

• Is the pathway tab the degree map? Yes, “pathway” in Stellic is the degree map.
• Can you drag and drop from pathways? Yes.
• Can Stellic show/account for courses from other campuses? Yes, if the audit is built to accept equivalencies.
• Does Stellic help us meet the state degree map legislation requirements? Yes, the Stellic tools help IU meet the requirement for static and customized degree maps to help ensure that students can graduate on time.
• Can advisors initiate exceptions to degree audit requirements? Yes, Stellic has a workflow that can be initiated by the advisor or student. We are still working through whether and how academic policies will allow for such workflows.

• Do AdRx notes migrate? Yes, and AdRx notes will not be deleted.
• Many participants asked questions about specific functions in Stellic that are outside of the degree audit and planning tools planned for initial release. These functions will all be considered in the gap analysis and include, but are not limited to the following: 
  • Kiosks 
  • Reporting (from IUIE, SIS, or DS tools) 
  • Indiana College Core Library 
  • Integrations with CTS/Transferology type tools 
  • Quick Notes 
  • Appointment Scheduling and Campaigns 
  • Alert Functionality 
  • Handling of class/section-specific course notes. 
  • Handling of courses in common/block scheduling 
  • Handling of courses that can count in multiple categories for same degree 
  • Training/usage tools