Community colleges are the backbone of equal opportunity education in America, enrolling nine million students seeking affordable pathways to advance their lives. Johnson County Community College (JCCC), the largest in Kansas, understood that to make this vision a reality, students need personalized plans that resonate with their individual goals. To achieve this at scale, JCCC partnered with Stellic.

In less than a year, nearly 10,000 students have engaged with Stellic's platform over 50,000 times, making over 60,000 decisions on their degree plans—all with support and guidance at every step. Here's why this matters deeply to JCCC's mission and what it means for the future of their students.

Diverse Goals Require Personal Degree Plans

"Community" is no small word in Johnson County Community College. Loved by businesses and citizens in Overland Park, KS, JCCC has earned a reputation for its deep care for the student experience and outcomes. This commitment drives them to continually enhance their educational quality. In recent years, they've embraced the Guided Pathways reform to help students reach their varied learning and career objectives.

At JCCC, student goals are as diverse as the student body itself—a mix of continuing credit students, first-time college-goers, part-time students, and adult learners. Some are working toward an associate degree, others aim to transfer to a four-year university, and many are enrolled in programs that lead directly into the workforce. JCCC has a significant quantity and variety of degree programs. 

With 20,000 students and just 33 centralized counselors, JCCC needed a resource to help students follow personalized plans toward their self-defined goals. They chose Stellic to provide a dynamic way to map courses semester-by-semester, integrating guidance from counselors and faculty. This approach would help students graduate or transfer to a four-year school via the most efficient routes possible.

Engaging Thousands of Students Through Plans and Pathways

Since October 2023, over 10,000 students have logged into Plan My Classes. Many are recurring users, contributing to more than 50,000 student sessions. In exactly one year, students have made 63,048 decisions about their academic plans, such as adding required courses or adjusting their class schedules. These decisions were fueled by over 275,351 explorations within the platform, where students searched for information about different options toward completion. Prior to this, students had to navigate multiple disconnected sources or rely heavily on their advisors for guidance.

Most importantly, each of these data points represents a JCCC student actively progressing toward their goals.

"This tool helped me strategically enroll in classes that will fulfill requirements for my education plan well beyond my associate degrees."
—Student, Liberal Arts AA and Certified Nurse Aid Certificate

‍“You can move classes around to different semesters, based on how you want to tackle them. It’s helped me create a plan so I always know what’s ahead. That plan may change, but I have an idea of what my semesters are going to look like.”
—Student, Accounting AAS program

“With Plan My Classes, I created a custom, long-term academic plan for my career path. I spread out difficult coursework so I'm not taking all hard classes in one semester. ” 
—Student, Liberal Arts AA and Certified Nurse Aid Certificate

The platform has sparked curiosity among students, with counselors noting increased engagement with the details of their academics. Counselors have commented on how quickly students have started using it, even making notes on classes for which sections they want to enroll in and what instructors they prefer. Several counselors particularly remark on the reduced anxiety that comes with visualizing their path to completion.

"Many students have enjoyed the long-term graduation plan layout to reduce worry that they were taking the right classes."
—Counselor

Outcomes are already emerging. Since the launch of Plan My Classes, students who are using the platform are taking more credits that directly fulfill degree requirements and enrolling in less excess credits. For those students, the average amount of applied credits is up by 25% and excess credits are down by 20%. 

While multiple initiatives bolster student success, these numbers suggest that Plan My Classes is helping drive efficient degree progression and completion at JCCC, empowering students to take more classes that get them closer to degree.

Flexible Planning for Busy Lives

What stands out is the smaller details of how the planning happens. This graph shows a break down of student sessions against clock hour.

What's most compelling is that 40% of all student sessions occur between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m. Given that about 80% of community college students balance jobs alongside school, these late evening hours may be the only time they can focus on academic planning. Now, JCCC students can engage with their educational paths and find answers to their questions.

"Students need advice on their terms, not just when we are open. If they enroll in too many credit hours or miss a prerequisite, Stellic tells the student instantly, using our rules and logic. We've integrated all the information they need in one system, accessible 24/7, so they're not going to different places."
‍—Cathy Mahurin, Dean of Students and Learner Engagement

Collaborative and Proactive Advising

Counselor guidance remains a crucial component of ensuring students are on the right path. In the past, counselors would look at a student's degree audit and create a plan, often written down on paper—a method prone to loss and miscommunication. Today, a shared digital workspace allows students and counselors to create and edit plans together or asynchronously, keeping everyone on the same page.

"I used to write all the plans out on paper, and students would lose them. Plan My Classes gives us both access to the plans, and they're easy to edit. I especially like that the tool provides pathways."
—Counselor

Counselors can build these pathways—recommended course sequences—and apply them directly to a student's plan. This helps students pursue efficient degree paths while still allowing flexibility.

"The anecdotal advice that lives in someone's drawer comes to light with pathways. But they're not cookie-cutter. Students working with their counselors can modify the plan if something doesn't work one semester."
—Cathy Mahurin, Dean of Students and Learner Engagement

Life happens, and a student's goals and paths aren't set in stone. The platform accommodates changes, allowing plans to adapt accordingly.

"Many students enrolled at a community college are undecided or change their mind often regarding their career goals. I plan things with students as we go, and so much is dependent on how they progress."
—Counselor

Some advisors have noted that while they spend more time in the platform to ensure student plans are correct, the quality of advising has improved.

"We spend more time using Plan My Classes than our previous tool, but the quality improves because the student grasps the requirements quickly when they can see it instantly, before their eyes."
—Counselor

Empowering Students and Staff Alike

The collaborative nature of Stellic's platform empowers both students and staff, fostering a more proactive approach to academic planning and support. 

JCCC recently introduced Success Coaches to the tool, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As students are onboarded to JCCC, they'll meet with a Success Coach who will use Plan My Classes to make notes for counselors, refer students to different resources, and create activities on student plans.

"We thought adoption might be a challenge. To our surprise, every coach is very eager to get started."
—Audrey Cooper, Transfer Articulation Analyst

Together, JCCC and Stellic are taking steps to empower students to personalize their own degree plans, in a way that’s efficient for the counselors who are providing this necessary guidance.  

Looking Ahead

As students and counselors continue to develop and follow degree plans, exciting developments are on the horizon for JCCC. In the coming semesters, the college anticipates improvements in program completion rates and shorter times to degree completion.

There's also enthusiasm about tying Stellic pathways with the University of Kansas, the state's flagship institution to which many JCCC students transfer. With KU as another Stellic partner, it will be easier than ever for students to plan a full four-year journey, maximizing credits at JCCC and seamlessly transitioning to the next steps.

Johnson County Community College, by providing a framework for diverse students to plan and achieve their varied goals, is making a long-term difference for all who walk through its doors.