Mid-term alerts project wrap-up

Last fall we began a project to improve the mid-term alerts process (see story from November). Our findings and recommendations fall into four different areas:

• Terminology: There are several terms in use for mid-term grades which has caused confusion. We recommend using one term: “academic alerts.” This would encompass/replace “mid-term grades,” “mid-term alerts,” “in-progress notifications,” and “progress reports.”
• Communications: We currently send a start-of-term policy email and a follow-up email to 1xxx-level instructors with information about academic alerts and will continue to send these. In the messages, we added language about the benefits of academic alerts and provided more information about how the alerts are used. We recommend expanding the recipient list beyond 1xxx-level instructors. We have heard from advisors that it is important to have this information on how the student is performing across all their classes, not just the 1xxx-level instructors.
• Policy: We recommend expanding the policy beyond 1xxx-level classes (possibly all) and beyond D, F, and N grades (possibly all). We would need to update the FAQ regarding systems (if not using PeopleSoft to collect the alerts).
• Systems: We recommend transitioning from PeopleSoft to APLUS to collect academic alerts either via Canvas or “Instructor view” (there are advantages and concerns with each). We should continue to require progress reports for student-athletes as this is working well with a high compliance rate.

If you have questions or feedback on this effort, please contact Adrienne Bricker (abricker@umn.edu). This information was presented at the March RAC meeting and slides are available on page 84.