Oakland University uses an early alert system called “Faculty Feedback” in all 1000- and 2000-level courses. The general purpose of any early alert system is to help instructors identify students at risk of failing their courses and to allow an efficient mechanism for the faculty member to follow up with each identified student. Currently, the OU Early Alert System consists of 5 separate student-focused goals and suggested strategies to achieve these goals (OU Early Alert System). The two major components of OU’s System are a mechanism for (a) faculty to identify students who exhibit behaviors associated with increased risk for failure and (b) an automated email system sending each identified student an email referring the student to advising and other support services available.

Timing of Early Feedback Matters

The OU Data Literacy Institute (DLI) studied aspects of faculty feedback and determined that the timing of communication and feedback is critical for student success and retention. The DLI data indicates the first two weeks may be a more/most critical period of time to reach out to students.  Since institutional alert systems often don’t open this early in the semester, I created a straightforward mechanism to identify at-risk students I named “Super Stat Feedback (SSF)”.  

SSF involves assigning a small stakes formal assessment (~10% of the total Exam points) within the first two weeks of class and using an established score cut-off of 75% to identify students who may be at-risk of not succeeding in my class. Using Moodle’s class roster, I select the students who scored below 75% on this first assessment and send them a ‘generic feedback’ message offering words of encouragement and reminding them of the various resources available to help them improve their grades. Most critically, I schedule the early assessment to close the evening before the tuition refund date and I send this feedback email to the selected students the morning of the last day for 100% refund.

How to Perform a Super Stat Feedback

To provide students with early academic success feedback beyond simple class attendance, a more formal assessment needed to be intentionally created and assigned within the first two weeks of the course. Below is an outline of this process for my BIO 2006 Clinical Anatomy & Physiology course I taught this past winter 2025 semester:

Making the Early Assessment

I assign a low-stakes online ‘exam’ that mostly covers material students have seen before. For BIO 2006, this exam includes chapter 1, chapter 2 (Chemistry), and chapter 3 (The Cell) which are full reviews of material covered in BIO 1200. I use the McGraw Hill Connect platform to create and assign the exam. The exam is composed of 30 questions randomly drawn from different sets of pooled questions covering the material. The question pools are large enough that the probability of two students taking the exam alongside each other and having the exact same sequence of 30 questions is quite unlikely.  This 30-point assessment represents 10% of the total Exam points available in the course.

Taking the Early Assessment

The online exam opens at the end of the first week of classes, and allows them a 6-day window within which they take the exam outside of class without proctoring. In lieu of proctoring, and to more accurately assess their current knowledge and understanding, the students are given one attempt with a 35-minute time limit. 

Reviewing Results for Prompt Follow-Up

After the exam closes, I scan the results to identify the students who scored below 75% and send them a batch email (see full message after the references). The easiest way to facilitate this is to open the full participants list of your course on Moodle and then check the empty box to the left of each of the student names you would like to send feedback to. Then at the bottom of the participants list page, where it says “With selected users. . .”, click on the drop down tap and select “send a message”. This is the first option in the list. For additional Moodle-based communication options such as Quickmail, check out the Moodle Help Library.

Conclusion

Although I developed and use the SSF system in my biology classes, this technique can be easily adapted to other classes, and to a wide range of potential assessment formats such as a short in-class quiz, short writing sample, or other appropriate assessment. The most crucial component of any early alert system is to provide students with actionable information in a timely manner, which allows students to make the best-informed decisions regarding their course loads, schedules, and work-life responsibilities. Since the timing of early feedback may directly impact our students’ success, every effort should be made by the University and by faculty to identify and notify at-risk students as early as possible. This Super Stat Feedback system provides students with pointed, content-based feedback regarding their potential success in the course..

References and Resources

Villano, R., Harrison, S., Lynch, G. Chen, G. “Linking early alert systems and student retention: a survival analysis approach”. Springer Nature 2018.

FACULTY FEEDBACK, STUDENT SUCCESS, OU DATA LITERACY INSTITUTE. August, 2022. Sarah Hosch, Sara Webb, Ngong Kodiah Beyeh, Tricia Westergaard, Amy Tully.

Email Script Example to Send Out to Students

“I am reaching out to you with some feedback on your current performance in BIO 2006.  I use the 30-point Connect quiz to be able to give students who may struggle with this class a little 'heads up'.  You are receiving this email because your score was below 75% - the threshold I have set. I provide early feedback in time so that students who are unsure about whether to continue in a particular class will have a bit more information to base any decision on. The official deadline for dropping a class this semester and receiving 100% of your money back is today (January 17th) at 4pm in-person or by email with the Registrar's office or 11:59pm for adjustments via SAIL.

I am not telling you to drop the class. Quite the opposite! I am saying you can succeed in this class but you will need to perhaps incorporate some new study methods and commit to putting in more effort and work to obtain the grade you desire in this class. And I am here to HELP!  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, attend review sessions, set up an appointment, come to Student Hours, drop by the Bio Learning Lounge. . . there are a lot of ways to engage with the material.  So pick one or two new things to try and then put in some regular "practice" time.”

Jonathan

About the Author

Jonathan Yates is a Very Special Instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences and is the Director of the BIO Learning Lounge. His area of interest is the scholarship of teaching and learning with a focus on student success in large lecture class environments. Dr. Yates is also the Course coordinator for BIO 1200. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Yates can often be found playing golf at the OU courses, weather permitting!   

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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