I-Corps: Translation potential of a virtual coach-guided wellness platform designed to improve college student well-being, academic success, and retention

Award ID: 2632439

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a virtual coaching technology that delivers personalized, evidence-based support to promote student well-being and academic success. College students are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress and mental health and wellness concerns. At the same time, universities face increasing pressure to improve retention with limited student support resources. This technology enables colleges and universities to provide early, on-demand behavioral coaching to all students. It has the potential to transform how universities provide scalable, evidence-based support by offering personalized coaching that complements existing counseling, advising, and student success services rather than replacing them. This may improve student retention, educational attainment, and workforce participation. In addition, the technology may be used to support individuals navigating stressful life transitions in workforce, military, and community settings where access to personalized behavioral support is limited. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a virtual human coaching technology to deliver personalized behavioral coaching at scale without sacrificing safety, evidence-based fidelity, or user engagement. Current approaches rely on either human coaches, which are effective but resource intensive, generative artificial intelligence (AI), which is highly personalized but may generate inaccurate or unsafe guidance, or static digital interventions, which are evidence-based but provide little personalization or immediate support. This technology integrates a realistic virtual coach, a structured coaching methodology, and a proprietary library of psychologist-vetted responses. Previous research demonstrated that this virtual coaching system emulates the experience of working with a human coach and maintains the consistency and safety of evidence-based interventions. This technology may provide students with safe, personalized, on-demand coaching while enabling institutions to expand access to evidence-based support without proportional increases in staffing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman