by Jessica Loiacono
While working in a K-12 school district, I used to hear, “We are shifting from a Wait to Fail method to a Response to Intervention (RTI) method.” The goal was to provide students, who were identified as at-risk for failure, with targeted services in the classroom. The RTI method uses early intervention with research-based instruction and progress measurement to prevent academic failure in students who continue to struggle. Now that I am working in a higher education setting, I often ask myself, “Can we use the RTI method to support students attending UWG?”
In order to meet the goals outlined by Complete College Georgia, student retention is of the utmost importance. By using tools within CourseDen (powered by Desire2Learn), instructors can track student progress and identify students who may be at-risk for failure. Some of these tools and practices include:
Such tools can benefit both fully online and web-enhanced, face-to-face courses.
Additionally, with the introduction of the campus-wide use of GradesFirst, students who have been identified as “At-Risk” are encouraged to access a variety of resources and support-services across campus. Our fully online students are assigned an Academic Coach, can receive most online counseling services from an online counselor, are provided access to the online tutoring service SmarThinking, and are encouraged to review technology tutorials on Atomic Learning (you will find UWG’s username and password on CourseDen’s home page, under the “News” widget).
As an institution, we can no longer sit idly by as our students struggle. By providing them with targeted services before they fail, we can help all of UWG’s students achieve academic success!
Jessica Loiacono is the online learning innovation coordinator for UWG Online.
