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Early Warning System

What it is.

The Early Warning System [EWS] is a feature which may be used to alert faculty and advisors early-on to trends in student performance, and enable them to communicate with students to take appropriate action. EWS is accessed through the Control Panel. Critical EWS notices will also display in the Performance Dashboard in a new column. The instructor will be able to click on the notification and open direct access to the relevant details for each student. To set up the EWS, instructors define rules that monitor for both positive and negative trends.

Implications for Teaching and Learning.

The ability to categorize rules for grade, due date, and last access allows instructors to quickly organize and identify students that may be in need of additional assistance. We believe one of the features that will help instructors is the ability to quickly send out email to identified students and to retain a record of that contact.

Setting it Up.

The EWS is a customizable feature, and requires the instructor to build the rules he/she wishes to use. To begin building, first access the EWS from the Assessment area of the Control Panel.

Image 1

Image 2 displays the EWS tool bar. Note there are no rules built yet.

Images 3-5 display the options for setting up rules. Rules are defined against three key performance metrics within a course, Grade Rule, Due Date, and Last Access:

Grade Rule: Identifies when student performance on an item is equal to or below a certain level.

Due Date: Identifies when a student does not complete course work when it is due (only works with Assignments or Assessments created through Blackboard. Due Date Rules cannot be created for manually graded items).

Last Access: Identifies the last time a Student accessed the course online.

Image 6 shows the EWS with rules in place. Instructors may easily display the latest results for an individual or class by clicking the refresh button in the EWS. To display the results for a particular rule, click on the name of a rule.

Image 7: If a student meets the critera for a rule, instructors have the option to email students a notification by clicking on their user name. A comprehensive log tracks the notification activity for each course as initiated through the EWS. The date of the last notification appears in the last column.

Image 8: Information from the EWS appears within a column of the Performance Dashboard. At a glance, an instructor can see if a student has met any criteria established for rules.