Progress Reports and Alerts Instructor Guide

Progress reports and alerts are valuable tools in CU Navigate to intervene when students need additional support in their courses. Progress Reports, or early alerts, allow instructors an opportunity to provide students with feedback on their performance in courses. They are intended to encourage students to reflect on their academic performance, act, and improve their academic outcomes. They also inform advisors and other staff who can provide additional resources tailored to students’ needs. Currently, progress reports are requested once a semester for all undergraduate students in graded, full-term courses; instructors are prompted to complete the reports for all their undergraduate students and to identify those who are at risk. All the information provided in the progress report is shared with students.

Progress reports and alerts let students know that a change in strategy is needed to ensure success in a course and help connect them to resources to provide those strategies. These interventions can prompt students to speak with their instructors about the next steps and often allow for immediate adjustments to their approach to the course and chances of success.

In addition, instructors, advisors, academic coaches, or other Clemson student support staff may learn of significant non-academic factors that lead to poor academic performance. Because students do not always reach out to instructors for help, the intervention may spark an important dialogue that could impact student success, thereby opening the door to further communication.

These alerts may aid instructors in recognizing barriers to success that students face that can be remedied by campus resources:

• Students may not inform instructors that they are sick, which results in missing assignments
• Students may have significant mental health concerns
• Students may not be submitting assignments correctly (common in online courses and Canvas submissions)
• Students cannot afford course materials
• Students are dealing with personal matters
• Students are experiencing food and housing insecurity
• Students may not have reliable technology or internet access
• Students may not have reliable transportation
• Students may not have properly transitioned from high school work to college work
• Students often are unaware of the implications of not passing a course as related to their financial aid and degree progress.
• Students are trying to be full-time students, full-time employees, and full-time caregivers, which leads to time management concerns
• Students may not have time to use the resources offered to them

Ideally, the alerts will lead to positive outcomes:

• Students may interact with instructors and discover how to improve their performance
• Students may learn more about the services offered
• Students may learn new strategies to help them succeed in their course
• Students may be rerouted to classes more appropriate to their program or interests
• Students who receive alerts may receive advisement regarding course completion options