Case Manager Tutorial
Retention Alert
Revised September 22, 2011
1. Retention Alert encompasses the college’s early alert and early warning system
to help prevent students from slipping into academic jeopardy. All faculty are
required to submit early alerts when students perform poorly, demonstrate poor
academic skills, have missed assignments, or have established poor attendance
patterns.
2. While alerts should be initiated within the first two to three weeks of class or
sooner, there is no time limit on the number of alerts or type of alerts that a
faculty member can initiate.
3. Through a batch process Retention Alert also allows us to send targeted
messages to students regarding their academic and or financial aid status. For
example, the first message sent was a welcome message to students enrolled in
developmental courses from Dr. Reed. Other messages will include notification
to students regarding end of semester grade point average and how the grade
point average can affects one’s registration and financial aid status. Students on
warning, restriction, or dismissal, also will receive notification of their status.
4. As a case manager you will receive notification through Retention Alert located
in Owl Link on those student cases assigned to you in order for you to follow up
with the student or “work the case”.
5. Your input and your work with the students and faculty will be crucial to the
academic success of our students. The Retention Alert application makes it
easier to identify and respond to student problems while tracking student
progress.
6. There are two basic types of issues or cases faculty members and staff can open
regarding students: academic/attendance and behavior/personal. Nonteaching staff can open behavior/personal alerts for minor occurrences, but be
advised that this system does not replace the Maxient or the incident report
process for more severe student activity. Please refer to the faculty tutorial
located on the Owl Link page for instructions regarding opening cases.
7. As a case manager your job will be to “work the case”. This will entail reviewing
the faculty notes and e-mail sent to students and following up with both the
student and the faculty member in a timely manner using a variety of
communication methods.
1
8. Our approach to impacting student performance in a meaningful and positive
way will require using intrusive intervention methods with students. We will
follow the protocol noted below:
Step 1 – Send an e-mail to the student within three (3) days of receiving a case
asking the student to meet with you or to contact you.
Step 2 – If you have not received a reply from the student within two (2) days,
telephone the student. You should first check however to see if the student is
still enrolled in the class.
Step 3 – If after another two (2) days, you still have not received a response from
the student, again check to see if the student is still enrolled, if he or she is
enrolled, then, hand deliver a confidential post card to the student’s class,
deliver the card to either the instructor to give to the student, or if you know the
student, deliver the card to the student directly.
Step 4 – If after a 24 hour period you have not spoken with the student as a
result of your attempts to contact the student forward a note to the student
using the U.S. Postal Service.
Again, because our approach is to be intrusive, make every attempt to contact
the student for a conversation, either by e-mail, telephone, or in person.
9. Go to the Owl Link page and find the Retention Alert section.
You will see various links affiliated with the system, such as Contribute Retention
Information, Student Profile, My To Do List, etc.
You should check My To Do List everyday for new cases assigned to you or for
new information that may have been added to an existing case.
Student cases will be assigned to you somewhat randomly, but in the following
order, for example, students who are members of special groups like the Diverse
Male Student Academy or ALANA will be assigned to the retention advisors in
those areas. All other students will be randomly assigned in equal numbers to all
other advisors, managers, program directors, and directors.
10. Click on My To Do List. Under Pending Worklist Items, you will see your cases,
including the students name, case type or category, and a case number.
Other sections on this screen include Escalate, Reminder, Item created,
Assignment, Priority, Workflow initiator, Workflow age, and Private. We will
discuss each section but first let’s start with Pending Worklist items.
2
Click on a worklist item or student case to read more case information. New
information indicates that a new case has been entered or new information has
been added to an existing case.
11. After clicking on a case, the Work The Case screen appears. This screen provides
you a wealth of information about the case and the screen from which you will
initiate your actions. You will see the student name and ID number, the Case
number and the category or case type for this case.
You will also see “expanded case history” the date the case was submitted, type
of message sent to the student, reminder date, name of the person who
submitted the case, etc.
At the bottom of the screen you will see the information links for the student,
program evaluation, student profile, student GPA, student transcript, test
summary, and student schedule. View these before working the case to get a
sense of the student’s situation.
Last but not least, you will see Choose an Action, that’s the function you will use
to do most of your work.
12. Now, click on expanded case history and review the information on the case,
once you have reviewed the information click on close window to return to the
work the case screen.
13. Next -- review the Summary section. In this example click on line #2. You will
see View Case Item screen which provides detailed information about the case.
You will see the initiator or instructor’s name, course, section number, and
specific information related to this case.
Line one in this example indicates that when a case is opened by the instructor
the RA module automatically forwards an e-mail to the student from the
Director of Retention Services notifying the student that a retention alert has
been submitted by the faculty. Each message is based upon the type of alert
submitted. A copy of the canned messages by case type is available. Please
check with Kathy Hopkins for your copy.
After viewing the case information click close window to return to the work the
case screen.
14. On the work the case screen you will see the following information: Please
review this screen to familiarize yourself with the information.
3
Priority, this status is automatically set by the program as high, but as you work
the case, you can change the priority.
Created by, this is the instructor who opened the case.
Owner: the advising or case manager group to whom the alert will be forwarded
for follow up with the student.
Case Type: the case types include academic difficulties, poor attendance, poor
study skills, personal and behavioral issues.
Date: Date the case was initiated.
Summary: the summary which you can click on for more detailed information
Reminder date: when you wish to be reminded to check on the student’s status
or follow up with the case. For example, in your first communication to the
student you suggest seeking help from the Tutoring and Writing Center; you
should remind yourself that in a week you need to verify that the student has
followed your suggestion and sought assistance. In two weeks you might ask the
student if the tutoring has helped.
Added by: the instructor or initiator
Contribution Case type:
Contact methods: Check all that apply.
At the bottom of this screen you will also see information links which we have
already discussed.
Next, click on Choose an Action.
Your choices are as follows:
Add a Note – add a note to an existing case. You may want to add a note if you
had contact with the student or with another person involved in the retention
case, and you want to record that information.
Send E-mail – Compose and send an e-mail to anyone involved with the
retention case.
4
Set a Reminder – Record dates on which you want to review or take a follow up
action on this case. An e-mail will be forwarded to you on those dates.
Manage Reminder Dates – Remove/clear existing reminder dates from the case
as soon as you have taken action on that reminder.
Add Another Type to Case -- Add an additional type to a case.
Change Priority – Change the priority of a case. You may want to change the
priority of a case if the circumstances of the case change. Student improves on
next test for example.
Reassign Case – Assign your case to another owner. For example, if the case
clearly deals with a financial aid issue, reassign that case to a financial aid
advisor. Once the case has been reassigned you will no longer have access to
the student case.
Close the Case – You can close the case when the student is no longer a
retention risk, is receiving better grades, has resolved financial aid or personal
issues, etc.
Go to My To do List – Returns you to the My To Do List.
Choose an action from the drop down box based on how you plan to work with
the student. After selecting an action, click submit to open a screen for the
selected action.
15. For our purposes here select send e-mail.
You will see on this screen the students name and e-mail address, as well as the
names and e-mail address of the faculty for all the classes in which the student is
enrolled. Under the E-mail action prompt you can then select the person or
person to whom the e-mail will be sent.
We suggest that you also include yourself under the additional e-mail address.
Select your subject line and then compose your e-mail. Click on close window
and the e-mail will be sent to those you have selected. You will return to the
Work the case screen.
16. Now Select Add an Internal Case Note to record key points in your contact with
students and the method you used. Click submit. The notes added are internal
and cannot be accessed by students, except as such if the student records are
5
subpoenaed, so be objective and circumspect in the information you record.
Keep your notes short and to the point.
17. Click on Change Case Priority. Because the system defaults to high, as you work
the case you may wish to change the priority to medium or low, especially if you
and the student have resolved the issue.
Scott, need to add work the case slide here for #18
18. You may have noticed that when you click on choose an action from the work
the case screen there are eight options you can select, we have covered three,
some of the other options include set a reminder, manage reminder dates, etc.
On your own, take a minute to review those screens. You may not use them
often, but you should become familiar with the screen contents.
19. After you have completed your work on the case and you wish to close the case,
again access your actions from the Choose an Action box, Click on reason for
closing the case.
20. & 21. Select the reason why you are closing the case from the drop down, for
example academic improvement, change of plans/interests, etc., add your
summary and detailed notes, and click submit.
22. You will see a case confirmation form, stating that the case was closed.
23. You have now worked your case and provided the student the best advice and
guidance for his or her situation.
6