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TWITTERFollowersProactive Intervention through Early Alert
Identifying at-risk students is a difficult issue with many complexities. In order to be successful, universities must be able to monitor each student’s progress and provide the at-risk students with the best assistance and intervention as quickly as possible.
Waiting for academic indicators like mid-term grades to identify at-risk students may result in late intervention and drastically reduce the effectiveness of outreach efforts. Unfortunately, proactively identifying these students can be difficult and time consuming without the appropriate tools and approach.
Students struggle in many ways:
Academically
- Under-prepared
- Unsuitable Major
- Unengaged in Classes
- Low Performance
Mentally
- Depression
- Stress
- Feelings of Inferiority
- Harmful to Self or Others
Financially
- High Tuition Costs
- Change in Family Income
- Loss of Scholarship
- Lack of Parental Support
Emotionally
- Relationship Strain
- Feelings of Isolation
- Roommate Problems
- Feelings of Sadness
Early alert programs that solely rely on academic identifiers to signal which students are struggling are missing the rich information that comes from those on campus who have relationships with students, making an early alert program focused only on academic flags less effective than a holistic alert.
The best solution to identify and support at-risk students takes into account multiple factors and combines technology and relationships to efficiently connect and engage students with institutional resources.
