Overview

To improve students’ experiences and outcomes, the Gates Foundation is supporting a selected group of postsecondary institutions with large student enrollments, online capabilities, and the ability to reach students on a national and international scale as part of the National Scale Enterprises. The National Scale Enterprise (NSE) institutions are Arizona State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Western Governors University, along with two emerging NSE institutions, the University of Maryland Global Campus and Purdue Global.

MDRC is evaluating innovative projects undertaken by the NSE institutions on various topics such as how artificial intelligence can improve student success, strategies for using student data to support the transition from education to the workforce, and improvements to institution-level data infrastructure. The evaluation will assess the effectiveness of projects at each institution and their potential for being expanded to a larger scale at the same institution or other institutions, aiming to derive best practices that can strengthen the field of postsecondary education.