Need a Withdrawal Option

Currently in the new system, we cannot withdraw a student from a class. We have to drop the student, give them a grade of W, and make sure all other dropped courses are not visible on transcripts. We need the option to withdraw students like we did in the old system. This is a huge issue for our university (and is generally a higher ed standard practice).

  • Bethany Fitelson
  • Dec 6 2021
  • Reviewed: Need Further Info
Employee Name Bethany Fitelson
User System Admin
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  • Bethany Van Etten commented
    16 May 18:57

    If you do decide to add this, it would be handy if it was a "flag" in the enrollment information so that we can export this information for external integrations into other systems.

  • Oona McKnight commented
    January 06, 2023 23:37

    I agree with Adrian S's comment. Please bring back the Error option at least! I can't withdraw a student using Error now.

  • Guest commented
    December 21, 2022 18:56

    I agree. This feature is essential in higher education. While there is an option to withdraw a student past the census date, it doesn't reflect on the transcript with a 'W' or 'VWD' (whichever an institution uses). Having the letter grade communicate that on the transcript is so beneficial. At the moment, withdrawn courses appear on the transcript but everything is blank, not communicating if the course is completed, passed, failed, etc.

  • Scott Minkoff commented
    November 29, 2022 18:49

    Hello Jacqueline,


    If a student wants to be removed from a class and it is within a certain time period (1 week after the start of the term), then they are removed, no grade, no indication on the transcript. We call that a "drop". If it is after that time period but before the "Withdraw" date, then they receive a "W" for the grade and it goes on the transcript. We call that a "withdraw". So our "drop" = BB "error" and our "withdraw" = BB "drop". It is still a mental adjustment every time we need to take one action or the other. I am pretty sure that the terms we use are relatively standard.


    The related component that is missing is an "Add/Drop" report. This is something that we had in Education Edge that allowed us to report on when a course was added to a record and when it was dropped (and who took the action, the student or a staff member). We have had to work with API scripts to recreate this report, and would love to have this lost feature available in Education Management.


    I hope this helps,

    -Scott

  • Kerre Conerly commented
    November 29, 2022 17:46

    I work in secondary ed. and would love the choice to display a specific withdrawn course or not. Generally, if a student withdraws before a certain date, it does not need to show on a transcript. After a certain drop date, it does need to appear, but may differ between a WF or just a W. Therefore, an "All or Nothing" approach is not helpful when it comes to withdrawals and transcripts.

  • Adrian S. commented
    November 29, 2022 17:07

    Hi,


    In Education Edge there was a difference between a drop and a withdraw. Withdraw kept all of the records and you could choose whether to display the course on the transcript on a case by base basis. Drop removed the attendance/grades but still logged that they did exist in the course at one point - you couldn't display these on transcripts though.


    In the Education Management system you don't have the ability to "check off" whether an individual dropped course appears on a transcript so it is a little harder to manage the variety of situations that come up.


    My dream scenario would be:

    Error - like it never happened

    Dropped - shows that the course was dropped and maintains grades/attendance (can choose whether you show these on a transcript)


    Withdrawn - shows that course was not completed and maintains grades/attendance (can choose whether you show on a transcript)


    This may sound redundant, but it isn't. There are some situations where a student will drop a course and we don't want it to show on the transcript and others where we do. The current all or nothing (show dropped courses) does not allow for this differentation. I also have scenarios where I want classes with no grades to appear on the transcript so I can't use show dropped course and exclude courses without grades.


    There either needs to be the additional Withdrawn category to differentiate between other dropped courses or the ability to selectively choose when a dropped course appears on a transcript or not.


    This is from my perspective and I'm sure other users might have different scenarios than mine.

  • Guest commented
    November 29, 2022 16:31

    Unbelievable

  • Admin
    Jacqueline Koca commented
    November 29, 2022 16:24

    Hi all!

    I would love to learn a little more about the need here, or if it's more of a naming convention issue with our current options.
    Currently, Drop retains a record that the student was in the course and retains grades/attendance. Dropped courses can optionally be displayed on transcripts. It sounds like a missing piece is a way to easily enter (or automatically add) a W grade.
    Error removes the student from the course entirely, leaving no record that they were ever enrolled in the course. These will never display on transcripts.

    Please let me know what other nuances we may be missing in these options to achieve what you need!
    Thank you! - Jacqueline

  • Jonathan Tepper commented
    September 22, 2022 20:12

    It would be great if feature was added along with being able to choose which one we need. Does you organization use new Withdrawal option and/or the existing Drop and/or Error. If not hide it.

  • Adrian S. commented
    January 13, 2022 00:55

    I need this now. I can't believe this is something we have to figure out how to work around.


  • Donna Balbach commented
    December 08, 2021 15:05

    Yes, please give us a withdraw option, AND automatically grade the class with a "W" if a student withdraws.