Starfish technology is now available to all instructors, advisors, academic support staff, and students for the fall semester. Starfish is an early-alert system that allows UNCG to take a more holistic approach to student success. Starfish allows instructors, advisors, and other staff members to track student progress and remain in the loop about their shared students. Users can log into Starfish at starfish.uncg.edu.
Updates and Reminders
New academic flag names: Effective Fall 2020, UNCG’s academic flag options have been renamed. The flag options now available to raise are Class Attendance Concern, Low Average/At-Risk of Failing Course, and Missing/Late Assignments. Instructors should continue to raise academic flags to let students know of their concern for their performance. Instructors may reference the Detailed Guide to Flags, Kudos, & Referrals for more information related to the use of these flags.
New Kudos option: Instructors should raise the Kudos, “You’re off to a great start” for students who have demonstrated consistent academic success prior to the midpoint of the term to encourage them to finish the semester strong. Raising this Kudos will send an email to the student addressed from you and includes your verbatim comments, so first-person comments are encouraged. This Kudos and your comments will be seen by the student and the support staff in their Success Network. Instructors may reference the Detailed Guide to Flags, Kudos, & Referrals for more information.
Differentiating the Personal Concern flag: Effective Fall 2020, instructors and academic advisors can raise separate flags to address multiple personal concerns. The flag options available to raise for personal concerns include Personal Concern: financial hardship, Personal Concern: food/housing insecurity, Personal Concern: mental health/well-being, and Personal Concern: general. The Starfish Early Alert Overview for Faculty and Staff should be used as a reference guide when raising all flag types along with the Detailed Guide to Flags, Kudos, & Referrals for detailed descriptions and sample comments.
New to Starfish? Here is some information on how UNCG currently uses this technology.
Instructors and faculty use Starfish to:
- Raise alert flags for your students with academic and personal concerns so that they can connect with the resources and people that may help them Note: You should never raise flags for emergency concerns requiring immediate attention.
- Give kudos to students who are off to a great start, performing well, or showing improvement.
- Issue referrals to connect students to campus resources that may help them.
- Complete Academic Status Reports throughout the semester to flag many students at once. Instructors will receive email alerts on the following dates: September 8, September 29, and November 3.
- Share office hours availability and manage student meetings.
- For more information on instructor use of Starfish, visit the Starfish for Faculty & Instructors webpage.
Advisors and academic support staff use Starfish to:
- Stay in the loop on which advisees have been flagged for academic concerns and provide additional support.
- Raise the Personal Concern Flag types to report non-emergency concerns for student well-being to the Dean of Students Office.
- Raise the Retention Concern Flag to notify UNCG when you become aware of students who may not remain at UNCG in the current and/or upcoming semester.
- Issue referrals to connect students to campus resources.
- Post appointment availability and manage advising appointments.
- Maintain appointment notes and outcomes.
- Clear flags as concerns resolve.
- For more information on advisor and support staff use of Starfish, visit the Starfish for Advisors & Program Coordinators webpage.
Students use Starfish to:
- Keep track of the academic feedback they get from their instructors.
- Know when to take action to improve course performance and meet with instructors.
- Receive campus resource referrals from instructors, advisors, and support staff.
- Schedule appointments with their instructors and advisors who use Starfish for online scheduling.
- For more information on how students can use Starfish, visit the Starfish for Students webpage.
- Receive Starfish support and training.
- For Starfish assistance: Individuals, groups, or departments who would like to request a Starfish training session should send an email request to starfish@uncg.edu or visit UNCG Workshops for available Starfish training sessions.
- Students, staff, and instructors are encouraged to explore UNCG’s Starfish website for additional information about Starfish and available training guides.
