At-risk student detection in Moodle: early signals to intervene on time
Identify which students need support before it's too late. Board Retention centralizes the academic risk signals already in your Moodle and presents them clearly to prioritize intervention.
No recent access · Low progress · Low grades · Pending activities
Detecting an at-risk student on time shouldn't require manual investigation
In Moodle, risk signals are scattered across activity reports, grades, completion and access logs. Manually cross-referencing that data for each student takes time that could be spent on direct intervention.
By the time a teacher detects that a student is at risk, it's often too late. The goal is to systematically identify early signals.
What signals can indicate academic risk?
No recent access
The student hasn't accessed the course for days or weeks. Prolonged inactivity is one of the earliest indicators.
Low course progress
Advancement in activities and resources is significantly below the group average or expected pace.
Low grades
Grades in assignments, quizzes and activities are below the defined acceptable threshold.
Pending activities
The student has accumulated unsubmitted or incomplete assignments, quizzes or SCORM packages.
Unreviewed feedback
The student hasn't reviewed feedback provided by the teacher on graded activities.
Low participation
Reduced participation in forums, collaborative activities or course communication tools.
Negative evolution
Declining trend in grades or activity compared to previous periods.
Operational detection, not predictive
Board Retention does not predict dropout — we don't have a predictive model. What it does is detect early signals by combining available Moodle indicators to help prioritize teaching intervention. Educational teams interpret, decide and act.
Scenario: Early intervention in a 60-student course
A teacher detects in Board Retention that 5 students haven't accessed the course for 12 days, 3 have completed less than 30% of activities, and 2 have grades below 5 since the first two assignments. Instead of discovering this at the end of the course, the teacher has weeks to contact, tutor and adjust.
Designed by Moodle specialists at EDF
Board Retention by EDF has been designed by a team with experience in Moodle, educational technology, LMS integrations and e-learning solutions for educational institutions and training organizations.
Read-only security
Board Retention is designed to work in read-only mode on the data needed for academic tracking. It does not modify grades, activities or completion statuses. Deployment can first be validated in a pre-production environment and adapted to each institution's security and data protection policy.
Explore more about Board Retention
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Board Retention predict which students will drop out?
No. Board Retention shows risk signals based on objective Moodle data. Interpretation and intervention decisions always belong to the educational team.
What thresholds are used to consider a student at risk?
Thresholds can be configured according to each institution's criteria: days of inactivity, progress percentage, average grade, etc.
Can I configure alerts for certain risk levels?
Yes. Board Retention allows you to define criteria and receive alerts when they are met, facilitating prioritization without manually reviewing all cases.
Are risk signals based only on grades?
No. Multiple indicators are combined: access, progress, grades, submissions, participation and feedback. This avoids depending on a single variable.
Does this work equally for continuing education and university degrees?
Yes. Risk signals are relevant in both contexts. Threshold configuration allows adaptation to the duration and nature of each program.
Can students see their own risk?
Board Retention offers a student panel with their progress, grades and activity, but risk detection is a tool oriented to teachers, tutors and coordination.
Ready to improve academic tracking?
Discover how Board Retention can help you centralize, visualize and act on your Moodle data.