Success Markers

Success Markers represent key milestones for a particular program of study--composed of key courses, minimum grade thresholds, and recommended credit ranges for completion, Success Markers serve as indicators of a student's academic progress and performance.

Success Markers can be found on the 30 Second Gut Check on the student profile, on the Success Progress tab of a student's profile, as a filter within Advanced Search.

Success Markers are most impactful when used by staff and faculty when preparing for a conversation with a student, by providing important information regarding a student’s progress against specific academic milestones.

Success marker courses tend to be first- or second-year courses and are typically required courses in that major. In addition, a cumulative GPA threshold can also be set as a success marker, though these are less common.

Important. Success markers are not intended to replace degree audits and should only be used to inform conversations with your students.

30 Second Gut Check

Clicking Attempt (in the Outcome column to the right) provides more detail on registration or grades for that specific student. See the image below.

Success markers can be categorized as Missing, Completed, or Upcoming. You can also view more detail about the success marker courses and the student attempts.

Click each radio button for Missing (chosen by default), Completed, and Upcoming to view those success markers and see more details.

Missed Success Markers

Success markers display as Missing for two possible reasons.

The student completed the courses and received a grade below the recommended grade threshold. In this scenario, the course displays as Missing until the student repeats the course and receives a higher grade.
The student has not registered for the courses in the recommended credit range. In this scenario, the course moves to Upcoming once the student registers. The course will then move to Completed if the student completes the course with a grade at or above the configured threshold. If the student completes the course with a grade below the recommended grade threshold, that course will move back to the Missing status.

If you no longer want courses to display as Missing, you can disable the notifications. See below for instructions on how to disable and re-enable missed success markers.

You can disable missed success markers, as well as re-enable success markers that have been disabled.

Disable Success Markers

Click the Success Progress tab in the student profile.
Find a missed success marker, hover on the icon, and click Disable.
The marker moves to the bottom of the list. The profile page updates for the new count of success markers.
To re-enable a disabled marker, hover on the icon and click Enable.
The marker is re-enabled. The profile page updates to reflect the new count of success markers.

The 30 Second Gut Check view and Success Progress view also reflects the new count of missed success markers. Clear your browser cache if the process did not appear to work.

Warning. Disabled markers show on the Student Profile immediately. For search results, it takes until the next day for the change to appear.

Completed Success Markers

Success markers show as Completed if the student completed the course with a grade at or above the recommended grade threshold. View all course attempts for a student by clicking Attempt in the right column.

Note. Success markers still show as Completed even if the student completed the course outside of the recommended credit range. This is true as long as the student’s grade is at or above the grade threshold.

Upcoming Success Markers

There are three reasons success markers display as Upcoming.

The student is currently enrolled in the courses and has not yet received a grade. After the student completes the course, the success marker moves to either Completed or Missing status based on whether their final grade meets the recommended grade threshold.
The student’s total earned credits falls within the recommended credit timing for that success marker. For example, the student has earned 30 total credits. The success marker recommends completion of the courses between 15 and 45 credits. The student is within the recommended credit range. Thus, the marker shows as Upcoming until the student either completes the course or earns more than the recommended credit range without completing the course.
The student’s total earned credits does not fall within the recommended credit timing for that success marker. For example, the student has earned 30 total credits. The success marker recommends completion of the courses between 60 and 75 credits. The student has not yet earned enough credits for this success marker to apply to them. The success marker shows as Upcoming until the student enters the recommended credit threshold. After that, the success marker moves to Completed or Missing status based on whether the student’s final grade in the course meets the recommended grade threshold.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search lets you create unique cohorts of students based on the layering of search parameters. The search results are used as the foundation for building appointment campaigns or tracking student progress. Queries pull lists of current students that fit the search parameters. Information in the results reflects current/active student data.

Each filter drawer has a collection of filters. They can be used alone or in conjunction with other filters - both within and across drawers - to build your customized search. Some filter fields need you to enter text; others provide options in a menu.

There are two more options at the bottom of the search page to further restrict your search.

My Students Only limits the possible results to only your assigned students. Advisor assignments can be direct, one-to-one assignments, or indirect major or category assignments. Tutors most commonly have direct, one-to-one student assignments. Students are assigned to professors based on their course rosters.
Include Inactive will expand the possible results to both active and inactive students. By default, the search results only display users who are active in the currently selected term. Checking this box includes students from past terms as well.

Success Indicators

Run a search using these filters to identify students based on predicted support level or success marker completion status.

Frequently Asked Questions

Success Markers are created by the Fresno State EAB leadership team at the program, college, degree, or institutional level, with support from your Fresno State Student Success Analyst and EAB Strategic Leader, by evaluating graduation trends or using institutional or program knowledge. As a result, some programs might have more markers than others. If you have questions about the Success Markers appearing in Bulldog Connect please reach out to your Student Success Analyst/Application Administrator by submitting a TDX ticket.

No. Success Marker information can only be viewed by the staff or faculty member with access to the student's profile on the platform.

Yes. Transfer and test credits can still satisfy a success marker so long as the appropriate grade threshold is met by those credits. For example, for a student with 20 transfer credits, this would mean that a Success Marker would show as Complete if one of those credits satisfies a given marker.

I would offer that disabling success markers is an extension of the purpose of success markers, to assist in monitoring/intervening on student progress. As such, an advisor may want to disable markers for the following reasons:

A student is showing a marker as missed due to a previous attempt that did not meet the grade threshold but is currently enrolled in a subsequent attempt; if an advisor is planning outreach to students with this missed marker to encourage future enrollment in the course, they may want to disable the marker for this student so they do not receive outreach about enrolling in a course they are currently enrolled in
A student has a missed marker for a course that is no longer relevant to their future academic progress; for example, if a student misses a marker for a course they should have taken in their first year, but cannot enroll in the course after their first year (and have discussed this with their advisor), they may disable the marker so that they do not continue to show up as having missed the marker
A student has missed a marker for not taking a particular course but has exam/transfer credit that should satisfy the marker, and that data is not yet pulling into Bulldog Connect; an advisor could turn off the marker until the data is set up to pull into the site

I would note that the ability to turn off success markers is available to all users, and changes made by one user will show when another user pulls up that student's profile, so in theory, someone could disable the notification and another advisor could come right along and re-enable.