ConexED Retain vs Ellucian Degree Works
ConexED Retain
conexed.comEllucian Degree Works
ellucian.comSide by side
| Figure | ConexED Retain | Ellucian Degree Works |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Academic Advising Software | 7.6 (#5) | 8.3 (#4) |
| Audience | ConexED says it was built for higher education leaders and advisors, including CIOs, vice chancellors, and advisors supporting hundreds of students. | The product is presented for higher education institutions, their students, advisors, academic planners, and transfer staff. |
| Headquarters | Cottonwood Heights, Utah, United States | Reston, Virginia, United States |
| Integrations | The page lists Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Ellucian Banner, and PeopleSoft as compatible systems. | A 2024 Ellucian document describes out-of-the-box ERP/SIS integrations through open APIs and extensibility tools; a separate Ellucian planner brief describes integration with Banner Workflow for plan approvals. |
| Purpose | Retain helps higher education institutions identify and support students at risk of leaving. | Degree Works turns course, program, and academic data into degree audits and academic plans to help students meet degree requirements and complete on time. |
| Security | ConexED says it encrypts transmitted data with TLS 1.2 or higher and data at rest with AES-256, and hosts customer data in the United States on AWS. | Ellucian says its cloud services are ISO 27001:2022 certified, and that customers can request SOC 1, SOC 2 Type II, and SOC 3 reports. |
Plans
In their own words
ConexED Retain
ConexED Retain is a web platform for higher education institutions to identify students who may be struggling, route concerns to advisors and follow interventions through resolution. Activity feeds from Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle and D2L can trigger alerts for changes in attendance, grades or engagement; configurable rules also monitor missed appointments and milestone slippage. Faculty can flag a concern from a student profile, while students can submit configurable self-referrals that create an advisor case. Case records track severity, assignment, resolution reasons and change history. Advising, tutoring, financial aid and counseling teams can contribute timestamped notes, labels, attachments and threaded comments. Retain combines LMS engagement, attendance, milestone completion and advising touchpoints into success scores; alerts can assign a cohort, start a drip campaign or open a milestone. Listed integrations include Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Ellucian Banner and PeopleSoft. ConexED says it is TX-RAMP certified and FERPA compliant. Pricing is on request; the product page invites institutions to book a discovery call.
Ellucian Degree Works
Ellucian Degree Works helps higher education institutions, students, and advisors audit degree progress, plan coursework, and map transfer credits to institutional requirements. It turns course, program, and academic data into detailed audits and plans that students and advisors can update when a major change or course withdrawal alters a student’s path. Students can explore how such changes might affect completion timing and view Degree Progress and Academic Plan cards in an Ellucian Experience workspace. Institutions can create structured pathways for programs with sequenced courses and labs. Reports cover course use toward requirements, students not following plans, missing courses, and aggregate information for future term offerings. Degree Works can integrate with student information systems; Ellucian describes open API integrations and mobile-friendly SaaS access. When used with Ellucian CRM Advise, it can alert advisors when students fall behind requirements. Pricing is on request and based on full-time equivalent students; the pricing methodology is commercially confidential. Ellucian describes cloud services as ISO 27001:2022 certified, with SOC reports available to customers.