Early Alert

An Overview

At any given college, some students struggle academically in their courses. They may have frequent absences, miss assignments, and/or perform poorly on assignments. Just as importantly, some students may not know who they should contact for assistance. As such, our Early Alert (EA) program provides students with critical support and essential guidance to counter factors that could inhibit their success.

The Process

By issuing alerts, instructors identify students who exhibit behaviors that could impede academic progress. The identified students receive an email requesting that they meet with their instructors to discuss the alert. At the same time, Student Services team members reach out to students also to provide appropriate intervention and assistance.

Types of Alerts

Throughout an academic term, instructors are able to issue the following alerts:

  1. assignment concern - for students who receive low scores on assignments.
  2. attendance concern - when students miss a class or are late throughout a term.
  3. general concern - for students who have extenuating circumstances such as homelessness, counseling needs, mental health issues, in need of food, etc.
  4. in danger of failing - when students are in danger of failing and require immediate intervention.
  5. low class participation - for students with low participation/engagement in class.
  6. low quiz/test scores - when students receive low scores on quizzes or tests.
  7. never attended - when students either do not attend the first class in a face-to-face course or participate the first day in an online course.
  8. COVID-19 online learning concern - for students who have not taken online classes before and are experiencing difficulty learning in an online environment.
  9. COVID-19 student engagement concern - for students who are not participating as expected as a result of the pandemic-related factors.

Early Alert Access

Early Alert can be accessed by signing in to MyVPCC.

Early Alert Training Handouts Access

Training handouts are available by clicking the appropriate link located above in the upper-right hand corner. Information includes how to take attendance, issue alerts, manage cases, view/document notes, and close cases.

Questions

If you have questions, please contact Doreen Dougherty by email at doughertyd@vpcc.edu or by Google Voice number (757) 726-7097.