Starfish for Faculty
Help your students succeed in the classroom
Starfish Early Alert can help you and your students make every term successful. Starfish is an early warning and student tracking tool which collects and shares information while facilitating interventions that leverage existing campus resources. Use Starfish to activate a network of support that extends well beyond the classroom. In other words, with Starfish, you can engage with more students more frequently to promote their academic success.
Using Starfish, you can acknowledge your student’s performance and progress throughout the entire term.
When a student earns special recognition for improvement or good work, use Starfish to send a Kudo (positive reinforcement) celebrating their efforts. If a student begins to struggle, you can raise a Flag (early warning) in Starfish to notify them at the very first sign of getting off track. Flags are opportunities for students to get support and develop a plan for recovery and course completion. When students require assistance outside of the classroom, you can use Starfish to initiate a Referral with institutional resources such as tutoring or counseling.
Features
Faculty can manually raise Flags, Kudos, or Referrals for students. You can also participate in the progress survey to provide all students in your class(es) feedback in an instant.
Kudos, Flags, and Referrals
Note: 1 These items are not raised by instructors.
| Kudos | Circumstances |
|---|---|
| Resume Approved (WFD) | To encourage students who have submitted a resume to continue in their job/internship |
| Applied to Position (WFD) | To encourage students who have submitted a resume to continue in their job/internship |
| Dean’s List 1 | To recognize students who have placed on the Dean’s List |
| Potential Honors student | To recognize outstanding achievers and encourage them to join the Honors program |
| True Viking Spirit | To recognize students with leadership potential and provide information on opportunities for involvement |
| Outstanding Course Performance | To recognize students who have performed exceptionally in a course |
| Outstanding Performance in an Honors Course | To recognize students who have performed exceptionally in an Honors course |
| ESL Lab Hours 50% Complete 1 | To celebrate students who have completed half of their Reading Certificate lab hours and encourage them to continue |
| ESL Lab Hours 100% Complete 1 | To congratulate students who have completed their required Reading Certificate Lab hours. |
| Meets Expectations | To recognize students for whom there are no academic concerns |
| Good Work | To congratulate students for their outstanding work. |
| Showing Improvement | To recognize students who have improved during the course and encourage them to continue working |
| Flags | Circumstances |
|---|---|
| Low Exam Scores | To warn students whose low exam scores may negatively impact their grade |
| Missing Assignments | To warn students who have missed two or more assignments |
| Attendance Concern | To warn students who have missed two or more assignments |
| Progress Concern (Academic) | To initiate a Counseling intervention for students who show signs that they may fail the course. This is an escalation flag, intended to be raised after one or more of the flags above has been utilized |
| Online Engagement Concern | This flag is to identify a student who has not engaged with an online course and provides resources to support the shift to remote education during COVID-19 era. |
| Referrals | Circumstances |
|---|---|
| ESL Learning Center | To initiate an intervention for students who are English Language Learners (whether enrolled in ESL courses or not) to receive tutoring in the ESL Learning Center |
| Tutoring | To initiate an intervention for students to get tutoring in Math |
| Honors Counseling 1 | To prompt Honors students to complete their required advising hours |
| STHD – Access MS Office/365 | To connect students to the Student Technology Help Desk for information on accessing/downloading free Microsoft Office/365 from LBCC |
| Healthy Viking | To connect students to wellness resources through the Health Center/Healthy Viking Initiative |
| Basic Needs | To connect students with housing and food insecurities to the various supports offered through the Basic Needs program |
| Library Research Assistance | To connect students to a Librarian for research assistance |
| Transfer Services | To connect students to the Transfer Center for information on applying and transferring |
| Workforce Development/Career Center Referral | To connect students to the Career Center for jobs, internships, and professional development opportunities |
Workflows
The workflows give you a high-level perspective of how information flows in a virtual platform for each of the tracking items. Moreover, the table includes information about who can initiate tracking items and who is responsible for resolving them.
| Situation/Intervention: | Tracking Item Type: | Raised by: | Resolved by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance Concern | FLAG | Instructor | Instructor |
| Missing Assignment | FLAG | Instructor | Instructor |
| Low Exam Score(s) | FLAG | Instructor | Instructor |
| Progress Concern (Academic) | FLAG | Instructor | Triaged by Counseling, DSPS, and Veterans |
| Tutoring | REFERRAL | Instructor | Student Achievement Team |
| ESL Learning Center | REFERRAL | Instructor | ESL Center Staff |
| Transfer Center | REFERRAL | Instructor | Transfer Center Staff |
| Library Research Assistance | REFERRAL | Instructor | Librarian |
| Healthy Viking | REFERRAL | Instructor | Student Health Services Staff |
| Basic Needs | REFERRAL | Instructor | Basic Needs Staff |
| STHD MS Office/365 Referral | REFERRAL | Instructor | STHD Coordinator |
| Workforce Development BCenter/Career Center | REFERRAL | Instructor | WFD Coordinator |
As we develop Starfish at LBCC, we are continually refining workflows and messages, discovering best practices, and adding additional tracking items every semester. If you have a suggestion for a tracking item in Starfish, or want to suggest a revision to items and/or workflows, please send your feedback to StarfishSupport@lbcc.edu.
Progress Surveys
With the student’s journey in mind, there will be progress surveys for each semester. All 16-week courses will have three progress surveys, while the 8-week and 12-week courses will have two surveys. Each one is unique, offering the opportunity for the instructor to provide the right support and intervention at the right time. The table below indicates what items will be available on each survey and the weeks that the survey will launch.
| 16-Week Courses | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 5-6 | Weeks 9-10 | Weeks 12-13 |
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| 1st 8-Week Courses | |
|---|---|
| Weeks 2-3 | Week 5 |
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| 2nd 8-Week Courses | |
|---|---|
| Week 2.5 | Week 5 |
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| 12-Week Courses | |
|---|---|
| Week 2-3 | Week 5 |
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Using Starfish
By introducing Starfish to your students on the first day of class (and/or in your syllabus), you encourage them to use the system as a beneficial tool in their academic pursuits. And by using the Progress Surveys, you will provide valuable feedback to your students.
Sample Syllabus Language
You may find it helpful to make an announcement in class or post something to Canvas to alert students about your use of Starfish Early Alert for the course. In addition, the faculty is encouraged to include a statement in their syllabus about Starfish Early Alert. A sample is included below:
I will be using Starfish Early Alert in this class to provide you with feedback about your academic performance. The feedback will be in the form of “flags,” “kudos,” and “referrals”. Flags are tied to academic concerns like attendance or missing assignments that may negatively impact your grade. Kudos are given to promote and encourage strong academic performance. Referrals will connect you to key support resources on campus so you can be successful. Don’t forget to set up your profile. For more information go to LBCC Starfish.
Training & Getting Started
You may find the Instructional Video for Faculty below helpful in getting started. This video includes key information also available in the Handbook, including:
- How to log in & update your profile
- How to view and filter student lists
- How to raise and resolve tracking items
- How to complete a progress survey
STARFISH INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO FOR FACULTY
Technical Support
Starfish support for faculty and staff only can be requested through the IT Helpdesk. From the IITS Helpdesk page, click Institutional Software > Application Dev & Support > Starfish from the drop-down menu.