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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 | June 2020 (Revised October 2020)

  Muddy Waters vs. eHealth: The Debate of a 'Lifetime'

  Jonas Heese and Cristo Liautaud

  In May 2020, an analyst was assessing eHealth’s performance. eHealth was an online / tele-sales broker of health insurance products. The stock had recently hit all-time highs, closing at a peak of $146 on March 4, 2020. But now, May 4, 2020, eHealth traded at $103. The recent fall had wiped nearly $1.0B from the company’s market capitalization because well-known short seller Carson Block had released a short-report on the company. Carson Block argued that eHealth’s management had undertaken “massive stock promotion.” In the report, Block said that eHealth’s adoption of the new revenue recognition standard – ASC 606 – inflated revenue and masked the fact that eHealth was losing money on each new policy that it sold.
  Still, eHealth’s valuation remained elevated at 3.3x FY2021E Revenue, 21x FY2021E adjusted net income, even assuming away accounting uncertainty. In addition, the mean consensus share price target as of May 4, 2020 was $179.
  Did the latest news provide a buying opportunity? Or was it best to avoid eHealth, even perhaps consider shorting the company?

  Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Health; Insurance; Online Technology; Insurance Industry;

  Citation:

  Heese, Jonas, and Cristo Liautaud. "Muddy Waters vs. eHealth: The Debate of a 'Lifetime'." Harvard Business School Case 120-114, June 2020. (Revised October 2020.)  View Details

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