GradesFirst Guide for University of West Georgia Advisors

GradesFirst Guide for University of West Georgia Advisors Prepared by Danny Gourley Associate Director, Advising Center dgourley@westga.edu Updated January 2015

Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Advisor Home... 3 Appointments... 3 Appointments Step 1: Setting Availability... 3 Appointments Step 2: Google Calendar Integration... 5 Creating Appointments Option 1: Individual Appointments... 6 Creating Appointments Option 2: Appointment Campaigns... 8 Communication... 12 Communication Option 1: Email... 13 Communication Option 2: Text Message... 14 Communication Option 3: Mass Emails... 14 Reception (Kiosk Mode)... 15 Recording Notes: Advising Reports and Notes... 17 Advising Reports... 18 Notes... 21 Issuing Alerts... 23 GradesFirst Reports... 25 2

Introduction GradesFirst is a web-based retention and advising program used in Athletics at the University of West Georgia since 2011 and expanded for the entire student body in 2013. GradesFirst provides a powerful tool for scheduling appointments, communicating with students, operating a reception area, recording notes, generating alerts, and tracking student usage of services for assessment. This guide details many of the ways advisors at UWG can use GradesFirst to positively impact student outcomes. Advisor Home Users in GradesFirst can have multiple roles. Each role allows access to a different home page. To reach Advisor Home, mouse over the menu icon (1) in GradesFirst and choose Advisor Home (2). Appointments Using GradesFirst to schedule appointments involves minor setup. Advisors must establish when they work and when they are free or busy. Then they can schedule appointments on an individual basis or create an Appointment Campaign to solicit students to sign up for available time slots. Appointments Step 1: Setting Availability The advisor s availability is when she works and can take advising appointments. For instance, an advisor who works 8:00am-5:00pm might be able to see students 8:30am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-4:30pm. To set your availability, go to Advisor Home and click the My Availability tab. Then click the Add Time button. 3

In the pop-up window 1. Pick the day(s) you want to set availability. 2. Use the slider to set the time frame for your availability on the selected day(s). 3. Select the type of appointments (Drop-ins, Appointments, or students invited via Campaigns). 4. Choose the date range for this availability (current term, a range of dates, or forever). 5. Set the location for this advisor. Consult Danny Gourley, UWG GradesFirst Campus Coordinator, if your location is not listed. 6. Identify the services you are able to provide during this period of availability. Finally, click the Save button. Repeat the process until all of your availability is entered. 4

Note that you can Edit Appointment Constraints from the My Availability tab. This allows you to set the amount of notice required to schedule an appointment and the default appointment length. Appointments Step 2: Google Calendar Integration GradesFirst can import appointments to an advisor s Google calendar so that those blocks of time will show up as busy when staff or students try to create advising appointments. It also can send out an ical that can be added to your Google Calendar or other mail client so that you can see your GradesFirst appointment titles (but not who is attending those appointments). Once you are able to access your Google calendar from within Outlook, you can connect it to GradesFirst. 1. In GradesFirst, click on the Calendar link in the menu bar. 2. Then click on the Subscriptions tab. 3. Click Setup Free/Busy Integration. 4. Select either the Windows or Mac tab and then follow the directions within GradesFirst for Outlook 2010. This feature does not function to the standards of most UWG employees in testing, but it does provide moderate utility. Consult Danny Gourley, UWG GradesFirst Campus Coordinator, if you wish to use this feature. 5

Creating Appointments Option 1: Individual Appointments From a student s profile page in GradesFirst, click on Schedule Appointment. GradesFirst automatically includes the organizer in the appointment, so you ll need to click the Remove link if the student will not be meeting with you. 6

Choose the Location (1) for the appointment on the left side of the screen first. This will reduce the number of advisors the system has to query and speed up the process. Then change the Type (2) to Advising. Then select the appropriate Reason(s) (3) for the appointment. Select An Advisor among those available at the location by clicking the radial button (1). Then Select a Date for the appointment on the calendar on the left (2). When the Availabilities populates, you can click the box to select a time (3). By default, GradesFirst will send both email and text Reminders to the student (4). 7

Finally, choose if the appointment repeats, and click the Save Appointment button at the bottom. Creating Appointments Option 2: Appointment Campaigns An Appointment Campaign sends selected students an email prompting them to set an appointment during a predetermined range of dates. It is a fast way to try to schedule many students for appointments. From Advisor Home, click Appointment Campaigns in the Options menu on the right. Then on the next screen click Appointment Campaign under Create New on the right. 8

The next page requires the following input from you: Campaign Name a name you and other advisors can see but not students Campaign Type advising or tutoring only Slots Per Time how many advising slots a student takes when scheduling Course or Reason choose as many as applicable Begin Date and End Date a range of dates for your Campaign Appointment Length in minutes Appointment Limit maximum appointments each student may schedule for this Campaign Location your advising center When you have entered this information, click the Continue button. Next you will choose which students to invite. Your options are Invite All My Assigned Students or to use the Advanced Search to find the specific ones you wish to include. 9

Select individual or all students from search results, and click the Add Selected Users button to add them to the campaign. Then click the Continue button to continue. The next page asks you to review the students you selected in the previous step. Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the Continue button. Now you will choose which advisors will be able to serve the students and click the Continue button. 10

The subsequent step is to compose your message to your students. The Subject is the subject line of the email students will receive. By default, students get the Notes that appears on the screen. You can add to them but not replace them. When you are ready, click the Continue button. Your final step is to review all of your settings. When you are ready, click the Send button. 11

Communication An advisor can communicate with her students in GradesFirst. Emails sent from GradesFirst go both to the student s UWG email and to the student s GradesFirst profile. From the student s profile page, click Send a Message in the Options box on the right. 12

Communication Option 1: Email The default message type in GradesFirst is email. The student will have the option to reply to you in GradesFirst or directly to your UWG email. If the student chooses to reply in GradesFirst, you will receive the message in your UWG email anyway. It is a good idea to copy and paste your signature from your UWG email account into the message. It also is possible to attach files and carbon copy other recipients. 13

Communication Option 2: Text Message Simply click the tab to Send Text. Students will receive the text from an Alabama area code, so it is important to include your name or center and a callback number. Communication Option 3: Mass Emails From Advisor Home or the search results in GradesFirst, click the boxes by the students you want to contact, and click the Send Message button. GradesFirst sends the emails individually, so students will not see who else received the email. 14

Reception (Kiosk Mode) GradesFirst can function as a kiosk to sign-in students at your center or event. Click the Kiosk link at the bottom-right of any page in GradesFirst and then click the button for your location. You will have the option to choose the Kiosk Mode. In Single Purpose Mode, all students are coming for the same reason. This works great for one-time events or walk-in days. Multiple Purpose Mode works well for days when you are covering more than one type of service or when your center has multiple advisors doing different things that day. 15

In Kiosk Mode, students or your receptionist can swipe UWG IDs or type in student IDs to check in. Students with an appointment will have the option to Check In. Students without an appointment can join a walk-in queue or create an appointment. Note: the image below is the Kiosk in Multipurpose Mode. 16

Once a student checks in, then the I m done. Exist the Kiosk button returns the Kiosk to menu that allows students to swipe their cards or type their IDs. When a student checks in to see an advisor, that advisor gets a notification at the top-left of the screen. Note: the image below is from the GradesFirst test server for UWG, so the color palette is different. The advisor can click the Advising Queue icon to see who is waiting and how long the student has been waiting. Clicking the Start Appt link when the student is with the advisor will help accurately measure wait times in the center. Recording Notes: Advising Reports and Notes GradesFirst can record notes from advising sessions in two ways: Advising Reports and Notes. UWG uses Wolf Watch as the record of all official advising sessions, so GradesFirst does not replace that. Instead, Advising Reports in GradesFirst can be a quick way to identify students who met with an 17

advisor or to record the outcome of ongoing academic coaching. Notes can serve as a great place to record discussions about progress toward degree and to upload documents, such as a change of major form. Advising Reports Students with advising appointments will show up in the Advisor Reporting area of Advisor Home. The advisor can click the radial button and choose to mark a student as a no-show or Add Report. Advising Report also appears in the Options box on the right on a student s profile page. This is useful to record walk-in visits. 18

Input the times of the appointment. Then choose the Reason(s) and Location. You can include detail as you like, but remember that Wolf Watch is UWG s official storehouse for advising notes for course selection. 19

The Advising Report allows the advisor to rate the student s preparedness and enter a Summary. It may be useful to simply enter Advised as a way to be able to quickly search which of your advisees you have seen at a later date. You also can use the Suggested time and Suggested date boxes to set deadlines for a student to get back to you. 20

Notes Click Add a Note in the Options box on the right of a student s profile page. Notes lack the structure of an Advising Report but offer the flexibility to upload documents. They are useful for recording change of major forms, Academic Success Plans, discussions about progress toward degree, Transient forms, and other files that normally would require a paper folder and physical storage space in an advising center. 21

1. Enter the text of the note. 2. Attach files as desired. 3. Decide who can see the note. By default students cannot but other UWG employees can. Please be aware that GradesFirst Notes are subject to audit even if they are private. 4. Use Task Tracking to give yourself a reminder to follow-up on an issue. 22

Issuing Alerts GradesFirst can issue Alerts when an advisor identifies one of his students as at-risk. By default, alerts go to particular areas designated to handle them. For example, referrals for tutoring go to the Center for Academic Success, while referrals to counseling go to the Counseling Center. UWG will continue to refine Alert reasons and notifications to cover the most common scenarios and ensure the Alerts go to the proper interveners. To create an alert, click Issue Alert in the Options box on the right on a student s profile page. 23

Choose the reason(s) for the Alert from the drop-down menu. Select a class from the drop-down menu if appropriate, and add any Additional Comments before clicking the Submit button. 24

GradesFirst Reports GradesFirst features a number of useful reporting tools to track students and their participation in services. Click on the Reporting link in the menu. Most commonly, Advisors will use Advisor Reports or Student Information Reports. Different reports count in various ways, so consult Danny Gourley, campus administrator for GradesFirst, to determine which report(s) best address(es) your needs. 25