OCC Early Alert Program

The OCC Early Alert program is part of the Title III Strengthening Institution Plan. The purpose of the program is to strengthen institutional student support services to better identify and provide assistance to students in traditionally difficult classes such as math and English writing and/or to students who might be considered “at-risk” or under prepared. Students are identified by their professors through an online early alert tool and referred to various services via email. Students are then tracked to identify if they followed through with the recommendations from their professors. The ultimate goal is to catch students, who are having difficulty, early in the course and to provide support services to increase student retention and success.

All faculty are invited to participate in the OCC Early Alert and feedback is welcomed and encouraged so that improvements may be made to the system. The system is easy to use and it only takes a couple of minutes to submit alerts. The system includes a pre-populated roster of those enrolled in your class so all you have to do is click and submit.

Research shows that referring students having problems with their studies increases retention and success. The OCC Early Alert System is a tool that allows professors to indentify students who need assistance such as counseling, tutoring, test-taking skills, etc. to various support services as applicable. When a professor submits an early alert, the student automatically receives an email, which indicates the professor’s concern/s and refers the student to the Student Success Center, Counseling, Student Health Center, etc. The system identifies students who made appointments for tutoring and/or counseling and marks those alerts as complete. This data will be used to analyze student performance and retention rates.

Open labs are available for those interested in learning how to use this tool to help their students.  The open labs are scheduled as follows:

OCC faculty interested in participating should visit the OCC portal at http://occportal/sites/title_III_project/pages/Early%20Alert.aspx (under Committees, Title III Project, Early Alert section) for more information.