Keeping Tabs on Our Online Students

I was playing around with the Homework Management System by the publisher of my textbook and looked and discovered a great tool. The system is called Connect by McGraw/Hill.  I chose this system because of their pricing and the fact they give students access to an electronic copy of the textbook. Also this system allows students to draw various graphs such as supply and demand.
You can view the FAQ page from my syllabus to get more information.
Anyhow, I noticed the following tool being rolled out and was impressed by it.
They track how much time students spend on the system and generate a report that is being tested now. 

This report is in BETA

I liked the way they break down how much time students have spent on the system and tries to predict the chances of them failing. In this class of 42 there were 7 students at risk and 6 students that are borderline. Four out of Seven at risk students had already dropped this class and one out of six borderline students had dropped the class.
In order to test the system I clicked send a message to these student and only one student has responded to me. He asked me to drop him from the class. Unfortunately, I could not drop him since the drop deadline has passed.
Blackboard has something similar to this but not as easy to use. They call it the Early Warning System.

Early Warning System can be found under Evaluation under Control Panel

After clicking on the Early Warning System you will encounter a blank screen asking you to create rules.

The choices are very limited

 I am currently using the Last Access Rule and email students who have failed to access the course for more than one week.
I hope McGraw/Hill keeps and improve this essential tool and  Blackboard improves their Early Warning System.