You’re working two jobs, caring for a child, and taking classes to get your degree: If you get an warning email from your college about your academic performance, does that ultimately help or hurt?

That’s the question being asked as more and more institutions implement systems that automatically email students about low performance. The idea is to ping students before they fall too far behind, but new research suggests it could be backfiring, writes Jeffery R. Young in a recent piece for EdSurge.

At a SXSW panel last week, Mark Milliron, cofounder and chief learning officer for Civitas Learning, said that while the early-warning systems are working in some colleges, at others, he warned, the notices had “almost double-digit negative impact.”

How to preserve accountability while also minimizing the downsides of email warnings? Milliron said he’s seen positive results from schools that also send positive notices with subject lines such as “we’re proud of you.”