How Maryville University Reduced Nursing Dropouts by 78% with You.com

How Maryville University Reduced Nursing Dropouts by 78% with AI Agents from You.com

In just one semester, Maryville University transformed their nursing program from a 45% withdrawal rate to 10% - keeping 115 additional students on track to graduate and generating over $3 million in additional revenue. A conversation with Phil Komarny, Chief Innovation Officer, and Michael Palmer, AI Innovator in Residence at Maryville University.

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Success at a glance

78% reduction in nursing course withdrawals
76% faculty adoption rate across campus
600+ custom AI agents created by faculty and students

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About Maryville University

Industry: Higher Education
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Students: Global campus with 24/7 online programs
Challenge: High attrition rates in critical nursing courses, need for personalized learning at scale
Solution: Campus-wide AI implementation using You.com's multi-model platform and Custom AI Agents

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Meet the champions

Phil Komarny - Chief Innovation Officer
Former Salesforce VP of Innovation, crafting Maryville's "AI means All In" data strategy

Michael Palmer - AI Innovator in Residence
Computer Science instructor and the only AI Innovator in Residence role in higher education

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The challenge

In 2023, Maryville University made the strategic decision to go "all in" on AI across their entire institution, with You.com deployed in the classroom.

"We see AI like electricity - it's across our whole institution, from the top of our marketing funnel, down to the students' and teachers' experience inside and outside our classrooms," explains Phil Komarny, Maryville's Chief Innovation Officer.

What surprised leadership was where the biggest success story happened.

"You might assume that technology students and instructors would be where you would see the most adoption, right? But the most interesting innovations are coming from our health professions and humanities programs," explains Michael Palmer, Maryville's AI Innovator in Residence.

The biggest surprise? The nursing program.  

Nursing represents Maryville's largest enrollment, but the program has been struggling with attrition challenges. Two gateway courses - Nursing 611 (Pathology) and 615 (Pharmacology) - had 40%+ withdrawal rates.

"Once a student fails a graduate-level course, there's a 40% chance they never come back," explains Palmer. "But if they get through those two classes, there's above a 90% chance they'll complete the rest of the program."

Traditional tutoring couldn't provide the 24/7 support students needed for these high-stakes courses. But with You.com deployed in the classroom, this problem area became their biggest AI success story.

• Withdrawals dropped from 45% to 10% - 78% reduction
• 30% overall reduction in drop/fail/withdrawal rates
• 81% of students achieved A/B scores (+3% improvement)
• 115 additional students successfully progressed through the program

Business impact: Over $3 million in additional revenue from program completions that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Student engagement: 38% initial engagement doubled to 76% in follow-up courses, with students using You.com as a consistent part of their study approach.

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Why You.com?

When evaluating AI platforms, Maryville had four specific requirements.

• Multi-model access
• Data security & privacy
• Research capabilities & citations
• Accuracy & model selection

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How Maryville uses You.com:

• Custom AI Agents: Faculty and students build 600+ personalized learning companions for specific courses
• Multi-model access: Platform automatically selects optimal AI model for each task (coding vs. writing vs. research)
• 24/7 study support: Students access AI tutoring anytime, anywhere - even at 3AM before exams
• Digital clinics: Nursing students practice patient diagnostics with AI patients before real clinical rotations

[Pull Quote] "I have never worked with a vendor team that has been so ready to see us succeed to the point that we were debugging a deployment at 11PM together. This is a perfect example of two organizations growing together in a win-win relationship," Michael Palmer

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Faculty-first implementation

Maryville started with faculty, not students.

"We did it very intentionally - faculty first and administration first. This was not given to students on day one. We wanted our faculty to get used to it, give them a breath, give them a semester to play with it," says Komarny.

Faculty adoption results:

• 76% adoption rate across faculty
• 84% faculty satisfaction rating (high or very high)

"I've never experienced that before to get that high of something that requires that kind of optional buy-in," Palmer observes.

[PULL QUOTE] I'VE NEVER EXPERIENCED THAT BEFORE TO GET THAT HIGH OF SOMETHING THAT REQUIRES THAT KIND OF OPTIONAL BUY-IN.

• Michael Palmer, AI Innovator in Residence

The rollout of You.com to Maryville students also exceeded expectations. 

"My favorite story is a Physical Therapy student who tracked me down after yoga class. She was upset and angry because she didn't get access to You.com in the first rollout. She said 'if only I had this for those first three weeks, it would have been such an easier start to the semester,'" shares Palmer.

Another student told Palmer directly: "I would not survive this class if it was not for this agent that I built."

Today, over 50% of students access You.com multiple times weekly.

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The METAL program

Recognizing student enthusiasm, Maryville channeled it into their Maryville Emerging Technologies Application Lab (METAL) - where 10-15 students per semester serve as AI research interns to build some of the 600+ Custom AI Agents, including: 

• Digital Nursing Clinic: Students practice patient diagnostics with AI before real clinical rotations
• Cybersecurity Angel: AI companion guides students through pro bono security assessments for nonprofits
• Faculty Digital Twins: The "Palmer Bot" based on Michael Palmer provides coding guidance and pop culture references to students across timezones 

"Once we enabled them, we've realized we can't stop it now. And that's a good thing. We've got them all thinking the same way and empowering them with tools like yours. Now we're starting to see benefits we could have never predicted," notes Komarny.