June 16, 2011
Cincinnati, OH– Hobsons, the leader in recruitment, communication, and student success solutions for colleges and universities, announced the acquisition of AgileGrad, an online scheduling and advising tool.
While the cost of higher education is increasing, nearly one-half of all students who start at a four-year school do not graduate in six years or less. And, only one-third complete community college requirements in three years or less. Students enter the higher education system with increasingly complex situations, and advising centers are overloaded with people who need specialized attention. Students also face increasing pressures to get through college quickly while balancing numerous outside responsibilities. AgileGrad is designed to help solve many of the challenges students face today.
The self-driven AgileGrad program enables students and advisers to look up course requirements, plan course schedules, and track student performance. One of the key components of agilegrad is online accessibility, allowing students to schedule courses and ask and receive answers to questions at any time. In addition, agilegrad can search for and schedule classes around a variety of student-selected parameters, such as available days of the week and preferred times during the day.
AgileGrad is also an invaluable source of information for institutions, providing data that enables schools to project course loads and schedule resources accordingly. According to Andrew Dryden, co-founder of AgileGrad and a college adviser and instructor, “Developing AgileGrad in a small, start-up environment, with student and advising faculty input, has allowed us to create a product that is uniquely positioned to help institutions to achieve their student success goals.”
Hobsons CEO, Craig Heldman, sees AgileGrad as the perfect complement to Hobsons’ products, enhancing its position as the one-stop source for student success solutions. “By expanding our service offerings to align more closely with student achievement, we will become even more strategic for senior-level decision makers in schools, districts, and universities globally.”
Andrew Dryden and co-founder Matt Demaray join Hobsons to continue the development of AgileGrad. Says Dryden, “Joining Hobsons allows us to bring this product to market with the support and experience of a premier higher-ed software provider.”