Office of Online Learning
Dropout Detective
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Dropout Detective Resources
Dropout detective is a new tool inside Canvas that helps identify “at risk” students. This robust tool can be used by administrators, advisors, and instructors to help increase student retention.
How it works:
The program scans Canvas and reviews grades, missing assignments, last date of attendance and other factors that may indicate a student is at risk.
A dashboard is updated each night with updated data and applies an algorithm to display risk index that draw attention to at-risk students.
Administrators, advisors, and instructors can easily click through data to get a closer look at the issues.
Dropout Detective for Instructors
- Log into Canvas.
- Click on the course you want to access.
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You should see“Dropout Detective” on the left course navigation menu. Click on this. You are now in the Dropout Detective application on Canvas.
Inside Dropout Detective
You will see a risk index of all students that are in the course.
You can also toggle between high, medium, and low risk categories to only show students in that list.
You can search this list with the last name or student ID.
Click on the name of the student to get additional information about the students' grades, number of zeros, missing assignments, last access, and late submissions.
You can click on the data hyperlinks to explore more about it in the course.
Instructor Best Practices for Accurate Risk Indicators
- Keep the gradebook up-to-date (recommended at least once per week).
- Create assignments in Canvas and set due dates on those assignments.
- Encourage students to submit assignments within Canvas.
- Review assignment due dates and make sure they are current (especially when course content is copied from one term to the next).
- Ensure your course start and end dates are accurate in Canvas related to the expected student course activity.
Dropout Detective 101 for USM Faculty
Dropout Detective Training for USM Faculty
Passcode: vdq#u10i
Dropout Detective for Administrators
To get to the Dropout Detective section in Canvas you will need to:
- Log into Canvas
- Click on the “Admin” icon on the left side menu.
- You will see the title of the College or Department you have admin access to. Click on it.
- You should see a left sub-menu for Admin and it will contain “Dropout Detective” Click on this.
- You are now in the Dropout Detective application on Canvas.
Inside Dropout Detective
You will see a risk index of all students that are taking courses within your College/Department.
You can also toggle between high, medium, and low risk categories to only show students in that list.
You can Search this list with last name or student ID.
Click on the name of the student to get additional information about the students’ course enrollments, grades, number of zeros, missing assignments, last access, and late submissions.
You can click on the data hyperlinks to explore more about it in the course.
In some cases, dashboards are setup for groups of students. If you are a part of dashboard group you can toggle to that dashboard by clicking on the dropdown arrow beside “all students”
If you would like to view a recording of Dropout Admin training, you can use the following link and passcode.
Dropout Detective training for Administrators
Passcode: ycC5!#vU