Progress Reports FAQs 

Progress Reports (PRs) are a way to communicate with students and advisors regarding student performance in courses. Professors will receive an email from their school's Associate or Assistant Dean with a link to submit PRs, or they may submit them on an ad-hoc basis. Professors may issue PRs for students using pre-set feedback reasons, or they can indicate ‘Other’ and add comments in an open-text response box.

Beginning with the Spring 2024 semester, students will be able to see Progress Reports in the Navigate mobile app as well as in their Scarletmail. IN ADDITION, beginning with the Spring 2024 semester, students WILL be able to see comments made by professors in the Progress Reports.

Examples of feedback messages include:

• HIgh five! Your performance in this class is improving. I’m sending this note to encourage you to keep up the good work! If you’d like to discuss the coursework or your interests, please see the course syllabus for times I’m available.

• Lack of performance such as not logging into the course, low test or assignment grade, unprepared for class, or at risk of course failure – Students are encouraged to contact their professor as soon as possible using the contact information in the course syllabus.

• Needs Tutoring – you will be able to select Math, Writing, or Other STEM. Students are encouraged to seek tutoring, and given the appointment scheduling link in RU-N4Success and the Navigate-Student app. Tutoring office directors and coordinators are alerted to your referral.

Professors are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to provide students with information about their academic progress to date, and to make recommendations for action. This is especially important for students early in their undergraduate career.

No, you can submit feedback only for those students you are concerned about, or to whom you want to send a positive message.

If there is more than one professor for a course, each professor will get a Progress Report request. Only one person needs to complete the report, so be sure to coordinate your response with your teaching partner(s).

The Progress Report feature in RU-N4Success/Navigate includes 2 positive feedback reasons (‘improved performance’ and ‘very good performance’).

If you’d like to send additional messages of encouragement and affirmation you can do so by:

• logging into RU-N4Success/Navigate,
• selecting the student(s) from the class lists,
• and choosing ‘Send a Message’ from the Actions drop-down menu. Emails will be sent to each student’s ScarletMail address.

A brief email recognizing something specific that a student has said or done can be an important boost of energy or motivation, and a very powerful demonstration of care!

When you report a concern or select a positive feedback reason for a student, an email is sent to their ScarletMail address. Beginning with the Spring 2024 semester, students also will be able to see Progress Reports in the Navigate mobile app.

IN ADDITION, beginning with the Spring 2024 semester, students WILL be able to see comments made by professors in the Progress Reports.

Depending on the feedback reason, notification will go to the appropriate tutoring director or the students’ academic advisor(s). See a list of feedback reasons and the messages sent to students for details about the wording of emails to students, and which staff members get notified. Contact your Associate or Assistant Dean if you have questions.

The PR process operates within the RU-N4Success/Navigate platform and may be initiated by a school Dean or by a professor. There are two ways to issue a Progress Report:

1. In a campus-wide ‘campaign’, the Associate/Assistant Dean of a school emails a Progress Report link to professors. Professors open the link, see a list of students, and respond as needed.
2. Professors can login and user guide for ‘ad hoc’ Progress Reports during the semester or term.

There are two reasons why a student may not appear on the Progress Report roster.  Professors are strongly encouraged to reach out to a student directly if there is a concern but the student is not listed.

• Student has dropped the course
• Student is not enrolled at Rutgers – Newark.  Students enrolled at Camden and New Brunswick do not have access to RU-N's Navigate system and will not appear on the Progress Reporting roster, even if they are taking a course from a Newark school.

In a few instances, course titles, particularly courses with Subtitles, may be listed incorrectly in RU-N4Success/Navigate.  This happens if the course number was used for a different course title in an earlier term.  Even with an incorrect course title appearing in the Progress Report, the roster and course number are correct and you may submit progress report feedback per instructions.

Progress Reports have replaced the Warning Grade system (in REGIS) for undergraduate students at RU-N. Progress Reports are not just limited to mid-term warnings, which may be too late for some students who are falling far behind. Progress Reports allow professors to give more detailed feedback, automatically appear in the Navigate app, and are sent via email to students, something the Warning Grade system did not do.

Professors use RU-N4Success/Navigate to submit feedback about student progress (“Progress Reports”). 

Professor feedback is key to student success!

• Feedback allows students to reflect on their performance and take timely and effective action to succeed in classes.
  • Students in Math courses who received a Progress Report (PR) recommending tutoring were twice as likely to get tutoring compared with students who did not get a PR (data from Spring 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023).
• Positive feedback can personalize the learning experience, giving students confidence that they are seen and heard.
• Professor comments can be seen by students (effective Spring 2024) as well as by academic advisors and student support professionals, and are a way to personalize the feedback for selected students.