High Five Alerts
Celebrating Student Achievement
To foster a culture of recognition, KU is encouraging faculty to make it a practice to celebrate student successes through 'positive' alerts (or Kudos). The Kudo is titled 'High Five!' and can be raised by an instructor through the same Progress Report process. High Fives will highlight and reinforce prosocial or retention-related behaviors and will also open a Case triggering the Student Navigator to send an encouraging text message to the student.
These actions help to build a supportive community where students feel valued and recognized for their efforts. High Five alerts can be raised for many different reasons and a personalized message from a trusted staff member can significantly impact a student’s motivation and sense of support.
Please keep in mind to be as specific as possible when sending a High Five. Students really appreciate hearing when they are doing great work, but if all staff say “Good job” it will quickly become undifferentiated. Additionally, a non-specific compliment can make it difficult for students to identify what they are being recognized for doing.
High Five! Use Cases
“(Student Name) always makes great comments in our weekly discussions that enhances class learning and furthers conversations.”
“(Student Name) is a strong writer, building compelling arguments supported by well-chosen evidence and thoughtful analysis—their written work is a pleasure to read.”
“I noticed (Student Name) has been attending more of the lectures recently. I’m please to see you in class. Keep it up.”
"I noticed you’ve made tremendous strides in how you communicate your ideas—your recent presentations were clear, organized, and delivered with confidence."
"(student Name), you bring a fresh and original perspective to your work. Your creative approach to problem-solving shows great potential for innovation."
"(Student Name) is consistently successful in my class and I see they often are offering to assist their peers. I would like to nominate them to serve as a Student Navigator. I can see their hard work and positive demeanor being beneficial in the role."