The Retention Center is an instructor-only tool that enables you to give focused
attention to students who need it. It replaces the Early Warning System.
This tutorial shows you how to utilize the Retention Center information to
monitor student engagement.
You will view and modify rules that trigger alerts and see how to create
new rules.
The Retention Center does not require setup, so you can use it right away.
You can access it in My Blackboard for a snapshot view of student performance in
all of your courses.
Click through to a course's main Retention Center page for more details.
You can also access a course's Retention Center on the Control Panel
in the Evaluation section.
Let's break down the information on the main page.
The three main areas are:
Students at risk.
Specific people or items you are monitoring.
Your course activity.
The bar at the top shows you the total number of students at risk.
Click it to show the number of students in each category.
The categories show students at risk because of missed deadlines, low grades,
minimal activity,
or not logging in.
You can contact students in the categories easily.
Ror example, send an email to all students who have not accessed the course.
recently.
The risk table lists students in the four categories shown in the bar above
the table.
You can sort the information in each column from highest-risk to lower-risk
by clicking the column header.
You can monitor specific students.
Just click a red dot in their row
to show the drop down list and select the star.
That student's status is now called out on the right side.
Click any student's name
to view his risk factors,
notifications sent,
and notes you have written.
Now if you're thinking that this is great out-of-the-box,
but you would also like to monitor high-achieving students...
the Retention Center can be customized.
You can select which rules are included in the risk table's four columns, and
edit or delete rules, including the default rules.
Create as many new rules as you need in the four categories.
You set the rules criteria,
and when students meet them, their name appears in the Retention Center
risk table.
Because this rule shows high-achieving students, we don't want it to show in
the risk table.
Rules not included in the risk table show on the right side of
Retention Center page.
You might need to scroll down to view it.
We can ask these high-achieving students to apply for the teaching assistant job.
The Retention Center also shows your activity in the course.
Only you can see this information.
At a glance, you know which assessments and course communication areas
are awaiting your attention,
and when you last logged or created content.
From this area you can also send a quick announcement or even create groups.
You can review your own level of interaction.
and jump directly to a communication tool to further
engaged students.
Let's review. The Retention Center shows you students at risk,
specific people or rules you are monitoring and you are monitoring, and your course activity.
It's easy to notify students who are at risk.
You can customize the Retention Center by creating, deleting, and editing rules.
You decide which rules are included in the risk table