During the Pandemic, UMBC created “Finish Line” to help long-lost students complete their degrees online. More than 250 students have done so, but was Finish Line just a temporary strategic initiative? In this session, we share candid lessons learned about “re-recruiting” former students to extend our “Inclusive Excellence” mission online.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all higher education pivoted to online learning, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) created ‘Finish Line’, a program designed to help former students with some college, but no degree to complete their studies, often several years after they had left the institution, and with only 1-2 courses remaining. More than 250 students have done so to date, also yielding nearly $500k in net tuition revenue, both of which made for a surprising pandemic silver lining for an institution with fewer than 5 per cent of all courses delivered online before 2020.

But was Finish Line just a temporary strategic enrollment initiative to get through a global health crisis? Or could it also be a proof of concept for how to meet and support ‘non-traditional’ adult learners where they are — and want to go? In this reflective case study workshop, we will offer candid lessons learned to go beyond the logistics of an enrolment management strategy of ‘re-recruiting’ former students through the affordances of online education to reassessing and applying our ‘inclusive excellence’ mission in a post-pandemic, often digital-first world.

In this session, we will highlight the happy accident that emerged by re-recruiting former students who left without a degree by promoting — even alerting them — that nearly 100 per cent of all courses at their alma mater are now online due to the pandemic. It was not obvious, however, for an institution with fewer than 5 per cent of its courses offered online before the COVID-19 meteor hit in spring 2020. But thanks to an innovative and dedicated team of administrators and staff in enrolment management, undergraduate admissions, academic advising and institutional marketing who recognised the silver lining COVID-19 created, 365 students have re-enrolled through our Finish Line program, more than 250 of whom are now proud UMBC alums.

Perhaps more than anything, Finish Line was designed to meet former students where they were, even long after they had left UMBC’s physical campus. Beyond simply having more online courses for them to enrol in, the program also consisted of key initiatives to lower barriers to students coming back, including streamlined admissions for interested students, high-touch advising including individualized degree audits, technical support, staff advocacy (on behalf of students) to help cut through bureaucracy and (importantly) waiving the $50 readmission fee. Some were also eligible for existing degree completion grants of up to $3,000.

As a result, the cross-section of students who have enrolled in UMBC’s Finish Line program to date adds nuance to the compelling and growing “some college, no degree” population higher ed would do well to consider enrolling, especially with the so-called demographic cliff of dwindling 18-to-22 year olds. Consider the following attributes of UMBC’s initial cohort of Finish Line students from autumn 2020:

• Average age: 31.6
• Sex: 50% female
• Under-represented minority: 45%
• First-generation college student: 24%
• Pell-eligible: 23%
• Prior credits earned: 115 average
• Out of state: 10%
• Average UMBC grade point average (GPA): 2.8
• Proportion entering as ‘First Time, First Year’ (FTFY) versus Transfer students: 60/40
• Net tuition revenue (NTR): $364k (autumn 2020 alone).

By almost any measure, Finish Line has been effective, primarily by meeting students where they are at, which is to include them in UMBC’s mission, no matter at what point in their journey as lifelong learners. But there have also been important lessons learned about the university, and what it takes for students of all backgrounds to be successful, which the campus may need to reckon with to embody a mission of ‘inclusive excellence’.

For example, Finish Line started with an advising conversation with one former, eager student whose competing life priorities of work and family made it challenging (almost impossible) for him to come to campus to take classes. Our pivoting to online instruction was a game-changer for this student, and it turned out for many others for whom coming to campus was also not a viable option, given everyone’s priority on public health and safety. But Finish Line also emerged as a surprising, compelling degree-completion blueprint for an institution that may not have been reaching out to non-traditional former students as intensely as it recruits traditional future ones.

Inevitably, as more institutions embrace and support students and faculty returning to campus, how will we remember, implement and even build on lessons learned from the pandemic pivot to online learning? Specifically, how will we support adult learners who would like to finish, but may find it difficult leaving jobs or caring for loved ones to attend class on campus during the day? Are we willing and able to reintroduce former students who have not been on campus in a while, and in fact, may be different, more mature adults than they were when they first arrived — and then left? In short, does higher education’s mission include the needs of adult learners who want to return — and thus epitomize a commitment to lifelong learning?

Session Outcomes:

1. Know how one institution leveraged Pandemic-induced online learning to aid student degree completion.
2. Better understand the needs of adult degree seekers who represent a growing enrollment management trend.
3. Join presenters in reflecting on how higher education will change post-Covid

Note: UMBC’s Finish Line program has been featured or mentioned in the following:

Baron, Ken, John Fritz, and Yvette Mozie-Ross. “Inclusive Excellence Online: Pandemic Lessons Learned Supporting Traditionally Underserved Students.” Advances in Online Education: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, 2023-2024, 2, no. 1 (Fall 2023): 60–70. https://www.henrystewartpublications.com/aoe/v2

Fritz, John, Mariann Hawken, and Sarah Shin. “Using Learning Analytics and Instructional Design to Inform, Find, and Scale Quality Online Learning.” In Online Learning Analytics, 1st ed., 20. Taylor & Francis, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003194620-6.

Rous, Philip J, Yvette Mozie-Ross, Sarah J. Shin, and John Fritz. “A Pandemic Silver Lining: Helping Former Students Finish Degrees Online.” EDUCAUSE Review, April 8, 2021. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/4/a-pandemic-silver-lining-helping-former-students-finish-degrees-online.