Case Management

What is a Case?

An electronic case file where staff across departments (e.g., financial aid, tutoring, billing, payments, advising, and more) can collaborate on the follow-up with students. Cases create a more formalized next step for issued alerts or referrals.

Cases are assigned to various offices and departments best resourced to support students. For example, Financial Aid, Billing & Payment cases are managed by the staff in Financial Aid & Bursar’s Office.

Who manages the cases?

Office staff or Advisors who are referred to manage the case within the associated student support office.  Each time a referral or concern is raised that creates a case the "assignee" will receive an email notification alerting them. For busy support offices, the assignee may choose to filter these notifications in Outlook instead of having them all come into their Inbox, especially during Progress Report time, when the notifications may be in high volume.

Case Terminology

Case Terminologies

Case Management Objectives

Case Objectives

Case Process Summary

Case Process

Email Notification to Staff

When a concern or referral is assigned, which opens a case, the assignee of the case will receive an email notification that a case has been assigned to them. The email will come to the assignees WCU Outlook email. During high notification times (Progress Reports) they assignee may choose to filter these emails in Outlook to better manage these notifications.

Case Process

Case Support Timeline

Case Progression Timeline Steps
Open Day 1 Student receives an email describing the concern or referral that was raised by the instructor/staff member, The email includes  instructions  for the student to contact the instructor or support office
 1st Contact within first 3 days The Support Office reaches out to student via text to offer support (1st contact). Note added to case comments.
2nd Contact 6-8 Business Days The Support Office calls the student if there has been no response to the 1st outreach. Note added to case comments.
3rd Contact 10-12 Business days If the student has not responded to  various attempts of outreach. The case manager will reach out to the instructor/staff who raised the concern or referral to see if there are still issues or if  the issues have been resolved (students showing up for class, turning into appts, logging into D2L). Note added to case comments.
4th Contact No response from  student, yet issues still exist. Case owners review case, possibly refer to SSET if the case involves  academic support  issues.  When closing the case the assignee wil make final notes in case comments and check off   "Allow closed comments to be shown in email."  This will provide and outcome for the faculty/staff member who raised the concern.

Managing a Case from the Navigate Staff Homepage

  1. On the staff Home Page, click on the Cases icon on the left-side panel.
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  2. Check off “My Students Only” if you just want to see the students you have a relationship. Otherwise, you will see all cases assigned to your care unit. Use Filters to customize the cases you want to view.
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  3. Click on “Manage Case” for the student case you would like to view, add comments to or close
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    Only members of the same care unit can see the notes added to the case.

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Case Management Practices

1. For auto-assigned cases, if the assignee feels the case is not properly assigned it should be reported to Navigate@wcupa.edu for re-assignment assistance.

2. If the case is not assigned, assign a case owner and assignee. Note: Each care unit can have different business processes to assign cases, however, a process should be in place. The navigate team can help facilitate a process.

  1. The assignee will initiate the first communications to the student via text.
  2. All communications need to be noted in the case comments. This is highly recommended so the case owner and other care unit members will see the case is being worked.
  3. Ideal timing: 3 business days.

3. No student response after 1st outreach

  1. Send a second nudge via text message or call the student.
  2. Update the case comments.
  3. Other strategies
    1. Create an appointment campaign (can be done for multiple students with similar concerns). The appointment campaign will send an appointment link to the student so the student can easily schedule an appointment.

4. No student response to 2nd text outreach (No/Low Attendance/Academic Concerns and Success Coaching)

  1. Close the case, with the reason there has been no response from the student . When closing the case the assignee wil make final notes in case comments and  include information related to the escalation of the case.  Make sure to check off  Allow closed comments to be shown in email. This will provide an outcome for the faculty/staff member who raised the concern.
  2. Refer to SSET
  3. Assign the owner of the case to Student Engagement

5. No student response to 2nd text outreach (Other care units)

  1. Depending on the care unit business process the case may be escalated within the care unit or closed with the close outcome – ‘Student contacted 2x no response'.

6. Student Responses

  1. Each care unit will have different strategies to provide support to students, the following are tools that can be used to ensure a student remains successful.
    1. Add a to-do to the student or to staff for follow-up.
    2. Follow-up appointments

When multiple faculty/staff are assigned to a case and coordinate the care together, do not add another assignee - it should be brought to the attention of the Navigate Team

Where to see Cases

The cases (opening/closing) and coordinated comments can be viewed on in a Student's Profile on their History Tab.

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Alert Reasons & Next Steps

Alert Reason Action/Next Steps for Case Managers
Kudos The student receives an initial email notifying the student that the student has received a “job well done” from a staff/faculty member. The Navigate team will send any comments from the issuer to the student. No case is created

Academic Concern

The student receives an email directing them to meet with the Faculty Instructor to discuss the issue. The case is sent to the Success Coaching. A case is opened.
Other (Alert defined by comments) No email is sent to the student. The Enrollment Care Unit receives and acts on this concern.  The Academic Support & Advocacy (ASA) Team receives these cases, A case is opened.
Low/No Attendance The student receives an email directing them to meet with the Faculty Instructor to discuss the issue. The Academic Support & Advocacy (ASA) Team receives these cases, A case is opened.
Referral: Student Enrollment Concern No email is sent to the student. The Academic Support and Advocacy (ASA) team reviews and manages this referral. A case is opened. 
Referral: Financial Concern The student receives an email and Financial Aid is alerted. A Financial Aid staff member will invite the student to set up an appointment with them to discuss their financial concerns. A case is created.
Referral: Tutoring

The student receives an email stating they are being referred to the LARC. The LARC is sent an email alerting them of the student in need of tutoring. A LARC staff member will invite the student to set up an appointment with them to review the course syllabus, and class expectations, and set up a tutoring schedule. No case is created.

Referral: Writing Center The student receives an email stating they are being referred to the Writing Center. The Writing Center department is sent an email alerting them of the student in need of support. A Writing Center staff member will invite the student to set up an appointment with them to discuss how the student can improve their writing, using APA, developing proper outlines, etc. No case is created.
Referral: Counseling Services The student receives an email highlighting the services that the Counseling Center offers and the process to make an appointment. The counseling center staff reviews this referral. No case is created.
Referral: Transfer Services   The student receives an email to contact Transfer Services. The Transfer Service Staff and Transfer Concierge  reviews this referral. A case is created.
Referral: Career Development The student receives an email highlighting the services the Career Development Center offers and the process to make an appointment. A case is created
Referral: to Library Services & Research The student receives an email highlighting the services the Library Services offers and the process to make an appointment. No case is opened.
Referral: Office of Educational Accessibility  (OEA) The student receives an email highlighting the services the Office of Educational Accessibility offers and the process to make an appointment. A case is created.
Referral: Autism Support Services The student receives an email and the D-CAP team reviews this referral. A case is opened.
Referral: Success Coaching  The Success Coaching team will review the referral. No email is sent to students. No case is created

Outcome Key

Action and Response Case Outcomes

The staff member contacted the student and provided appropriate resources or support to resolve the concern/issue

Connected with the student and provided resources. Close case.

The staff member contacted the student and provided appropriate resources or support to resolve the concern/issue. The student plans to continue receiving support and made another appointment.

Connected with the student and provided resources. The student requested ongoing support. Note added to the case. Close case.

The staff member contacted the student and was informed that the student resolved the concern/issue on their own. This could be through self-support, another student care member, an instructor, dropping the course, withdrawal, or others.

Connected with the student and was informed that the issue is resolved. Add a note to the case. Close case.

Referred student to another advisor, tutoring, academic success, student success coaching, writing center, library, financial aid, or the billing and payment department.

Connected with the student and referred the student elsewhere. Add a note to the case. Close case

Staff reached out to the student 2 times (text, call, email) within 2 weeks since the case was opened, and the student did not respond.

The student was contacted, no response. Add a note to the case. Case escalated.

Special Populations

If concerns or referrals are raised on students who already have an ongoing relationship with a support office (Athletes, Office of Educational Assitance, D-CAP, Compass, AMP) their dedicated support office will be the primary office to manage their case.