Getting Started

Where: Success Markers can be found on the 30 Second Gut Check on the student profile, on the "Success Progress" tab of a student's profile, as a filter within Advanced Search, and as a report within the Population Health Dashboard.

 

Who: Success Markers are most impactful used by advisors when preparing for a conversation with a student, by providing important information regarding a student's progress against specific academic milestones.

 

Feature Overview

Success Markers are a course or group of courses keyed to student success within the major or college/school, selected by your institution and configured in the platform. They allow staff and faculty to monitor the successful completion of these important courses and intervene with students should they not be meeting the recommendations. Successful completion of the success markers requires a minimum course grade and specific timing (i.e., credit accumulation) of completion, configured by your institution.

 

Success marker courses tend to be first- or second-year courses and are typically required courses in that major. In addition, a cumulative GPA threshold can also be set as a success marker. Please note – success markers are not intended to replace degree audits and should only be used to inform conversations with your students.

 

Success markers can be categorized as Missing, Completed, or Upcoming. You can also view more detail about the success marker courses and the student attempts.

 

Understanding Success Markers

• There are 3-5 lower-division success markers per major.
• Markers have a suggested timing and a suggested grade (most set at C or CR).
• Success markers are not the same as degree progress; some grades may satisfy requirements on the DPR but the grade may indicate support is needed.
• Markers are based on current requirements so if curriculum changes the success marker will show as missed; this also applies when course numbers change.
• Markers will not display for inactive students.
• Majors with little or no lower division have Critical Thinking & Oral Communication as markers (0-30 units).
• Quantitative Reasoning is a marker for all majors (0-30 units); majors that do not require math have all B4 options set at a C-; majors requiring math have the major-specific B4 or 1st-semester stretch course set at a grade of C.
• Only transfer courses articulated as course-to-course equivalents will show as meeting a success marker.
• Success markers will be reassessed annually.
• Upper-division success markers will be added in the future.

 

Accessing Success Markers

Access the student’s success marker status from the Success Progress tab in the Student’s Profile.

Clicking the success marker course name provides more detail on your institution’s courses included in that success marker. See the image below. The grade and credit timing for each success marker is listed below the success marker name.

Clicking “Attempt” (in the Outcome column to the right) provides more detail on registration or grades for that specific student. See the image below.

Click each radio button for Missing (chosen by default), Completed, and Upcoming to view those success markers and see more details.

 

Be Aware: Data on the overview page only displays data from completed terms. If the student is starting their first semester with incoming transfer or Advanced Placement credits, these will not display in Total Credit Earned until the term is completed. Until then, the credits are not factored into the thresholds for success markers.

 

Missing Success Markers

Success markers will display with the status of “missing” for two possible reasons:

1. Missing, Needs Attention: The student completed the course(s) and received a grade below the recommended grade threshold. In this scenario, the course will display with the status of “missing” until the student repeats the course and receives a higher grade.
2. Missing, Did Not Register: The student has not registered for the course(s) in the recommended credit range. This applies only once the top of the credit range threshold is reached for the student. For example, if the credit range is 30-60, the “missing” status for that course will trigger only once the student passes 60 earned credits. Once the student registers, the course will move to “upcoming.” The course will then move to “completed” if the student completes the course with a grade at or above the configured threshold. If the student completes the course with a grade below the recommended grade threshold that course will move back to the “missing” status.

If you no longer want courses to display as “missing”, you can disable the notifications. This may apply to courses that are already met with equivalent transfer courses that are not listed as course-to-course equivalents and therefore are not accurate on the student’s profile. To disable missed success markers, as well as to re-enable success markers that have been disabled, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Success Progress tab in the student profile.
2. Find a missed success marker, hover over the icon, click on the Disable link.
3. You should see the marker move to the bottom of the list, and the profile page update for the new count of success markers.
4. To re-enable a disabled marker, hover over the icon and click the Enable link.
5. The marker will be re-enabled, and the profile page will update to reflect the new count of success markers.

The 30 Second Gut Check view and Success Progress view will also reflect the new count of missed success markers.

 

Be Aware: When a marker is disabled, it will be reflected immediately on the student profile page, but it will not be captured right away in searches run for success markers. The search results will typically be updated nightly, and within 24 hours, you will see this change reflected in the search results. If this feature appears to not be working, try closing your browser and logging back in. Depending on the internet browser used, you may need to clear your cache or history.

 

Disable:

Enable:

 

Completed Success Markers

Success markers will display as “completed” if the student has completed the course with a grade at or above the recommended grade threshold. You can view all course attempts by that student by clicking “1 Attempt” in the right column. Please note – even if the student completed the course outside of the recommended credit range, the success marker will still show as “completed”, as long as the student’s grade is at or above the grade threshold.

Upcoming Success Markers

 

Upcoming Success Markers

Success markers will display as “upcoming” for three possible reasons

1. The student is currently enrolled in the course(s) and has not yet received a grade. Once the student completes the course, the success marker will move to either the “completed” or “missing” based on whether their final grade meets the recommended grade threshold set for that success marker.
2. The student’s total earned credits fall within the recommended credit timing for that success marker. For example, the student has earned 30 total credits. The success marker recommends completion of the course(s) between 15 and 45 credits. The student is still within the recommended credit range and the marker will display as “Upcoming” until the student either completes the course or earns more than the recommended credit range without completing it.
3. The student’s total earned credits do not fall within the recommended credit timing for that success marker. For example, the student has earned 30 total credits. The success marker recommends completion of the course(s) between 60 and 75 credits. The student has not yet earned enough credits for this success marker to apply to them, and therefore, it will display as “upcoming” until the student enters the recommended credit threshold or the student completes the course with a grade at or above the recommended grade threshold.

 

Using Advanced Search to Find Success Markers

After the success marker is chosen, you can filter by “Upcoming”, “Missed”, or “Completed”. Please allow 24 hours for grades to reflect accurately in Navigator. Once grades are in the system, you can choose which success marker (or groups of success markers) you would like to analyze using Advanced Search. You can choose to create a list for students who have “upcoming”, “completed”, and most importantly, “missed” success markers. Please see examples below of how to use the advance search and success markers strategically.

 

Example A: Registration - Students who are registered for the next semester but have not enrolled in an upcoming key (Success Marker) course.

Under Enrollment History, choose the upcoming semester:

Under Course Data, set the From Term and the To Term to this same upcoming semester, and select the course.

Under Status, choose “Not Registered”:

 

 

Under Success Markers, choose the same course as a success marker, and select the status as “Upcoming”. (With “Not Registered” status on the Course Data section, we will not see students that are currently enrolled (Reason 1above).

 

The “upcoming” status filter will include students who are before the lower limit of the credit range for that success marker in the search. Consider adding a minimum earned credit to your search if appropriate.

 

 

Example B – Students who took a success marker course and did not achieve the grade threshold

Select the success marker course, the status “Missed,” and “Needs Attention” under Missed Success Marker

Reason to find the students who did not receive the grade threshold required on the Success Marker.

 

Remember when conducting a search to find students who did not achieve the grade threshold for a course that grades for a term only become available the day after they are assigned in Navigator, so time your search accordingly. If the course has been repeated, the latest grade assigned will determine the status of that success marker. As indicated above, you will see all attempts of the success marker listed on the student profile, and the last attempted grade for the course will be what is triggers Missed and then Needs Attention in Advanced Search.

 

Be Aware: Minimum grade thresholds were often set based on the grade needed to predict reasonable success in the major. As a result, the minimum grade threshold may be higher than required for graduation, such as a threshold of C but a D is allowed for this requirement. Be sure to check the details before encouraging students to re-enroll in the course.

For additional assistance, contact navigator@sfsu.edu.