Early Alert Resource Handbook

WHAT IS EARLY ALERT?

Early Alert is a tool designed to provide faculty with an easy way to partner with other campus professionals to reach out to students who have academic related concerns within the classroom once other methods of outreach have been unsuccessful.

Areas of concern include:

• Multiple missing assignments
• Poor class performance (exams, assignments, projects, etc.)
• Difficulty comprehending course material
• Poor class attendance (more than three unexcused absences)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How does Early Alert help faculty?

Early Alert assists faculty in partnering with campus resources to best assist students in academic difficulty who are in need of additional support on campus. Early Alert is an added layer to the efforts of the professor to contact and offer aid to a student.

How does Early Alert help students?

Early Alert helps students by connecting them to useful resources that will support them in their current situation. Efforts will be made to personally reach out to students by campus partners. Those partners consist of residence hall staff, academic advisors and student success office staff.

When is it appropriate to submit an Early Alert?

Early Alert is a supplemental early intervention system to be used in conjunction with faculty member outreach to aid in connecting the student to additional campus resources.

How do I submit an Early Alert?

Log into Flashline and go to the Faculty Dashboard, and it will be listed under Grading Resources.

What happens once my Alert is submitted?

• Once you have submitted an early alert for a student the following steps occur:
• The Early Alert report is downloaded by Student Success Programs staff (Monday-Friday).
  • The report is not downloaded on weekends or in the evenings (after 5pm)
  • The report refreshes daily at 4:00am, it cannot be downloaded in live time. Early Alerts will not be seen until the following workday after the submission.
• After the report has been received by Student Success Programs staff, students are distributed to Residence Hall staff (residential students) and/or Academic Advising units where they provide outreach to the students.
• Residence Services and Academic Advising units reach out to students by email, phone and in-person contact (residence halls).
• If a student does not respond after 2-3 points of contact, the early alert will be considered closed due to lack of response from the student.
• All attempts at outreach by Residence Services and/or an Academic Advising unit will be documented in the KSU Advising system.
• For any other updates on your submitted alert(s) please contact the Coordinator in Student Success Programs.

What if I have a concern about a student's mental health or safety?

1. Do not submit an Early Alert as the system is not intended for mental health or emergency situations.
2. Visit the Step Up Speak Out site for more information in dealing with suicide risk, disruptive individuals, distressed individuals, etc.
3. If a student is ill or missing classes, you can encourage them to contact the Student Ombuds at 330.672.9494. The Dean of Students can also assist with this situation by calling 330.672.4050. The Student Ombuds or Dean of Students can notify instructors at the students request of their situation and assist the student in following up once the student returns to campus. The Student Ombuds often assists students in reviewing the withdrawal policy, exploring the incomplete process and other academic policies.
4. The office of Student Accessibility Services can provide students with accommodations for various documented disabilities. Students can contact Student Accessibility Services to provide documentation and schedule an intake appointment to determine the nature of their disability and what services and accommodations they are eligible for.

When should I submit an SF/NF grade?

• The NF (Never Attended-Fail) administrative mark denotes that the student never attended one class session nor did the student formally withdraw from the course. The NF administrative mark will count as an F (zero quality points) in computing grade point averages and will not count towards the calculation of time status (full-time, three-quarter time, etc). Students who have received the NF administrative mark will lose their access to Blackboard.  The administrative mark of NF can only be entered via the Academic Presence Verification Roster by marking a student as "Not Started" and cannot be updated via the midterm or the final grade rosters.  Students who are not currently enrolled or are not gradable (including students who have dropped, have withdrawn, or are auditing the course) will not have their final or midterm updated by the APV.
• The SF (Stopped Attending-Fail) administrative mark denotes that the student stopped attending the course and did not formally withdraw. The SF administrative mark will count as an F (zero quality points) in computing grade point averages and will not count towards the calculation of time status (full-time, three-quarter time, etc).  The SF administrative mark must be accompanied by a date of last attendance in the course. Faculty who cannot determine the exact date of last attendance may use the date of the last academic activity in which students participated. The SF can only be entered via the midterm and/or final grade rosters.  Students who have received the SF administrative mark will not lose their access to Blackboard.

How do I remove the NF?

The NF (Never Attended-Fail) administrative mark can only be entered via the Academic Presence Verification Roster by marking a student as "Not Started.  To remove the NF, the primary instructor must mark the student as Not Reported or Started on the APV, as appropriate.  This will remove the NF grade from the final grade roster (midterm grade roster where appropriate).  Access to Blackboard will be restored. The instructor may need to sync their course using the Blackboard Learn Sync tool in FlashLine (Faculty & Advisors Resources Blackboard Learn).

Below is a sample NF/SF email communication from the University Registrar: