Risk Marker 2 Not Accessing Learning Griffith by the End of Week 2

RISK MARKER 2 – NOT ACCESSING LEARNING@GRIFFITH BY THE END OF WEEK 2 PROTOCOL FOR STUDENT SUCCESS ADVISORS SEMESTER 2, 2013

Background and Purpose

In first semester of 2012 the University trialled the implementation of six risk markers designed to identify commencing students at early risk of discontinuation or failure. These risk markers are now being mainstreamed in all Programs across the University. These risk markers include:

1) non-attendance at Orientation; 2) not accessing Learning@Griffith by the end of Week 2; 3) not attending small classes by the end of Week 3; 4) non-submission of first/early assessment tasks; 5) failure of first/early assessment tasks: and 6) failure of two or more courses in the semester.

The triggering of each risk marker presents an important point of intervention with commencing students. The purpose of this protocol is to identify the processes required to guide the implementation, recording, intervention, and dissemination of information on Risk Marker 2, not accessing Learning@Griffith by the end of Week 2. This marker is implemented in the first two weeks of semester in the first year of every degree Program, and in both semesters of study. The marker targets all students in first year classes in both semesters.

This protocol is intended for use by a range of staff involved in Student Success and Retention at the first year level, including Student Success Advisors, Program Convenors/Directors, First Year Coordinators, First Year Course Convenors, Blended Learning Advisors, and other relevant staff.

Document Structure/User Guide

Accessing Learning@Griffith Data – Setting Up, Collection and Recording  Target Student Groups  Identifying, Recording and Strategising for Intervention o Early Warning System Dashboard o Excel Spreadsheet

Intervening with Students (“Slow Starters”)  SMS Protocol  Email Protocol

Learning@Griffith Access Data Dissemination  Dissemination of Risk Marker 2 Data to Student Success and Retention Teams  Template 2.1 – Marker 2 – Commencing Students Who Accessed Learning@Griffith by the end of Week 2  Template 2.2 - Student Success Advisor (SSA) Monthly Report Template For Student Success & Retention Teams ACCESSING LEARNING@GRIFFITH DATA - SETTING UP, COLLECTION AND RECORDING

Target Student Groups

The primary target group for this marker is the “slow starters”, viz. students who are intending to study at Griffith, but who have not accessed any of their Learning@Griffith course sites in the early stages. These students may be overwhelmed by the technology that is embedded across almost all aspects of university life. However, if these students do not engage with the online learning environment they may become disadvantaged in their learning, positioning themselves as a significant attrition risk. Therefore, it is essential for these students to recognize that the course blackboard is a resource and communication tool which is fundamental to their success at university. Student Success Advisors need to promote the importance of engaging with course blackboards not only in the early weeks, but throughout the entire semester; and to identify and assist those students who may be apprehensive in navigating the Learning@Griffith environment.

Identifying, Recording and Strategising for Intervention

Early Warning System (EWS) Dashboard From Monday in Week 3, Student Success Advisors will investigate the blackboards of identified threshold courses1 via their ‘nosso’ Learning@Griffith2 access to identify students who have not accessed any of their Learning@Griffith course sites. Student Success Advisors are to ensure that they have ‘teaching assistant’ status when they assign themselves to a course as this level of access is required in order to create an Early Warning System (EWS) dashboard. The EWS will filter those students who have not accessed Learning@Griffith by a prescribed date, that is Friday of Week 2, from the rest of the course cohort. Hence, Student Success Advisors will then be able to identify those students who have triggered Risk Marker 2 and initiate the required interventions. To create an EWS dashboard, navigate from the Control Panel on the left-hand side of the blackboard:

Evaluation>Early-Warning System

1. Select the first option, ‘Early-Warning System’

1 The selection of target courses, or threshold courses, will be determined by Program Convenors/ Directors in collaboration with First Year Coordinators and First Year Course Convenors. In Programs with core courses, selecting a minimum of one course will provide sufficient data to identify students for Risk Markers 1, 2 and 3. In Programs with more flexible enrolment patterns and a wide variety of choice (e.g. the GBS and the School of Humanities), collecting data in all courses is optimal, but at a minimum, targeting the courses with the largest numbers of student enrolments.

2 Self-enrol access provided to SSAs: https://bblearn.griffith.edu.au/?nosso

2 2. On the left-hand side of this page, navigate to:

Create Rule>Last Access Rule

 In section 1 ‘Rule Information’, type the name of the rule, for example ‘Last Access Semester 2 2013’. Ensure that the ‘Yes’ option is selected for ‘Availability’. 3  In section 2 ‘Rule Criteria’, nominate the number of days since the last date of recorded access. During Week 3, enter 14-21 days to capture those students who have not accessed the blackboard since the beginning of Week 1.

 In section 3 ‘Submit’, select the red submit button to finalise the rule.

3. Each time data is required from the EWS dashboard, ensure the rule is refreshed. In the example below, the box next to the rule ‘Last Access Semester 2 2013’ is checked and then the navigation would be:

Last Access Semester 2 2013>Refresh

4. In the same example, to view a list of the students who have met the criteria navigate to:

Last Access Semester 2 2013>Review Rule Status>Display>Meets Criteria 4 5. A complete guide to setting up an Early Warning System dashboard is available from the portal, however please be aware that it is written for an earlier version of Blackboard Learn and there are some variations - Griffith Portal>Blended learning support>Using Learning@Griffith>Assessment tools>Early Warning System: https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/computing/blended-learning- support/using-learning-at-griffith/assessment-tools/early-warning-system

Excel Spreadsheet Student Success Advisors will create an Excel spreadsheet to record all students who meet the criteria for Risk Marker 2 in their identified targeted courses. Each course should be listed in separate columns in order to perform the VLOOKUP function:

Course 1 Course 2 Course 3

2181234 2189101 2189101 2181234

2185678 2182021 2183435 2183435

2189101 2182223 2183141

2181121 2182526 2189101 2189101

2183141 2183435 2189697

1. It is important to use the student identification number, rather than the surname, as the search criteria in the VLOOKUP function to avoid confusing students with similar surnames.

2. In the example above, the VLOOKUP would be first from Course 3 to Course 2, then Course 2 to Course 1. This ensures that the criteria ‘looked up’ or referenced is always on the left, otherwise you may return an error message. Student Success Advisors may also seek to identify and contact students who have accessed some but not all of their course blackboards. Although these students do not trigger Risk Marker 2, it may be constructive to investigate why they have not accessed all of their blackboards.

3. Tutorials and guides instructing how to perform the VLOOKUP function are available on the L@G SSA Community site>Final Copies>IT Guides and Resources etc.>Excel VLOOKUP Resources. Please contact Lyn Gannon if you require any further explanation. 5 4. Once a list of the students who meet the Risk Marker 2 criteria has been compiled, Student Success Advisors will upload to the SSA Community site, under Marker 2 in the Content Area, labelled: ‘SSA Name, Program Code, Marker 2’. GIHE administration staff will enter this data into the CRM proximal table against each student’s record.

INTERVENING WITH STUDENTS (“SLOW STARTERS”)

The “slow starters” may need encouragement and quite possibly support in order to access their course blackboards. Student Success Advisors will need to contact these students directly and this will involve both an SMS text and a follow-up email to their Griffith University email account, including a copy (cc) to their personal email address. A number of these students have probably not accessed any aspect of their online environment, including their student portal and university email account, so it is important to include the personal or alternate email address.

The SMS protocol is as follows –

1. Login into your SMS Broadcast account (please check credits availability and place request if low on Googledoc ‘SMS Broadcast Usernames for SSAs’).

2. Enter the mobile telephone numbers of those students who have triggered Risk Marker 2 (multiple numbers can be entered).

3. Type something similar to the following message: “I’ve noticed that you haven’t accessed your blackboards for any of your enrolled courses. Your blackboard is where you will find key resources and important information posted by your teachers. Please respond to this text with ‘Yes’ if you would like me to show you around the online student environment. Thanks, (SSA Name)”

While the email protocol is similar, because the message does not have a character limit, as is the case with an SMS text, the communication can be more explanatory -

4. Write something similar to the following message, ensuring you enter the student’s Griffith email address and copy (cc) the personal or alternate email address:

Hi (Student’s Name),

I’ve noticed that you haven’t accessed your blackboards for any of your enrolled courses. Your course blackboard is where you will find key resources and important information posted by your teachers. If you are unsure as to how to navigate the online environment at Griffith, which includes your course blackboards as well as your student portal and other places such as the Library webpages, please contact me on (SSA contact details) and I’ll be happy to show you.

Kind regards,

(SSA Signature)

Persist Follow up with students who are “slow starters” and are clearly unconfident or under-resourced in terms of IT. Those students who have responded to your outreach SMS or email did so because they recognize the

6 fact that they need support with the online learning environment. Also, investigate if these students qualify for any scholarships or assistance with Student Support Services if required.

LEARNING@GRIFFITH ACCESS DATA DISSEMINATION

Dissemination of Risk Marker 2 Data to Student Success and Retention Teams

The final step in the process is the dissemination of the risk marker information in relation to not accessing Learning@Griffith by the end of Week 2 and overall student cohort access data as soon as it has been collated in the prescribed template.

 Student Success Advisors will disseminate Templates 2.1 and 2.2 containing the summary information for students accessing Learning@Griffith for their designated Programs to their Student Success and Retention Teams, Academic Leader SS&T and Senior Project Officer SS&T (cc [email protected]). This information needs to be disseminated in a timely manner, as soon as it is finalized, preferably by Week 4.

 Academic Leader Student Success and Retention will disseminate the information from Templates 2.1 and 2.2 collated at Group and University levels to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) and the Deans Learning and Teaching, as well as to Student Success Advisors for dissemination to the Student Success and Retention Teams in Week 4.

7 Template 2.1

STUDENT SUCCESS ADVISOR RECORDING PROTOCOL MARKER 2 - COMMENCING STUDENTS WHO ARE ON-LINE AT LEARNING@GRIFFITH BY THE END OF WEEK 2

Please fill out for your degrees and School/Programs overall and email to Lyn Gannon and Keithia Wilson on completion by Friday, Week 3.

Please note - Student Success Advisors in GBS will need only to record data by their individual degree programs. The final row “OVERALL SCHOOL/PROGRAM” will remain blank. STUDENT SUCCESS ADVISOR: YEAR & SEMESTER: SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Degree Program (Code + Overall cohort Access Late-Engager Access LEs with NEIs Access Description + Campus) Number of students accessing Number of late engager students Number of late engager students accessing Learning@Griffith by the end accessing Learning@Griffith by the Learning@Griffith by the end of week 2 who have of week 2 & percentage of total end of week 2 & percentage of total had a Negotiated Engagement Interview & commencing cohort late engager sub-group percentage of total late engager sub-group who have had a Negotiated Engagement Interview

OVERALL SCHOOL/ PROGRAM

Template 2.2

STUDENT SUCCESS ADVISOR (SSA) MONTHLY REPORT TEMPLATE FOR STUDENT SUCCESS & RETENTION TEAMS

SSA Name: School/s/Programs: SSA Current Core Activities Planned Core Activities Summarise core planned activities in the next monthly Proactive Outreach to Students At Risk reporting cycle drawn from the Current Core Activities list.  NEIs & NEI Follow-up data:  Starting@Griffith data:  Predictive Analytics data:  Risk Marker 1 to 6 data:

Staff and Student Referred Consultations  Student face to face consultations:  Phone and email contact:

Academic Skills Developments  Academic Skills Workshops (types of workshops (generic &/or assessment related & student numbers):  Academic Recovery (Performance Markers 4 to 6) consultations:

Co-curricular Strategies  Early Enrolment Support Sessions:  School Mail-out:  Orientation Day:  Peer Mentoring Program:  PASS attendance:  Recognition of high achieving students:

Social Networking  Online engagement (Facebook):  School networking events:

Data Management and Reporting General:  Recording of proximal markers 1-6:

Student Success & Retention Team Partnership Work  SSRT meetings and informal meetings  Liaison with convenors and First Year Tutors