Guide to Submitting Early Alerts

What are early alerts?

Early alerts are the formal communication vehicle for LAPU faculty to communicate directly with Success Coaches about concerns for a particular student or group of students. Using the early alert system allows a faculty to connect promptly with a student’s coach without needing to find out which coach cares for which student. 

Reasons to submit an early alert?

Academic Integrity Alert

• When to use this: 

  • You have found that the student has plagiarized. 

  • You will still email and coordinate the response with your Assistant Dean. They will inform you about prior reports of plagiarism and about the appropriate steps you will take in each individual case. 

  • This alert creates an additional layer of support for the student in that the coach reaches out to make sure that the student understands the process and what to expect. They offer care and support resources throughout the review process. 

Additional Support Request 

• When to use this: 

  • You’ve already made multiple efforts to connect with the student but still have concerns about the student’s well-being and/or progress. 

  • There is some urgency to this request for additional university staff to become involved in pursuing this student.

  • This could include things such as the student expressed the need for guidance in a petition process, policy confusion, or other third-party resources (such as tutoring, mental health, or other services that are provided by the university) 

Reasons NOT to submit an early alert 

Low Grade 

• Already monitored weekly by Success Coaches. 

• Entering 0s promptly for missed assignments is an important part of Success Coach visibility to low grades. 

• Success Coaches reach out weekly to students who are not being successful. 

Lack of Participation 

• It is already monitored weekly by coaches. 

• Success Coaches reach out weekly to students who are not participating. 

Student Code of Conduct violation (https://catalog.lapu.edu/undergrad/info/conduct/)

• You should email your Assistant Dean directly with concerns about students’ behavior.  

Accommodations Referral 

• You should consult your Assistant Dean if a student discloses having a disability or if you believe a student would benefit from a consultation with the university’s Accessible Education Manager. 

How to submit an early alert

1. There are two ways to submit an Early Alert. Both require you to be logged in to Student Services (JICS- where you submit final grades). If you need help logging in or forgot your password, please email [email protected] for assistance.
   1. From within the LAPU Courses site > click on “Submit Early Alert” from the Instructor Helps block:

      
      

      
      
   2. From the Student Services > click on the “Early Alert Submission” link:

      
      

      
      
2. Both links will take you to the “Submit Early Alerts” page. Please complete each step. Note that you can select multiple students at a time. Click Submit. That’s it!

What Happens When I Submit an Alert?

Submitting Early Alerts provides instant notifications to each student’s Success Coach by email. 

For Additional Support Request alerts 

Success Coach will initiate contact with the student directly to discuss the concerns outlined in the early alert submission. Once the coach reaches a resolution, they will close the alert which automates an email reply to the faculty informing of the results. If the coach is unable to make contact with the student after three days, they will close the alert with a description of the outreach attempted. 

For Academic Integrity alerts

Assistant Deans are also notified and will direct the academic response and outcome for the student. Success Coaches await the outcome of the academic integrity incidents before contacting the student. We do not want Success Coaches to accidentally make the announcement of an academic integrity violation by being too prompt in their response. Rather, their goal is to follow up after the outcome so they can process and offer support to make this a developmental experience. Once the coach has had a conversation or made multiple attempts to connect with the student they will close the alert with a description of the outreach. 

Some of the resources and topics that Success Coaches review with students regularly include:  

• APA writing resources

• Tutoring assistance

• Time management strategies

• Goal setting

• Academic policies and procedures 

Resources and strategies vary greatly by program and each student’s unique academic journey. In addition, Success Coaches often pray with our students to foster spiritual development and regularly encourage them through a variety of life situations and to support their academic success at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Thank you for supporting the success of our students. Please email your Assistant Dean with any questions about this process.