Participants will learn the essentials of developing an early alert system from design and testing though implementation and assessment.
Early intervention is critical to campus retention efforts. Early alert systems offer institutions systematic approaches to identifying and intervening with students exhibiting at-risk behaviors before the behaviors reach the acute stage. Many of these systems rely on a common format for student referral to a central receiving point. Systems at larger institutions use web-based technology to allow for a scalable approach to at-risk intervention. This presentation describes the development, implementation, and assessment of a web-based, fully integrated early alert referral system at a large, public university in the Southwest.
There are three sections to the program. First, the program describes the development of the system from a conceptual perspective. This section includes how administrative, faculty, and student service input guided development. The second section details the technical aspects of system design, presented from the end-user perspective. The section emphasizes the integration of the system into the campus student information system. The program concludes with a thorough description of the first term’s experience implementing the system, including aggregated descriptive data for those using the system, the students referred, and the follow-up to the referrals. There will be ample opportunity for discussion of all aspects of the early alert project.
