# Awareness to Action: Student Knowledge of and Responses to an Early Alert System
### How Do Stakeholders View and Use Human-Driven Early Alert Systems?  
Prior research on stakeholder views of early alert systems has centered on staff, instructors, and students, with much of these data collected as supplemental to a broader investigation of system efficacy [23]. Academic advisors report that they are excited to have access to early alert system data [23] and use these data when meeting with students [35]. Instructors, on the other hand, have more mixed reactions to early alert systems. Instructors believe they should reach out to struggling students [34] and endorse having an early alert system because they feel ill-prepared to be the sole source of help [12]. However, instructors also indicate that a drawback of early alert systems is the time and effort required to learn a new interface [36] and the time required to submit early alerts [34], though some instructors of large enrollment courses find the additional workload worthwhile because they would not be able to engage with individual students in their courses without such systems [36]. Finally, some instructors criticize early alerts for their lack of initiating change in students [34], whereas others observe that early alerts lead students to modify relevant behaviors such as their study habits [37].  
For how widely early alert systems are used in higher education, research offering student views of this institutional support is surprisingly sparse [34]. Prior work suggests that most college students want to be contacted if their performance in a course is unsatisfactory, would like that contact as soon as possible, and want to receive information about resources to help them get back on track [38]. Students also report various emotions after receiving an early alert, from being happy that someone cared enough to reach out [10; 34], to indifference and negative emotions (e.g., fear) [34]. These responses align with instructor concerns that receiving an early alert may harm student confidence [34]. Most (76%) students surveyed by [PERSON] [34] also reported that they wanted to talk with their instructor after receiving an early alert notification, but only 33% wanted to talk with an advisor. In terms of spurring action, [PERSON] [34] found that students' most common response to an early alert was to do nothing, suggesting that some students may need extra guidance or support in reacting to an early alert, but that a substantial percentage of students did shift their academic behaviors through submitting missing assignments and increasing their class attendance. Altogether, prior work suggests that students want to learn in a timely manner if they need to improve their performance-coupled with connection to support-, but that receiving an early alert leads to negative emotional reactions for a substantial percentage of students and does not always prompt positive action. Consistent with [PERSON]'s [34] call for further research into students' perspectives on early alert systems, we extend research on this topic by surveying undergraduate students at a large public state university whose enrollment size necessitates the use of highly scalable systems for student support. Thus, we examined student knowledge of and experiences with academic early alerts within the context of an institution where these systems are especially well-positioned to impact students.