Academic Alerts
Advising allows faculty members to leverage their front-line knowledge and expertise to communicate students’ needs to advisors. Faculty Alerts strengthen students’ safety nets by providing advisors with a window into the classroom and facilitate teamwork between faculty members and advisors in support of student success.
This video provides a quick overview of the core functionality of Alerts: how to submit an alert, the different types of alerts, and what information you can add.
▶ Video: Alerts Overview
Targeting Alerts
Filter Alerts by Concern — You can filter alerts by one or more Concern (or Area of Excellence, for Commendations). Expand the Concern/Area of Excellence filter group and select one or more from the list:
Add Columns to Alerts — For greater context when you view and export lists of alerts, you can add and remove standard columns on the Alerts page, exactly as you can on the Student List.
Alert Assignment
To support students who have an alert, you may need to pull in an Advising team member who is not a student’s assigned advisor, nor a member of the alert committee. To make this easier, you can assign an alert (or a set of alerts) to a specific Advising user. The assignee can then work the alert as needed, either resolving it or handing it off to another user.
What does “assigned” mean?
Only users who have permissions to view a given student may be assigned an alert for them. (Notification of a new assignment is not yet available.) Being “assigned” grants them these actions:
- Open the alert
- Update the alert
- Resolve the alert
- Reassign the alert to another user
Where do I see assignments?
When an alert is assigned to you, you see it listed under My Assigned Alerts, at left in your Filters. For all users viewing alerts, the user currently assigned appears under the Assignee column:
Who can assign alerts?
As a rule of thumb, anyone who can resolve alerts can also assign them.
- Alert Committee — If your institution has an alert committee configured, users with the alert committee permission can assign alerts.
- Assigned Advisor — The student’s assigned advisor can assign the alert.
- Assigned User — The assignee of an alert can re-assign that alert.
How to assign an alert
As soon as you select an alert on the Alerts page, the Assign Alert button activates:
- Use the Filters at left to view the alerts you want to manage.
- Check the box next to the alert to be assigned.
- Bulk assignment: Check multiple alerts if you want to assign them to the same user.
- Click the Assign Alert button.
- In the Assign Alert window, use the filters to run Search for the user you want to assign.
- To see all eligible users, skip the fields and select Search and browse the results.
- To filter by First name, Last name, or Title, enter at least one character in the field.
- To narrow by SSU (student success unit), use the drop-down menu to select one or more.
Use the Select all checkbox to make sure all SSUs are searched.
- Pick a user from the results and select Assign, or cancel by clicking the ✕ at top right.
How to change an assignment
Even if created in bulk, assignments must be changed and removed individually.
Click on an alert to expand it, and use the buttons along the bottom to change the assignment:
- Re-Assign — Use the same search filter to locate a new assignee, or cancel by clicking the ✕.
- Remove Assignee — Confirm that you want to remove the assignment, or select Cancel.
Tip: If the assignment change was done in error, the user can just be assigned to the alert again.
Fields for Alerts
Alert Committee
An Alert Committee comprises a select group of staff members from offices across the institution. The group is responsible for handling alerts and targeted outreach for students. Represented offices may include members from:
- Advising
- Admissions
- Athletics
- Dean of Students
- Residential Life
- Financial Aid
- Counseling
Permissions — Alert Committee members need the Manage Alerts permission. This permission can be added by users with the Manage Users permission.
Alert Type
- Course Alert – alerts raised by faculty about a specific course from Course Rosters. Course Alerts have two categorizations:
- Checkpoint alert – alerts raised by faculty members at specific/defined time periods during a term. Checkpoint
- General alert – alerts raised by advising staff or faculty at any time
- Advising Alert – added by advisors under Advise > Alerts. This is not connected to a course. Only general alerts are available as Advising Alerts.
- General alert – alerts raised by advising staff or faculty at any time
Alert Status
- Unresolved – the alert has not been resolved and needs to be addressed by an advisor and the student
- Resolved – the alert has been taken care of and the resolve button has been clicked within Advising
Alert Level
The severity of the alert being added. There are three alert levels. Their names are not configurable, but what each level means for your institution is.
- High – most severe
- Medium – indicates an issue before it’s escalated to high
- Commendation – positive recognition or kudos
Checkbox content
Indicates one or more concerns, student actions, and advisor actions per the alert level. The options you see here were configured during your institution’s implementation. You choose which of them apply when raising an alert on a student, and, if what you need isn’t there, you may see an option that lets you enter your own category. These selections are included in the alert notification email.
Alert comments
Comments added on a raised alert prior to resolution, to help move the situation towards a solution (such as sharing more context, asking follow-up questions, or noting what was tried and unsuccessful. Depending on the configuration, comments can be added by advisors, Committee members, or faculty.
Resolution comment
Comment added when you resolve an alert, recording how the matter was handled and the results. Thoughtful comments here will help clarify this student’s journey and needs for the instructor and for other team members.
Starred Alert
The alert is flagged for action or importance using the star icon to the left of the table on the Alerts page. You can search to find starred alerts.