Momentum How-To

Still have questions? Email us at studentsuccess@moravian.edu! We’re happy to hear from you!

FAQ

Will we be taking attendance in Momentum? Not right now. We are experimenting with different solutions to track attendance, so we ask all faculty to continue using Roll Call in Canvas to take attendance.

Why is there an attendance flag if I’m taking attendance? At this time, we will be tracking daily attendance to confirm class attendance, identify the last day that a student has attended class, and to have a record of attendance when SHARE is assessing intervention need. However, the instructor can best alert us to when attendance is impacting student success in a class through the General Concern flag in Momentum.

Why can’t I just send an e-mail like I used to? Using Momentum to track responses is important to ensure that (a) we close the loop on concerns that have been raised and (b) we can identify places where we need to improve our campus structures. By tracking a student’s history in one location we can better understand challenges and barriers that may need to be addressed.  We get the ‘big picture’ of what’s going on with a student. If you have concerns about a student and aren’t comfortable adding it to Momentum, you can send an e-mail to StudentSuccess@moravian.edu. We can add a flag to the system for you or discuss other strategies to assist the student.

What can I do with Momentum? Lots of things!

• Explore a student’s network. You can see other faculty members, advisors, coaches, and additional support for the students, with the option to send a direct message.
• See an advisee’s course load and schedule. Always know exactly where your advisee is on their journey.
• Monitor or contribute toward tracking items; adding important details or information as necessary. When you raise a flag as a students instructor, you can see any updates and additional information provided by others pertaining to that flag. If you are the students advisor, you can see all flags and comments pertaining to your advisee. Easier to monitor!
• Keep notes about your advisees. Keeping notes on each advising appointment enables you to continue the conversation with students when they meet with you again or if questions ever arise regarding what was discussed in an appointment. Access the student in Momentum, and you will see a "Notes" tab at the top of the page. Select "Advising Notes" and give the note a name. It might just be "Advising" and the date. Notes default to shared and give you the option to select the type of note you want it to be. Each type clearly identifies who can see the note. Selecting “Private” means the note can only be seen by you, the writer of the note. You can even select to have a copy of the note sent to the student, keeping everyone on the same page.
• Create office hours so students can easily make appointments. Customize appointment preferences including appointment name, length, scheduling deadlines, locations, and instructions. Office hours can be set up on a recurring basis or as a one-time occurrence and can be limited to a specific population of students (i.e. your advisees or students in your courses). Instructors can also set an email reminder and notification preferences to suit their needs. Sync your Momentum calendar with your Google calendar to allow for easier calendar management and avoidance of double-booking.

Information Flow

At any point in the semester, instructors can raise flags. When a flag is raised, the first point of contact to the student is the student’s primary advisor. As soon as the advisor reaches out to the student a comment should be added to the flag noting that contact has been attempted. If an advisor is unsuccessful in contacting a student they may engage the help of the student success team or another member of the student’s network (i.e. coaches, secondary advisor, other instructors) by assigning the flag to that individual and following up in comments with questions or concerns.

FYI Flag Workflow

ACTION Flag Workflow

Options For Feedback that Instructors May Provide

• Alert to Student:  You can use this flag for a variety of reasons to engage the student in addressing your concern.  This flag alerts the student of your concern via email as well as in the tracking section of their Momentum page.  Has a student’s absences caused you to be concerned about their success in your class? The threshold for raising this flag depends on your own pedagogy and attendance policy, but raising an Alert flag sooner rather than later will encourage your student to return to class. You can raise this flag to warn a student that you’ve noticed their lack of enthusiasm for a class or when you believe a student could be putting forth more effort, when you are seeing a pattern of missing work, a missed major assignment, or other reasons to be concerned about the missing work, or when a student seems to be dangerously close to failing the entire course.
• Action: Student Not Responding to Communication. This email is sent to the student and Student Success Team when a flag is manually raised by an advisor for a student who doesn't seem to be responding. The Student Success Team is also notified and will work to contact the student as well. The advisor should clear this flag after they have managed to have the appropriate communication with the student.
• Action: Behavioral Concern. When the student’s behavior (in or out of class) is proving disruptive to the student’s or to another student’s learning. Note that this flag does not go to the student and will typically generate follow-up action by the Student Success Team. As this note is part of the student’s official record, please be aware of the type of information you are including with this flag. If you have concerns about putting details in writing, follow up with a phone call to a member of the Student Success Team.
• Action: General Concern. If your concern does not seem to fit in any of the other categories, use this one. Note that this flag does not go to the student. In most cases, the academic advisor should determine the appropriate next steps for issues raised in this flag.
• Kudos. Positive encouragement contributes to student success. This can be particularly helpful when a student has shown improvement. The advisor is welcome to clear this flag when they check into Momentum, or the instructor can clear the flag the next time they enter the system.

Flags for an Absence Alert are raised by Student Success, members of the athletic department and health center staff.  Absence flags will be raised when a student has missed, or will miss, class time due to a documented illness or injury or a family emergency.  You will receive email notification in such an event (remember you can customize how you receive email) but you can also monitor updates in Momentum.  The following three flags are used to document absences: Absence Alert (medical or injury), University Mandated Absence, and Absence Alert (non-medical, family emergency, etc..)

In addition to flags, referrals may be issued to encourage a student to seek outside help. There are many referral options, so make sure to check them out! Referrals are helpful in reminding the student (and you!) about actions they should take that you've discussed. Another opportunity to keep everyone in the loop and on the same page. Some examples include the following:

• Writing Center Referral. Use this to refer students to the Writing Center for help on any writing project, at any stage of the writing process. Upon referral, the student and the Writing Center Coordinator receive an email notification.
• Academic Support Referral.  Use this to refer a student to Academic Support, including PASS sessions and skills and strategies sessions.
• Accessibility Services Center. Use this to refer a student for accommodations and support through the ASC.

I’ve raised a flag for a student, what now?

Student Notification: When an Alert flag, kudos, or referral is raised on a student, the student is automatically notified via email and provided with any comments noted by the instructor. Comments from instructors are encouraged! NOTE: When General Concern and Behavioral Concern flags are raised for a student, the student will not receive notification of this. You’ll see when you raise a flag that the system tells you exactly who can and cannot see that particular flag. While students do see the original comments included in the flag being raised, they do not see additional comments entered into the system by others regarding any flags (academic or otherwise).

Student Action: Any time an Alert flag or kudos is raised on a student, that student receives an email encouraging them to seek support and take advantage of the resources that have been suggested.

Primary Advisor Action: Alert flags help inform the ongoing conversation between an advisor and their student, but do not require immediate action or response from the advisor. Action flags require action on the part of the Primary Advisor. If additional clarification is needed, reach out to the flag raiser. Contact the student and arrange a conversation to discuss the situation. Make sure to comment on the flag so the flag raiser knows that it's being addressed. 

Clearing Flags: 
What does clearing a flag mean? For that specific issue, the student has responded (e.g.: resumed attending class, worked with professor to make up work, etc.) or at least two attempts have been made to contact the student. Comments upon clearing the flag will allow others in the network to clearly understand the resolution.

In addition to adding your own comments about the resolution of the flag, you will be asked to categorize the reason for the resolution. the following options will be available: The notification was successfully addressed; The notification was not successfully addressed; The notification is no longer relevant; The notification was raised by mistake, The notification was for information purposes only (no action needed). 

Who clears the flag? Typically a flag is cleared by the person who raised the flag when they feel that the student has responded. Flags may also be cleared by the advisor or the Student Success Team in cases where a student drops a course or when additional actions have been taken by other members in the community.