Automatic Following & Follow by Tag Rules

Overview

Following a student will add the student into the staff user's caseload, along with students where the staff user is set as a primary advisor or primary coach.

Following a student can be done manually from the student record, or automatically using one of the methods described below.

Follow Permissions

In addition, each user must have Follow permissions enabled on at least one of their user role(s) in order to Follow and/or Auto Follow students they instruct.

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Follow By Tag

One way that staff can automatically follow a specific subpopulation/group of students that are already identified by a tag, is to create a Follow-by-Tag rule within SS&E.

When does the Follow by Tag rule auto-assign staff to students?

The system will process "Follow By Tag rules" and automatically apply staff to a student's success team "staff followers" each night.

  • If not already assigned, staff will be auto-assigned to students that match the tag-identified subpopulation.
  • By design, the Follow by Tag rule assigns a subscription label that explains why each user is following the student.
  • Follow By Tag rules are automatically applied once (overnight) every 24 hours.

How to set up a Follow By Tag rule

To set up a Follow by Tag rule:

  1.  Navigate to Administration -> Relationships -> Follow By Tag Rules
  2. Click "New"
  3. Select a Staff Person by either entering the person's name or their institution id
  4. Select a Tag (the tag must be previously defined in Tag Administration)
  5. Select a Subscription Label
    • The Subscription Label identifies the type of relationship that the person has to the group of students represented by the tagged subpopulation. For example, "Athletic Coach", "Soccer Coach", "High School Advisor" etc.
  6. Click Save

Once a Follow by Tag Rule is created, SS&E will automatically create the relationship defined by the Follow By Tag rule the next time student success logic runs overnight.

  • Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for a new "Follow By Tag" follower to appear.

Staff View 

The Subscription Label will appear underneath the followers name when viewing the student's Followers from a Student's Profile tab.

Student View

Students will only see followers if the subscription label (assigned in step 5) is set to "Student Visible".

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SS&E Built-In/Embedded Auto Follow Rules

In addition to Follow By Tags, some Follow By Rules are automatically assigned from other places such as:

User Settings - Automatic Following

When enabled, individual users may select the “AUTOMATIC FOLLOWING” setting which allows the staff user to automatically “Follow” students that are associated with a specific course section location(s).  

  • User Settings are set by each user at the individual user level.
  • This setting is enabled from the Staff Settings Administration menu on the Admin page.
  • The Automatic Following user setting allows users to optionally "automatically follow all students taking courses at select locations".
  • At most schools this user setting is disabled and cannot be selected.

Adjunct Faculty Function/Role

When a user is assigned the Adjunct Faculty function/role, SS&E will automatically add the Adjunct Faculty person to a student's success team as a Follower when:

  • The student is currently registered in "active" current term course sections
  • The Adjunct Faculty person is instructing some/all of the course section meetings, either as the primary instructor or as the secondary instructor.

Instruct - Caseload User Settings

To follow students you are currently instructing, this must first be enabled in Role Administration, as explained in the above Permission section.

Next, on the individual user Settings, the Instruct tab "Caseload" setting must be checked to automatically follow students in current term courses that I instruct. This allows instructors to configure SS&E to automatically add themselves to a student's success team as a Follower, when:

  • Students are enrolled in courses they instruct (as a primary or secondary instructor)
  • The course section is in the current term.

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What can be viewed on the Caseload Activity Feed and on student records that are currently in your caseload is set in Role Administration.

  • These permissions are granted by setting Profile View Configuration (this allows access to "All Students" or "Only My Caseload") and the Profile Tabs, Profile Details (Full Profile View) settings which define what exactly can be viewed on All Students/My Caseload records.
  • For more information about Profile View Configuration permissions, click here.

 

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