September 23, 2015  |  News & Events, Timely Announcements

PLEASE NOTE: The message below was sent for the Fall 2015 semester.  If you are looking for current information on Progress Reports (formerly known as Early Alerts/Academic Updates), please see the Navigate/Student Success Collaborative page, or the memo sent for the Fall 2018 semester. Navigate/SSC Campus Progress Reports replaced use of the Mapworks tool.

Colleagues,

A new academic year means a new Early Warning/Academic Update reporting season.  Mapworks will again be utilized for the process.  Mapworks allows for an expanded early warning population and a more holistic picture of the student experience with coordinated intervention.  Last fall, 657 faculty/staff created 23,059 updates for students.  This is up significantly from previous years and we are looking to continue this success.

All UWM instructors who are teaching courses that enroll first-year students, transfer students, sophomore students, students living in University Housing, Lawton Scholars, Academic Opportunity Center students, Life Impact students and select students on university scholars are requested to complete Early Warnings/Academic Updates between September 21 and October 16.  We ask that instructors put in place a means of assessing student performance to provide feedback to the student.

Academic Advisors, Student Success Center staff, Residence Life staff, Panther Academic Support Services staff and other campus stakeholders will work with students to review their update information and personalized Mapworks report.

Instructor’s comments in Mapworks are critical to the interventions that take place after an Early Warning/Academic Update is issued.  All instructor comments will be shared with students so should be written with this in mind.  Please note that all comments submitted via academic update are limited to 300 characters.  Additionally students should be marked as a failure risk if they are earning a C- or lower and/or have 3+ absences.  This designation will ensure campus stakeholders reach out to develop a course of action that will improve student performance.

New Mapworks Platform
The Mapworks system rolled out a brand new version of the product this year so the process to access the site and submit updates is slightly different than in previous years.  To access the system, go to uwm.skyfactor.com and use your UWM credentials to login.

Need Help?
Click here to access Frequently Asked Questions and training guides for the new system: http://uwm.edu/faculty_staff/instructional_support/early_warning.cfm

You are also encouraged to attend one of the Early Warning/Academic Update trainings:

September 24 from 3 to 4pm in Bolton 293
September 25 from 10 to 11am in Bolton 293

If you or anyone in your department cannot attend these scheduled trainings but would like a hands on training to discuss early warnings/academic updates in MAP-Works, virtual trainings can be arranged. Please email mapworks-help@uwm.edu to learn more.

Your feedback and outreach are absolutely critical to the success of our students.  We truly appreciate the effort all UWM faculty and staff make to enhance the student success and retention of our students. If you have questions about Mapworks or the Academic Update program, please contact Kay Eilers, Director of Mentoring & First-Year Student Success at kceilers@uwm.edu or for technical assistance email mapworks-help@uwm.edu.

Take care,
Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs