LEHI, UT — Summit Venture Studios (SVS) announced today that it has licensed SegoEd High-Impact Practices (HIPs) assessment software for higher education developed at Utah Valley University (UVU). The license was handled through the Office of Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer at UVU. 

Created at UVU by Dr. Rasha Qudisat and Dr. Ala’a Alsarhan, SegoEd allows universities — typically through the Academic Affairs office — to better understand student engagement and the effectiveness of HIPs initiatives within course curricula. This awareness helps improve student engagement, increase retention and graduation rates especially for underrepresented student populations. It arms educators with student-engagement data for HIPs at different levels.

SegoEd is unique in measuring student engagement and its effectiveness based on high-impact practices. The company’s approach has been described as revolutionary in its speed and pragmatic application. Other assessments, for example, are longitudinal and measure engagement over a student’s entire academic career, while others measure effectiveness across the university as a whole.

SegoEd by contrast can focus on the student-engaged-learning experience in a single course. Administrators and faculty can adjust and see the results quicker at a lower cost. It helps ensure the effectiveness of the HIPs measurements and its efficacy with students.

“The team who developed SegoEd have done amazing work,” said Taylor Bench, general manager at Summit Venture Studio.

“We’re thrilled to play a part in expanding the reach of SegoEd to more universities around the U.S.,” Dr. Ala’a Alsarhan, one of the creators of SegoEd, said. “The truly unique thing about SegoEd is that it establishes a relationship between academic and community engagement at the course level. It provides evidence-based engaged learning, which can be used for multiple layers of measurement, assessment, and accreditation. The program addresses gaps and tests assumptions in course design and allows highly engaging courses — or elements of courses — to be replicated across the university.”

UVU uses SegoEd to meet initiatives for inclusion across campus. It delivers an in-depth view of student engagement not only at the course level, but of various student populations that are more at risk in terms of completion. SegoEd is a new tool to make sure these student populations have equitable outcomes. It also aids in program review, department assessment, and accreditation by administrators and faculty for course outcomes.

This agreement with Summit Venture Studio highlights the exceptional work being done by teams at UVU when it comes to engaged learning and student success. UVU and its technology transfer team look forward to continuing to develop exceptional innovations that improve the lives of students and the community. 

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Summit Venture Studios
SVS is a venture studio based in Lehi Utah with a focus on commercializing novel faculty inventions via university tech transfer across the U.S.

SegoEd
SegoEd is revolutionizing the deployment of high impact practices (HIPs) on university campuses through a proprietary assessment that can be administered with as few as six respondents and in less than the time it takes for a single course.