Over the summer, the Academic Early Alert (AEA) system underwent a major remodel.

The goal of the remodeled system was to help instructors communicate concerns they have for specific students.

The past few weeks AEA has been transitioning to an “anyone-anytime” model.

An email was recently sent to faculty members by Jesse Nelson, associate dean of Student Achievement, who said that the new AEA system will be going live by the end of next week.

“At any point in the quarter the faculty member will be able to submit information,” Nelson said.

The revisions that AEA underwent allow any professor to use the system if they have concerns with any of their students.

“In the past [AEA] has primarily only focused on first year students,” Nelson said. AEA was only open during weeks three through six of the quarter.

Diane Fishel-Hall, director of Enrollment Management Communications, has a goal that instructors will be able to simply check a box through a link in the faculty toolbox in MyCWU.

The instructor would check a box on the class roster if they thought the student was showing signs of academic, attendance, or behavioral troubles.

When an alert is submitted, the student receives an email. Multiple alerts regarding the same student will automatically send an email to the student’s academic advisor.

The student will then be encouraged to visit with their advisor, and be reminded of other available academic resources. The advising staff will coordinate appropriate response and support strategies.

“We are poised, right now, to do a really exceptional job of improving retention at this university,” Fishel-Hall said.

Recently, Central has made an effort to hire professional advisors within each major on campus. This will help professors with heavy workloads and take some of the academic advising out of the professor’s schedule.

“This is the first time I’ve been confident in saying it will be ready,” Fishel-Hall said, in regard to the new AEA system.

The progress reports show a level of detail not available before, which makes these reports extremely helpful for faculty, according to Carolyn Thurston, director of Exploratory Advising and Student Transitions and Academic Resources (STAR).

Progress reports are separate from AEA. Some instructors are asked to fill out in depth progress reports if they have students that are part of certain programs such as CAMP, TRiO and STAR.

As a result, instructors may still receive hard-copy or electronic progress report forms for students participating in these programs.

AEA is designed to be a very quick and easy tool for instructors to help students improve their success rate on a university- wide scale.