Bringing governed student context into Program Mentor work
In a four-month pilot evaluated by WGU Labs, Program Mentors used a Doowii environment configured to WGU’s terminology, definitions, and permitted data. WGU Labs reported that active users completed common tasks faster, built targeted outreach lists, and found new ways to personalize student support.
One governed view for student-support work
WGU Labs combined surveys, interviews, and aggregate usage logs to understand what mentors did with Doowii and how it affected their work. The clearest findings were mentor-centered: faster access to useful information, more confidence working with student data, and more targeted outreach.
75%
Tried it in practice
Of the 48 mentors and four team managers in the pilot, 75% logged in and ran at least one query.
About half
Built a weekly habit
About half of the mentors became regular users, returning at least weekly throughout the pilot.
Faster
Completed common tasks
The majority of mentors reported completing common tasks faster, including reports and lists of students who might need support.
These findings describe a short, voluntary pilot with a small, self-selected group. WGU Labs notes that the reported efficiency and satisfaction findings primarily reflect active users and should not be generalized to all WGU mentors.
Mentors needed context from across the student journey
WGU Program Mentors coach and advise students throughout their studies, but useful signals could require multiple logins, open reports, and specialized knowledge to assemble. The pilot examined whether mentors, not just analysts, could get the context they needed in time to shape outreach and support.
A signal became a timely conversation
The WGU Labs report describes a mentor who combined a list of upcoming assessments with Doowii’s risk profile. The mentor noticed that an accelerating student had scheduled a high-risk assessment for a bonus course in the final week of the term.
With that context, the mentor reached out proactively and discussed a different path. The student chose to drop the bonus course without a negative consequence, then re-enrolled the next term with more time to prepare.
This is an individual anecdote reported by WGU Labs, not evidence of a causal student-outcome lift across the pilot.
A unified, governed environment configured to WGU’s context
Mentors used the shared environment to ask questions in plain language and review visual and text responses. Because Doowii was configured around WGU’s terminology, definitions, and permitted data, mentors could interpret answers in the context of their work and review the underlying sources and logic. That institution-specific fit is central to how Doowii supports student retention analytics as one workflow on its managed higher education platform.
“Mentors who are not data analysts were able to ask complex questions and get understandable answers.”
See the findings and their limits in full
WGU Labs did not use a control group or attempt to establish a causal connection between Doowii and student outcomes such as course completions or assessment passes. Read the study design, mentor-centered findings, limitations, and recommendations in the full public report.
You can also readWGU Labs’ published overview of the pilot.
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