Encoura Retention Surveys & Analytics vs Invoke StudentSuccess

Encoura Retention Surveys & Analytics is a paid offering for colleges seeking to identify at-risk students, understand their receptivity to assistance, and connect them with campus resources. Its portfolio includes the College Student Inventory, Mid-Year Student Assessment, Second-Year Student Assessment, and Student Retention Predictor. The College Student Inventory serves traditional undergraduates, transfer students, adult learners, online learners, and graduate students at two-year or four-year institutions. Typically administered after admission, during orientation, in a seminar, or early in a term, it reports motivation, risk areas, receptivity to specific services, and re-enrollment plans using nationally normed data. The Mid-Year assessment examines changing academic and social needs, service-use gaps, and completion plans. The Second-Year assessment covers second-year and transfer students across seven scales, including academic confidence, commitment, and financial security. The Retention Predictor combines analytics with consulting and provides individual and group insights plus risk indicators. Reports summarize classes, subpopulations, and individuals. Encoura describes encryption, role-based access, monitoring, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and incident-response safeguards. Pricing is available by request.

Invoke StudentSuccess analyzes student behaviors to identify learners who may not reach course outcomes and alert staff to intervention needs. It aims to flag students at risk of failing within a course’s first two weeks, and says it can detect struggles only days into a term. The product highlights factors behind its predictions and individual motivators, helping institutions structure personalized interventions, find relevant support services, and direct advising resources. Its analysis can include public-source attributes beyond academic records and use thousands of data elements without personally identifiable information. Capabilities include progress tracking, at-risk alerts, and SIS and LMS integration. Pre-built connectors include Canvas, Blackboard Learn, Zoom, Banner, and PeopleSoft. Institutions can customize student-data access to their governance guidelines and provision users. Invoke says its solutions meet FERPA requirements and support major cloud platforms. Each solution is customized for the institution. Pricing is not published and is available on request; Invoke says onboarding consultation typically takes up to a few weeks, while it can begin delivering insights in a few days.