The ROI of Digital Community: What the Data Says

By Aaron Knox, Chief Revenue Officer at InScribe

It’s no secret that in higher education, budgets are tight and expectations are high. Current conditions often require institutions to make difficult decisions between making investment into getting learners in the door and those that keep them there. 

But here’s the reality: if students don’t feel connected and supported once they begin their journey, much of that investment is wasted. Attrition doesn’t just reduce tuition revenue and funding. It also means missed opportunities for students to achieve their goals, advance their careers, and improve their lives through education - frequently leaving them with substantial debt and a crippling sense of failure.  

Every student who leaves before completing a program is not just a statistic. It’s someone who believed enough to enroll, who committed their time and resources, but who didn’t find the support they needed to keep going. That gap between enrollment and completion is where digital communities can make the biggest difference. They turn potential attrition into persistence and potential loss into long-term success.

Digital communities fill the critical gap between getting students enrolled and helping them finish. They provide the relationships, support, and motivation that bolster confidence and eliminate imposter syndrome, ensuring more learners reach the finish line.

And when institutions evaluate new technology, two questions often come up: does it actually work, and will students use it? Digital communities deliver a clear yes to both questions. They work, students use them, and they offer institutions a low risk, high reward investment.

From “Nice-to-Have” to Financial Necessity

For students, a digital community is a place to connect, ask questions, and feel supported. For institutions, it is a strategic form of scalable support. When designed well, communities expand access to help, ease the burden on staff, and improve outcomes at scale.

Too often, community is dismissed as a “nice-to-have” or an extra layer of engagement. But the data tells a different story. Digital communities consistently drive measurable improvements in persistence, confidence, and student success.

By giving students spaces to share resources, get timely answers, and connect with peers and staff, communities accelerate problem solving and reduce frustration. They also foster belonging — and belonging is one of the strongest predictors of whether a student will persist through the challenges of higher education.

Proof in the Data: Persistence, Savings, and Scale

Digital communities are not just about creating connections. They deliver measurable returns that directly impact both students and institutions.

• University of North Texas: Persistence Gains
  UNT uses InScribe-powered communities to support its large and diverse online population. The results were clear: persistence rates increased by 13% among students who engaged in the community compared to those who did not. That is not just a feel-good outcome. It is a measurable gain with real financial and academic impact. Read the case study.

• WGU Academy: Efficiency and Cost Savings
  When WGU Academy embedded its PACA Lobby community into the student experience, it scaled rapidly. In only three months, membership grew from 200 to more than 1,600 students. Even more importantly, support tickets dropped by 23% in the first month, which allowed staff to focus on complex student needs. The community saved staff time, reduced costs, and created a scalable peer-to-peer support model that grew stronger as more students participated. Read the case study.

• UMGC: Academic Success and Persistence
  At UMGC, one of the nation’s largest online universities, students who engaged with InScribe outperformed their peers across multiple measures. They were 13 percentage points more likely to succeed in their courses, 19 percentage points more likely to earn an A, and 13 percentage points more likely to persist in their programs compared to non-users. Faculty also reported stronger participation and richer peer-to-peer engagement. These results show that digital communities are not only about connection — they directly improve student success and persistence at scale. Read the case study. 

Community as a Strategic Asset

What these examples show is that community is not just a student engagement strategy. It is a financial and institutional success strategy.

When students stay enrolled, institutions protect tuition revenue and avoid the hidden costs of attrition. Recruiting a new student is always more expensive than retaining one, and every learner who persists represents both immediate revenue and long-term value. Digital communities help keep students on track, which reduces the need for costly recruitment or re-enrollment campaigns aimed at bringing back those who have already left.

But the financial impact goes beyond tuition. Students who feel connected are more likely to graduate and become engaged alumni, who will look for ways to give back and look to the institution when they need to upskill or support a career pivot. In this way, community directly supports reputation and word-of-mouth recruitment — outcomes that are difficult to buy but incredibly powerful in sustaining growth.

For leaders under pressure to do more with less, digital communities offer a scalable, cost-effective way to invest not just in enrollment numbers, but in student success across the entire lifecycle. Communities reduce the burden on staff, extend the reach of support, and strengthen persistence at scale. That makes them a high-yield investment: one that pays off in student confidence, institutional performance, and long-term loyalty.

The Human and Financial ROI of Digital Communities

Community is not fluff. It’s not a side project. It’s one of the most cost-effective, high-yield strategies institutions can adopt to strengthen persistence and improve outcomes.

When students feel like they belong, they stay. When they stay, institutions retain tuition, improve completion metrics, and deliver on their mission of transforming lives through education.

The ROI of digital community is both human and financial. It’s measured in persistence rates and cost savings, but also in confidence, belonging, and the ability of students to finish what they started.

About the Author

Aaron Knox has nearly two decades of experience in leadership roles with companies that support higher education, including Blackboard, Interfolio, Labster, eLumen, PeopleGrove, and InScribe.  Aaron is driven by the mission of higher education and considers himself lucky to have been able to contribute to a number of innovative companies, particularly those with a direct impact on student outcomes.  Aaron authored "The Higher Ed Sales Playbook," a book focused on helping companies grasp the nuances of navigating higher education.