Starfish is an Early Alert platform that provides an efficient way to quickly offer coordinated feedback and support to undergraduate students. Ultimately, Starfish aims to do the following:
- Ensure students receive timely feedback regarding their academic performance in their courses.
- Alert advisors and other UNCG support staff of students who may need additional support or intervention to be academically successful
- Build a robust data warehouse for assessing UNCG’s collective student success and retention efforts
There are two components of Starfish that we use here at UNCG:
- Starfish EARLY ALERT
- Starfish CONNECT
Starfish Early Alert
Starfish Early Alert enables faculty to notify students of their individual progress in their respective courses. While feedback is valuable throughout the semester, UNCG coordinates institution-wide feedback efforts via the completion of Academic Status Reports (ASRs) at the following times each semester:
- Starfish Early Alert: 3rd-week Academic Status Report – Early feedback, even a few weeks into the semester, helps students adapt their study strategies and develop their academic skills to maximize opportunities for improvement over the duration of the term.
- Starfish End of Term: 11th-week Academic Status Report – While student academic performance is unlikely to change in the last few weeks of the semester, continued feedback helps students plan for their final grades, work with advisors to prepare necessary appeals, and make course schedule adjustments for the upcoming term.
NOTE: Faculty teaching first-half of the semester courses will be prompted to complete the 3rd week ASR and faculty teaching second-half of the semester courses will be prompted to complete the 11th week ASR.
There are three main tracking items in Starfish that can be raised by faculty for students.
- Flags – raised to make students aware of concerns their instructors have based on their current performance
- Kudos – used to send congratulatory messages to students for accomplishments in a course
- Referrals – intended to connect students to an academic support service or campus resource
Starfish Early Alert: workflow
Faculty often have questions about what occurs after they have raised flags, kudos, or referrals for their students. The information below shows the communication and outreach that is triggered once specific Starfish tracking items have been raised.
- Faculty Feedback is provided in the form of a flag, kudos, or referral for a student. Faculty are able to raise flags, kudos, and referrals manually for a student or through completing an ASR.
- Student Notifications are sent for all academic flags, kudos, and referrals to a student’s UNCG email, and contain the verbatim comments faculty have included. Please note students are not notified of Personal Concern, Disruptive Behavior or Academic Integrity Concern flags raised for them.
- Advisors and Support Staff Conduct Outreach via email to offer resources and support when students in their caseloads have Starfish flags raised.
- Advisors and Support Staff “Close the Loop” by clearing a flag and/or adding a comment when they have valuable information to share with the original flag raiser.
Starfish Connect
Starfish CONNECT is a communication tool that allows faculty, advisors, and support staff to add office hours and maintain meeting notes for student appointments.
Syncing capability between Starfish and Outlook calendars ensures there is no double booking or overlap in commitments for UNCG faculty and staff and allows students to easily view appointment availability and schedule meetings based on their schedule.
Many UNCG departments and all advising centers on campus currently use Starfish CONNECT. These include:
If your department would like to use Starfish CONNECT for managing student appointments and meeting notes, please reach out to Devonne Gaddy, Early Alert & Intervention Coordinator, at ([email protected]) to learn more about how Starfish CONNECT can benefit you and your students!
Resources for Faculty, Advisors, and Support Staff
The resources below will assist you as a faculty member, advisor, or support staff with navigating Starfish. Click on each topic to learn more about various Starfish components and to access helpful how-to guides.
Starfish Support
Faculty, advisors, and support staff should contact [email protected] for additional assistance and guidance on any Starfish related concerns. Workshops and training sessions for faculty, advisors, and staff are posted on the workshops.uncg.edu webpage every semester. You can also request personal training by emailing Starfish support at [email protected].
UNCG Starfish Team
Devonne Gaddy, Early Alert and Intervention Coordinator ([email protected])
Danielle Nie, Associate Director for Academic Recovery ([email protected])
Heather Searcy, Director, Students First Office ([email protected])