What if colleges could see the warning signs before students reach a crisis?

Can AI Help Colleges Reach Struggling Students Earlier?

Austin Community College is testing whether artificial intelligence can help staff identify students who are struggling and connect them with support before problems escalate. Its new Digital Twin Initiative will bring together real-time information from across college systems to help identify emerging academic, financial and personal barriers, with an initial rollout reaching roughly 46,000 active credit students. The goal is not to replace advisers, but to help them see a more complete picture of a student's experience and focus their attention on students who need human support most. The initiative could offer an important test of whether AI can make early-alert systems faster, more proactive and ultimately more useful to students.

Key Takeaway: AI may have its greatest student-success impact when it helps colleges move from identifying problems to connecting students with the right human support sooner.

Online Learning Isn't Going Away

The pandemic dramatically accelerated online education, but new federal data suggests students' appetite for flexibility has staying power. Nearly 54 percent of college students were taking at least one distance education course in fall 2024, compared with 36 percent in 2019, and online participation has grown substantially across public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions. Undergraduate online enrollment has also nearly caught up with graduate enrollment, reflecting demand from both traditional-age students and adult learners. For institutional leaders, the data suggests online learning should no longer be treated as a separate initiative, but as a core part of enrollment, academic and student-success strategy.

Quick Insight: Flexibility has become part of what students expect from college, making online learning a long-term strategic issue rather than a temporary response to the pandemic.

What Happens to First-Gen Support After the First Year?

The University of Michigan is focusing on a point in the student journey that can easily be overlooked: sophomore year. Its new First Fellows program will provide first-generation sophomores with a dedicated course, team-based mentoring, community-building opportunities and $4,000 for summer experiential learning. The program grew from feedback that first-generation students often receive significant attention during their first year, only to find that support drops off as they begin making consequential decisions about majors, internships and careers. Michigan hopes to create a more connected support ecosystem and will track outcomes including retention, graduation, experiential learning and students' sense of belonging.

Key Insight: Student success shouldn't have an expiration date at the end of freshman year, and colleges may need to design support around critical transition points throughout the student journey.

Community Colleges Can Help Rebuild the First Rung of the Career Ladder

After decades of decline, summer employment among 16- to 19-year-olds increased to 35.5 percent this year, offering a small but noteworthy signal about young people's connection to the workforce. Community College Daily argues that community colleges can help strengthen this first rung of the career ladder by connecting early work experiences with education, skills development and longer-term career pathways. These early experiences can help young people develop fundamental workplace skills while beginning to understand how education connects to future opportunities. For community colleges, the trend creates an opportunity to deepen partnerships with K–12 schools and employers and make career pathways more visible earlier.

Takeaway: Community colleges can play a powerful role in connecting young people's first experiences with work to education, credentials and longer-term career opportunities.

Don’t Wait for Students to Ask for Help

The best student support is available before a challenge becomes a crisis. StudentLingo gives students 24/7 access to practical, on-demand workshops on the issues that can derail their progress, from time management and study strategies to financial literacy, stress and academic success. Give students support they can access when they need it. Explore StudentLingo. 

Published: September 12, 2026