Retain Overview
Introduction
Retain is National Louis University's (NLU) internally developed student success management system. Its goal is to help staff and faculty better serve their students academically and personally throughout their educational journey toward graduation. Retain offers the essential tools staff need to effectively work with their students, ensuring meaningful interactions and proactive support.
Retain provides faculty and staff with real-time student data, enabling personalized communication and timely interventions through early alert systems. It also helps coordinate comprehensive support tailored to each student's individual needs.
Faculty & Programs
Faculty update student advisors/coaches on issues either contributing to or hindering performance, issuing alerts for follow-up or highlights to students.
Advisors & Coaches
Advisors review 360-degree Student Profile for additional context during student meetings, and target student outreach based on early alerts from faculty.
Student Experience
Track student behaviors concerns, plagiarism, and student engagement on campus.
Library & Learning Support
Academic Specialists receive referrals and track support provided to students.
Student Finance
Financial aid officers collaborate with advising to resolve student finance issues through Case Management.
Career Services
Advisors/Coaches are able to open a case when students have not completed a career- readiness milestone and need additional follow-up.
Getting Started with Retain
Getting started is easy. Retain is accessible through the NLU Portal. Log in to the NLU portal, select the Faculty/Staff tab, and locate the Retain logo in its own portlet. You can also navigate to Retain directly by navigating your browser to retain.nl.edu. You will then log in using your NLU credentials. Retain will automatically display your courses for the term and all students enrolled. From there, you can begin submitting progress reports, review alerts that have been raised about your students, and provide additional information when appropriate.
When Should Faculty Use Retain?
Retain offers a convenient way to support your students' success by submitting Progress Reports when you observe a pattern of behavior that concerns you or when you want to positively recognize a student’s performance. Prior to submitting a progress report, you should probe into the area of concern with the student or let them know about their positive achievement. Then, when you submit a progress report, you inform those people on campus who are trained to intervene and get students back on track for success. When submitting, please make sure to leave detailed comments about your discussion with the student and other information relevant to the alert. Common reasons faculty submit a progress report are the student:
- Has a decline in grade/performance
- Is missing assignments
- Stopped attending/participating and is unresponsive to faculty communication
- Needs a referral for academic support or tutoring
- Has not established attendance in the course
Faculty are encouraged to submit a progress report at any time they have a concern about a student or would like to recognize positive performance. Faculty should not use Retain for violations of the student code of conduct. A violation of the student code of conduct should be submitted as soon as possible through "Let Us Know", NLU’s Incident Reporting System.
In addition to submitting ad hoc progress reports, the University will send out progress report requests for faculty to complete at the following intervals:
- Undergraduate 10 Week Courses: 3x a term
- Undergraduate 6 Week Courses: 2x a term
- Graduate Courses: Once a term (and as identified by program leadership)
- Ad hoc progress reports for highlights or for students of concern, as needed.
It is important that you complete a progress survey for each of your courses, even if your course is going well. Progress reports help to emphasize the strengths students are bringing to their course as well as highlight where students may need support.
What Happens When I Submit a Progress Report?
When you use Retain, the information you submit is shared with the student, the student’s advisor/coach, and potentially other administrative staff that work with this student. It is important to ensure the information you document is accurate and objective. It will stay on file once you submit it. Faculty also have the ability to view the alert history of the students in their caseload on their homepage in Retain.
After most alerts are submitted - A case will be opened to the relevant individual. While alerts function to inform someone about a behavior, issue, highlight, etc., cases require action to be taken by an individual, usually by communicating with the student. In some instances, cases opened may be directed back to faculty with a note of the progress made. All cases must be closed/addressed within one week.
Student highlights (positive alert reasons) - The student receives a customized email to encourage their performance and the student’s advisor/coach is notified.
For most student concerns - The student will receive a customized email with links to resources or recommended actions and the advisor will be notified in order to follow-up with the student within 24 hours.
Referrals to Library or Learning Support - The student will receive an email with contact information and Library personnel and Learning Support Specialists will receive the referral in order to follow-up with the student.
Counseling Referrals Notification - Notice will be sent to NLU Social Worker to connect with the student or refer them to Skylight Counseling.
Plagiarism Concerns Notification - Notice will be sent to the University Ombudsman for tracking, along with the appropriate department chair, and will be escalated to Academic Deans as necessary. For cases where a student has incorrectly cited an assignment, the faculty member should address the issue with the student and the alert will be monitored on a term-to-term basis with the Ombudsman. No further action will be taken unless noted by faculty.
