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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020 (Revised November 2020)

  Student Success at Georgia State University (A)

  Michael W. Toffel, Robin Mendelson and Julia Kelley

  Georgia State University had developed a reputation for driving student success by nearly doubling its graduation rate for students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It did so while growing its student body and the proportion of Black/African American, low-income, and first-generation students—groups with historically lower postsecondary graduation rates compared to national averages. Georgia State’s Student Success team, led by Tim Renick and Allison Calhoun-Brown, used a data-based approach to deploy micro-grant programs to retain students, implemented predictive analytics to improve student advising, and optimized course sequencing to help students graduate before they exhausted their financial aid. In 2016, they faced a growing “summer melt” problem where nearly 20% of incoming students who committed to attend never actually enrolled at Georgia State—and many never enrolled at any college. At the same time, they wondered how to balance continuing to incrementally improve student success at Georgia State and scaling their efforts to help the many other universities facing similar problems who sought to learn from their experience.

  Keywords: Education; Higher Education; Learning; Curriculum and Courses; Demographics; Diversity; Ethnicity; Income; Race; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Planning; Strategic Planning; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Technology; Technology Platform; Education Industry; Atlanta;

  Citation:

  Toffel, Michael W., Robin Mendelson, and Julia Kelley. "Student Success at Georgia State University (A)." Harvard Business School Case 621-006, September 2020. (Revised November 2020.)  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | September 2020 (Revised November 2020)

  Student Success at Georgia State University (B)

  Michael W. Toffel, Robin Mendelson and Julia Kelley

  This is a supplement to the Student Success at Georgia State University (A) case. The (B) case includes the results of a randomized control trial that Georgia State conducted to test education technology start-up AdmitHub’s chatbot solution as a strategy for improving “summer melt” (i.e., applicants confirming that they planned to enroll but then not enrolling).

  Keywords: Education; Higher Education; Learning; Curriculum and Courses; Demographics; Diversity; Ethnicity; Income; Race; Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Planning; Strategic Planning; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Technology; Technology Platform; Education Industry; Atlanta;

  Citation:

  Toffel, Michael W., Robin Mendelson, and Julia Kelley. "Student Success at Georgia State University (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 621-039, September 2020. (Revised November 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020 (Revised October 2020)

  Moderna (A)

  Marco Iansiti, Karim R. Lakhani, Hannah Mayer and Kerry Herman

  In summer 2020, Stephane Bancel, CEO of biotech firm Moderna, faces several challenges as his company races to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The case explores how a company builds a digital organization, and leverages artificial intelligence and other digital resources to speed its operations, manage its processes and ensure quality across research, testing and manufacturing.
  Built from the ground up as such a digital organization, Moderna was able to respond to the challenge of developing a vaccine as soon as the gene sequence for the virus was posted to the Web on January 11, 2020. As the vaccine enters Phase III clinical trials, Bancel considers several issues: How should Bancel and his team balance the demands of developing a vaccine for a virus creating a global pandemic alongside the other important vaccines and therapies in Moderna’s pipeline? How should Moderna communicate its goals and vision to investors in this unprecedented time? Should Moderna be concerned it will be pegged as “a COVID-19 company?”

  Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine; digital organizations; Organizational Structure; Operations; Management; Health Pandemics; Research and Development; Goals and Objectives;

  Citation:

  Iansiti, Marco, Karim R. Lakhani, Hannah Mayer, and Kerry Herman. "Moderna (A)." Harvard Business School Case 621-032, September 2020. (Revised October 2020.)  View Details

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