We Heard You! Starfish Survey Improvements for Fall 2019

by | Sep 9, 2019 | Academy

Submitted by Matt McLaughlin, Associate Dean, Student Success Initiatives

The first set of Fall 2019 Starfish Progress Surveys launched on Monday, September 9, 2019, and are due by Sunday, September 29.

Using Starfish early in the semester provides students with opportunities to improve and continues to show tremendous impact:

  • New, degree-seeking students in Fall 2018 who were flagged by a faculty member and then connected with their assigned academic advisor had an 82% fall-to-spring persistence rate.
  • This represents a 14 percentage point increase as compared to those students who were flagged, but did not follow up with their advisor.
  • Great News – students can schedule advising appointments online – directly from the Student Portal!

Although you may raise a flag or kudo at any point in the semester through Starfish, completing Progress Surveys at key times during the semester is the easiest and quickest way to provide student feedback and referrals.

You will find that the Progress Surveys look a little different this fall as Starfish made some enhancements to both design and functionality. Here are the highlights:

  • Autosave: The system now saves your Progress Survey feedback as you go, as long as you continue making changes (i.e., checking boxes or typing comments). It also triggers at other key times, such as when you navigate away from the survey.
  • Enhanced Prompts: After you submit your first survey (for one class section), the system will now transition to the next survey (if you have more than one to complete) to ensure that you understand that the next survey is different from the one just submitted. Related, the Progress Survey Tab will now always appear. If you have active surveys, the Progress Survey Tab will indicate the number of surveys that are currently awaiting feedback.
  • Student Photos: Starfish is now connected to Harper’s Campus ID System. Any person who has an official campus ID will have their picture automatically displayed within the Starfish system. Great news!
  • Mobile Friendly Layout: The surveys can now be completed on mobile devices. However, in order to make the survey mobile-friendly, we’ve made a couple of changes:
    • The Survey “grid view” may shift to a student “list view” dependent upon
      the number of flag choices in the survey and/or the type of device you are using. When the survey is in “list view” each student row can be expanded to provide feedback. Simply find the name of the student on the survey and select the blue “+” icon under the Feedback column to access kudos, flags, referrals and comment boxes.
    • The former “default” response of “No Concerns” has been removed. If you do not wish to raise a kudo or a flag for anyone in your class, simply leave the Survey blank and select the “Submit” button – including the warning pop-up message that follows.

Thank you for your support as we work together as part of each student’s “Network of Success”.

Questions? Need Assistance? We’re ready to help! Contact us for “desk side support” or a quick Q&A anytime. Just email us at leadadvisors@harpercollege.edu or call 847.925.6220 for assistance.