WGU's New AI Tool Drove 1.8x More Instructor Calls
A working parent finishes a late shift, gets the kids to bed and logs in to make progress on some course work. Ten minutes later, they’re stuck — and support won’t be available until morning. That gap is where students often give up.
WGU was built for learners whose lives don’t fit a traditional campus schedule. Online learning — and especially competency-based education — expands access: Course resources are always on, faculty engage across time zones, and students can reach out without waiting for office hours or commuting across campus.
Yet research consistently shows that online students feel isolated, and human support is rarely available exactly when it’s needed. Ironically, the technology used to provide education at scale can also reduce human connection — but it doesn’t have to.
WGU’s answer is a virtual tool that does something very unexpected: it not only provides timely student help but also makes students more likely to reach out to their course instructor.
The “Dead Spot” Problem
Every higher ed institution has “dead spots” — times when students are stuck with nobody to ask for support. Although faculty schedules are coordinated around student activity in a team-based support model like WGU’s, full staffing around-the-clock is not realistic. That dead spot can be a serious momentum killer. If a student can't get help on a topic or issue when they are stuck, they tend to quit — sometimes just for that day, but sometimes they give up on the course or the degree program entirely.
It’s not a motivation problem; it’s an access problem. As WGU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Courtney Hills McBeth puts it, students are often juggling full-time work, family responsibilities, and a driving need to better their situation. They have limited windows of study time. When they need help, it is often at odd hours, so they rely on a mix of immediately available resources.
Many students turn first to course materials, but a significant share reaches for external tools: search engines, YouTube, study apps and other AI tools. WGU wanted to meet that demand in a human-centered way and without compromising academic integrity. The result: AVA.
Meet AVA
WGU’s Academic Virtual Assistant, or AVA, is trained on course-specific learning resources and delivers in-the-moment academic support tailored to the curriculum. Grounding AVA directly in course resources keeps terminology consistent and ensures that each student gets the right information and support to help them gain competency and pass the course while maintaining academic integrity.
AVA is a learning enabler, not a substitute. Students cannot use AVA to create answers to test questions or do their projects for them. Instead, it points them back to specific course sections for deeper learning. Because AVA is built and governed within WGU, we shape key aspects of the experience — accessibility, conversation tone, and alignment with learning science — to support an equitable and productive learning environment. Students most often use AVA for concept clarification and study support, including generating practice questions and quizzes and checking readiness for objective assessments.
What WGU Has Learned So Far
We piloted AVA in the School of Technology and gathered student feedback to refine how we present it and how it behaves.
Our first challenge: discoverability. Students asked for an AVA link to be “front and center” on the course homepage and reinforced via welcome emails and reminders. We’re also adding a guided walkthrough for first-time users.
Once students find AVA, they like it: 80% say responses are helpful, and many cite speed and convenience as the core benefit. In their words:
“I find the most valuable aspect of AVA is the timely feedback.”
“It is there to quickly answer questions or explain concepts.”
“It’s convenient. It’s available whenever I need it with no wait times.”
AVA is helping to solve the “dead spot” problem: Students are finding answers during times they couldn’t previously reach anyone. And interestingly enough, data shows that AVA users are now 1.8 times more likely to contact an instructor during working hours. Getting unstuck on their own made them more confident and more ready for a real conversation. A late-night dead end becomes a productive question by morning.
AI That Opens Doors to Human Connection
The conventional worry about AI in education is that it replaces human interaction. At WGU, we’ve found the opposite. AVA helps to remove barriers between students and the human help that already exists. When students can frame their own questions, they become more willing to seek out an instructor, not less.
The best educational technology is grounded in real student needs, is easy to find, and is governed with clear guardrails. AVA meets that bar, and the data suggests it’s not just helping students get unstuck; it’s helping them actually finish.
A Call to Action
If you serve learners in any setting, I invite you to identify your own “dead spots” and pilot an always-on support experience with strong governance. Start by choosing a high-enrollment course or a known bottleneck, grounding the assistant in approved learning resources, setting integrity and escalation policies, and measuring whether students reengage with course materials and human support. When AI is designed to strengthen — not replace — human connection, it can help more learners persist, complete and advance.
