UMGC Officially Adopts InScribe's Student Community Platform

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), an offshoot of the University System of Maryland that focuses on hybrid and virtual courses for adult and military students, is officially committing to a university-wide rollout of InScribe's student networking platform.

Previously, UMGC was only test driving InScribe, whose flagship "virtual community platform" acts as a knowledgebase, support dashboard, and private social network for students.

The InScribe pilot had been limited to UMGC's Program and Career Exploration (PACE) module, an entry-level course series aimed at teaching students basic interpersonal and professional skills. Though entry-level, PACE has 8,000 enrolled students from around the world.

Those who used the InScribe platform had a completion rate that was 24% higher than those who didn't use the platform, InScribe said in its announcement.

Given its positive impact on students during the pilot, UMGC has greenlit the global rollout of InScibe's platform, extending its access to all 90,000 students.

UMGC will also use InScribe to collect data on student performance and engagement. "The data UMGC receives from InScribe will also help inform institutional decisions to enhance student success," InScribe said. "Key metrics such as high-priority topics, popular questions and conversations, and patterns of student participation will allow UMGC to identify new ways to support students throughout their learning journey."

More information about InScribe's platform is available here.

About the Author

Gladys Rama (@GladysRama3) is the editorial director of Converge360.

Featured

  • stylized illustration of people conversing on headsets

    AI and Our Next Conversations in Higher Education

    Ryan Lufkin, the vice president of global strategy for Instructure, examines how the focus on AI in education will move from experimentation to accountability.

  • AI word on microchip and colorful light spread

    Microsoft Unveils Maia 200 Inference Chip to Cut AI Serving Costs

    Microsoft recently introduced Maia 200, a custom-built accelerator aimed at lowering the cost of running artificial intelligence workloads at cloud scale, as major providers look to curb soaring inference expenses and lessen dependence on Nvidia graphics processors.

  • large group of college students sitting on an academic quad

    Student Readiness: Learning to Learn

    Melissa Loble, Instructure's chief academic officer, recommends a focus on 'readiness' as a broader concept as we try to understand how to build meaningful education experiences that can form a bridge from the university to the workplace. Here, we ask Loble what readiness is and how to offer students the ability to 'learn to learn'.

  • Blue metallic mesh fabric folds

    Microsoft Acquires Osmos for Agentic AI Data Engineering

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.