Northern Arizona University (NAU) employs an array of subject matter faculty and its CBE programs are entirely online. Students engage with a homegrown Dashboard where they can access their lessons, view their Personalized Learning Plans, and contact faculty and advisors through a dashboard with a modern user experience. Students can view what lessons they are currently enrolled in as well as those they have completed, or have yet to complete. They can view their grades on all submissions within those lessons as well as the faculty feedback and notes from this centralized portal.

The Personalized Learning Dashboard was developed by a small team of NAU programmers who worked to create a technological crosswalk that would enable our Learning Management System—Moodlerooms—to communicate student data with our Student Information System—PeopleSoft. The Dashboard allows students to view their program progress in terms of competency completion, or they can toggle their view to a “Transcript Tracker” that allows them to view their progress in terms of 3-credit hour course completion.

Personalized Learning has discussion spaces available throughout the lessons where students and faculty can post comments and questions that are visible by all who are enrolled in the lesson. The faculty also offer synchronous online forums for student engagement using Collaborate. Many Personalized Learning students interact on a student-run Facebook page, where they have established a community for support and encouragement of peer successes in the program.

Students interact with mentor faculty in multiple ways including regular check-ins, office hour communication, and spur-of-the-moment email and phone calls. NAU mentors encourage students to contact them as needed for just-in-time support, but the mentors consistently initiate contact with the students in regularly scheduled emails, phone calls, and videoconferences. Students have the same mentor throughout their entire program.