Calbright College offers fully online and flexibly paced programs that give adult learners the freedom to work toward industry-recognized certificates wherever and whenever is best for them. This kind of flexibility is the reason many students choose to enroll at Calbright, but it can also create different kinds of barriers to completion. While removing fixed class schedules and assignment deadlines offers learners valuable latitude in their studies, it also requires them to exercise much more self-discipline to stay on track. In partnership with Calbright and UC Irvine, ideas42 explored ways to help learners scaffold their self-paced learning with optional milestones to keep them on track toward their completion goals.

Our approach

Building on evidence suggesting that deadlines and adaptive structure can boost persistence in self-paced learning, we collaboratively developed a model of timelines that laid out a customized pathway to program completion for students.

The model features the following elements:

• Suggested program milestones were created using data from past program completers, indexing the average time to complete particular assignments to a wide range of timeframes.

• A brief survey matched students to their best-fit timeline by assessing factors like their desired completion date, the amount of time they could commit to the program, and their past experience with the subject matter.

• Once matched to a timeline, students received weekly outreach that helped them monitor their progress, adjust as needed, and connect with supportive services to overcome roadblocks.

The results

In a randomized pilot test that ran from March to May 2023, the timelines led to a substantial increase in the pace of student progress.

In the first month after enrolling, students offered timelines as part of the pilot completed roughly 30% of program assignments, compared to less than 20% for students in the control group. And this pattern continued to hold after the initial pilot period, bringing students using timelines that much closer to earning their certificates. 

One year out from the launch of the pilot, students offered timelines as part of the initial pilot were nearly twice as likely to have completed their program compared to students in the control group.

On the basis of these strong results, Calbright has begun scaling the timelines model to the other programs it offers, extending new supportive structure to thousands of working adult learners across California.

What student say…