Message to Faculty:

We are about to launch a new online application, Courses InTouch (CIT), for faculty and teaching assistants. Through Courses InTouch, faculty will be able to access their class lists and a new feature, the Course Problem Notice (CPN). The Institutional Research Query Database (IRQDB) Classlist currently used in SAS, SEAS and Nursing, with or without photos, will transition to CIT to ensure just one point of entry for this course and student information. For users of other systems, including Wharton faculty, the CIT class list function is another option and provides the point of entry to the Course Problem Notice function.  The new system will be launched on February 27.

The CPN replaces the paper and mid-semester warning notices currently in use, and will perform the same function much more efficiently.  The goal of this new application is to alert students to academic concerns when they first occur, rather than later in the semester, when it is often too late for the student to rectify the problem. If, for example, a student misses several classes or does poorly on the first midterm, the instructor can select the student(s) in question from the electronic class list, choose the appropriate problem items from a list of options, or choose “other” and write out the exact problem.  An e-mail notification will automatically be sent to the student and to his or her School office;  an advisor from the School office will follow up if the student either ignores the warning or has multiple warnings in a range of courses. The instructor can also use this notice to advise the student on appropriate follow-up (for example, “see an advisor,”  or “see the TA”).  The system is simple to use and is accessible through the U@Penn portal, in the section labeled Student Advising Resources.

I hope this system will encourage more instructors to notify students about academic problems as soon as they occur, so that students can take immediate steps to correct them and receive the appropriate assistance in dealing with them.

—Janice R. Bellace, Deputy Provost