Many instructors have heard the term “at-risk student,” but may still wonder what does that mean, and why would Blackboard provide a Retention Center specifically to support at-risk students? At-risk student is a term used to describe students with a higher probability of failing your course. There are many reasons why students are identified as at risk, including individual and family factors. For more information about at-risk college students, we recommend Joann Horton’s 2015 paper, Identifying At-Risk Factors That Affect College.
This newsletter article will focus on how instructors can use the Blackboard Retention Center to monitor the level of engagement of all students to identify potential academically at-risk students in their courses. At most institutions, the risk is calculated from the probability of students achieving a passing grade of C or higher in the course. Those that are at increased risk have a low likelihood of earning a passing grade. A recent Blackboard press release indicated some profound points. According to a Blackboard survey of at-risk students and students of color, “nearly 80% of students considering discontinuing their studies believed their institution can do more to keep them enrolled.” The survey also revealed that 48% of students of the students at risk of not returning to school were not satisfied with the level of support received during COVID.
At the University of Houston – Clear Lake, UHCL, we know that instructors already go above and beyond to provide academic support links in their Blackboard shells, and guide students to the different resources when they need help. You may be wondering how you can extend this support with the limited time you have available while juggling the many demands as faculty.
The Blackboard Retention Center (BRC) provides an easy way to discover which students in your course are academically at risk and allows you to communicate with them to help them take immediate action for improvement. With this tool, instructors can focus attention on students who need it the most to succeed in their classes. With Blackboard’s Retention Center, helping your students is easy as checking your email.
Blackboard Retention Center (BRC)
The tool provides a colored bar display of a table with pop-up information. There are (4) categories in that your course records information about student engagement within the course.
- Missed Deadlines
- Grades
- Course Activity
- Course Access
- Remedial activities or accelerated materials offered
- Special accommodations for disabilities or language barriers
- One-on-one meetings
- Extra attempts allowed on assignments or tests
- Who is assigned to help the student
- Possible teaching assistant or student mentor opportunities
Monitoring activity in your course is an essential aspect of how you can help your student at risk of failing. The course activity section provides the instructor with a one-stop view of the course activities, engagement, and participation history of the instructor.
If you would like to learn more about the Retention Center and how it can help you, IDT’s instructional designers can assist via individualized consultation sessions. To take advantage of our services, contact the Support Center at SupportCenter@uhcl.edu or via telephone at (281) 283-2828. The Support Center staff will create a help ticket for you that will be assigned to a member of our IDT team, who will then contact you to schedule a consultation.
