Why Traditional Student Support Is Under Pressure

Student success has never been more important, and the centers supporting it are busier than ever. Colleges and universities are asking advising, tutoring, and student success teams to help improve retention, persistence, and academic outcomes while working with limited staff, constrained budgets, and growing student needs.

At the same time, the way students learn has dramatically changed in recent years. More than 70% of studying happens outside an institution’s traditional hours of operation, often when faculty and student success professionals are unavailable to provide direct support1. And many students do not visit tutoring centers until they are already struggling, if they seek help at all, leaving institutions with fewer opportunities to intervene before those challenges threaten their enrollment. 

At its core, student success teams need better, more effective tools to amplify their efforts. They lack visibility into student progress and opportunities to engage students when they’re actually studying. Institutions need new ways to identify at-risk students earlier, scale personalized support beyond appointments and tutoring sessions, and help staff focus their time where it can make the greatest impact.

Meeting Students Before They Ask

The future of student success will ultimately be defined by how institutions are delivering support at the right time, in the right place, and in ways that reinforce the work of student success teams.

The goal is simple: students receive support as soon as they need it. Instead of waiting until they're in crisis, they have access to trusted guidance and personalized study resources throughout their learning journey and get approached by faculty when they begin to struggle. 

Meanwhile, advisors, tutors, and student success teams need real-time insights into how students are progressing between appointments, along with new ways to engage them on their terms. Rather than relying solely on office visits or exam grades, they can identify emerging challenges earlier, prioritize students who need the most support, and spend more time delivering meaningful interventions instead of searching for where to start.

By combining human expertise with real-time insights and personalized learning tools, institutions can transform student success from a reactive service into a proactive, continuous experience. The result is better support for students, better visibility for staff, and a more scalable approach to improving DFW rates, retention, and student outcomes. 

Extending Your Team's Reach

Sharpen Advantage is an enterprise-level AI study and academic success app that helps institutions extend personalized support beyond tutoring sessions and business hours. Through connected tools, it gives teams insight into how students are progressing, helps them create targeted study resources, and delivers support directly to students.

 

With Radar, student success teams gain real-time insight into how students are progressing with their learning. Instead of waiting until grades or missed appointments reveal a problem, institutions can identify at-risk students earlier, see exactly where they need support, and intervene before challenges become retention risks.

With Creator, advisors, tutors, and student success professionals can develop customized study resources aligned with student needs. Students can use those resources after an appointment or tutoring session, reinforcing key concepts and building on the guidance they received. This creates a more connected support experience that extends personalized support beyond traditional hours of operation.

And with Playlist, student success teams can curate vetted academic content from Sharpen’s growing library and custom study activities they’ve developed using Creator, then send these personalized study activities to students to complete whenever and wherever they’re studying. Rather than waiting until they seek help, students benefit from trusted, just-in-time support that keeps them engaged, reinforces classroom learning, and helps them improve and prepare for their next exam.

Together, these tools help institutions move beyond reactive interventions and create a more proactive approach to student success. By combining real-time insights with personalized learning experiences, Sharpen Advantage helps student success teams extend their reach, focus their efforts where they're needed most, and support more students without increasing staff workload. 

Explore Sharpen Advantage today to discover how our responsible AI study solution can help improve student outcomes and support your institution's strategic goals.

1 Spring 2026 Sharpen Advantage pilot schools