Overview
Following a student will add the student into the staff user's caseload, along with students where the staff user is the student's primary advisor or primary coach.
Following a student can be done manually from an individual student record by selecting "Follow", or automatically using one of the methods described below.
Role Admin - Follow Permissions
A staff/faculty user must have Follow permissions enabled on at least one of their user assigned role(s) in order to Follow and/or Auto Follow instructed students.
Follow By Tag
One way that staff can automatically follow a specific subset of students that are already identified by a tag, is by creating a Follow by Tag rule within SS&E.
Follow by Tag rules:
- assign a staff member to follow
- a subset of students identified by a pre-defined tag
- with a relationship type identified by a pre-defined subscription label
- that determines whether or not the follower is visible to tagged students in their Student View
How does the Follow by Tag rule auto assign staff to follow students?
After creating a Follow By Tag rule in Relationships Administration, SS&E will process Follow By Tag rules overnight, once every 24 hours. If not already assigned to the student success team, the selected staff will be auto-assigned to follow the tagged students.
On the following day, users can verify that Follow by Tag rules were processed.
Each night, SS&E will automatically add the staff member to the tagged students success team Followers.
All Followers will always display in the Staff View, on each tagged student's Profile tab, under the primary success team. A subscription label will display under the follower's name to help explain why this person is included in the student followers.
Only Followers associated with a subscription label that is Student Visible Yes will display in the Student View and the WM Student Mobile App.
- To verify which tagged students will be followed, view the tag record in Tag Administration.
- To verify whether or not the Follower will display in the Student View, view the subscription label in Subscription Label Administration.
- By design, Follow by Tag rules will auto assign the subscription label under the Follower's name to help identify why this particular staff member was added to the student's success team.
- Each subscription label is configured with Student Visible Yes/No. This setting determines whether or not followers associated with this label will appear in the Student View.
For example, Follow By Tag rules may be used when an athletic director wishes to follow student athletes to keep an eye on scholarship eligibility, school finances etc. at a high level, without the individual students knowing. This way, the athletic director may identify a student athlete they can help financially and reach out to ask the student's athletic coach and athletic advisor (who are both visible followers in the Student View) to communicate directly with the student. It seems safe to assume that the student will feel comfortable knowing that their athletic advisor and athletic coach are included on their student success team and are reaching out to offer help. The student does not have to know that the Athletic Director is the person that kept an eye on student athletes and identified an opportunity to offer help.
How to set up a Follow By Tag rule
To set up a Follow by Tag rule:
- Navigate to Administration > Relationships > Follow By Tag Rules
- Click on "New"
- Select a Staff/Faculty Person by either entering the person's name or their person id (the staff/faculty person record must exist in People Administration)
- Select a Tag (the tag must be previously defined in Tag Administration)
- Select a Subscription Label (the label must be previously defined in Subscription Label Administration)
- The Subscription Label identifies the relationship type and helps explain to students/other staff how this person is related to the students. For example, "Athletic Coordinator", "Soccer Coach", "Math Tutor", "High School Advisor" etc. will help students and/or staff understand why the staff/faculty person is on the student's success team.
- 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 the SS&E runs this job overnight.
- Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for a new "Follow By Tag" relationship to appear.
Staff View
On the Student Profile tab > People > Followers, the Follow By Tag Subscription Label will appear underneath the Follower name.
Student View
Students will only see Follow By Tag followers in the Student View if the subscription label is set to Student Visible "Yes".
Mobile App
The Watermark Student mobile app only displays a Student View, which means that Followers will only appear in the mobile app when the Followers subscription label is set to Student Visible "Yes".
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:
Logged-In 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.
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.