Shared by Matt McLaughlin, Associate Dean, Student Success Initiatives
The Starfish student success system is a retention tool used to connect students to campus resources and allows faculty to deliver positive reinforcement and timely feedback to students, which is a critical component of supporting their academic success.
Spring 2023 Starfish Progress Surveys are beginning to launch. Progress Surveys are intentional pulse checks in the Starfish system that are used at key times in the semester – around the quarter mark of a course. They allow faculty to highlight a concern (raise a flag), recommend support (a referral), or commend good work (a kudo). Check out the answers to the following four questions about Starfish (below) so you feel ready to respond!
When will early alert Progress Surveys be available this semester?
The following table outlines when surveys will be available during the Spring 2023 semester.
No feedback? When filling out a Progress Survey, you don’t have to select a flag or kudo for every student listed on the survey. If you leave all the check boxes blank for a student, no feedback is assumed, and no notifications will be sent. To indicate no feedback for an entire course, simply open the progress survey and click the submit button.
Can I provide feedback to any student outside of Progress Survey periods?
Yes! Faculty may raise a flag, referral, or kudo for any student at any time in the semester – whether they are included on progress surveys or not. It is best to connect with students as soon as you start to notice patterns of behavior that could negatively affect a student’s chance of success in your class. If you don’t see a change in behavior after addressing the concern with the student, you are encouraged to raise a flag or referral. Doing so early in the semester gives advisors adequate time to reach out to students and allows students the opportunities to get assistance or make changes to get back on track.
What message do students receive when a faculty member raises a flag or kudo?
When a faculty member raises a flag or kudos on a student, a Starfish-generated email is sent directly to the student. Templates associated with flags come from “starfish@harpercollege.edu”, and templates associated with kudos come from the faculty member’s email address.
- The only exception is for the flag called “Private Message to Advisor”. Raising this flag will not generate any student communication. Only the student’s assigned advisor will receive that message.
Within the templates, comments entered by the faculty member while raising the flag or kudos are sent directly to the student through the email.
When a faculty member raises the “Concern Flag to Student”, “Private Message to Advisor”, or the “Consider Course Withdrawal” flag, a student’s assigned advisor will be notified. The assigned advisor will attempt to reach the student by phone and email to address the concerns and provide support. If the advisor is not able to reach the student after two attempts, they will clear the flag with a note to the faculty member who raised the flag.
What impact does raising a flag or kudo have on student success?
The raising of flags of concern is an efficient way to simultaneously communicate directly to students and to alert a student’s advisor for awareness and follow-up. Based on Fall 2022 Starfish activity, initial data is showing that students flagged with concerns who connect with advising achieved a five-percentage point increase in both their Spring 2023 persistence rates and their cumulative Harper GPA as compared to flagged students who ultimately did not connect for follow up.
Additionally, semester after semester, we observe the power of sending encouragement and positive recognition using kudos! Students who receive kudos from faculty have an eight-percentage point increase in persistence rates and rates of earning a 2.0 or higher GPA as compared to similar students who did not receive a faculty issued kudos.
Fun Fact: In Fall 2022, Harper faculty raised almost 3,300 kudos, which equates to over half of all Starfish tracking items being those focused on positive encouragement and recognition!
Questions? Need assistance with Starfish? 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.