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Spring 2009 Edition. Exciting things are happening at Starfish Retention Solutions. We are pleased to announce new client community members and their success stories. New features have been added to our solutions. And we are participating in a number of industry events this summer and fall. Read on for the latest StarNEWS!
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Tulsa Community College Enhances Student Success with StarfishOklahoma's largest 2-year institution aims to drive improvement through evidence-based decisions
 While benefiting all students throughout Tulsa Community College's four campuses and extensive distance
learning program, Starfish will be used to monitor the
performance of students who are part of the
Achieving the Dream initiative and the Tulsa Achieves
program.
Starfish EARLY ALERT will
automatically and securely notify the appropriate
instructor and advisor on campus when a student turns in
an assignment late, or when a
student's grade average drops below 70 percent. Starfish CONNECT will enable all students, including those at
risk, to conveniently find, over the Internet, advisors
and tutors who can help them and schedule appointment
times that meet their busy schedules.
"The Achieving the Dream initiative and Tulsa Achieves
program are important commitments for Tulsa Community
College to ensure access and success for our students.
Today's students live in a digital world, and Starfish
will connect them to services early enough to improve
their chances of graduation and success," said Randy
Dominguez, dean of distance learning for TCC. "As
community colleges strive to demonstrate and improve
outcomes for students, we are excited about using
Starfish to provide data generated in real time to
inform our decisions about who needs help and how to
further improve our service programs." |
Duquesne University Increases Access to Advisors with Starfish CONNECT
Interaction with students increases 20% overall after initial pilot period
 After reviewing several solutions designed to
facilitate advising and scheduling services, Duquesne
University's Palumbo-Donahue Schools of Business adopted
Starfish CONNECT. In addition to its
ease of use and comprehensive feature set, Starfish was selected because of its integration into the
institution's course management system (i.e.,
Blackboard).
Students and advisors have greeted Starfish with
tremendous enthusiasm, citing the system's easy
accessibility through Blackboard (single log-in),
ability
for students to identify reasons for appointments and
ability to select from various locations for a meeting
(phone, office, webinar, chat). Additionally, system
reporting is helping advisors make changes to advising
processes. After an initial pilot period, advisors reported that student interaction increased 20% overall.
"Academic institutions must make support services easily
accessible to this highly mobile, digital and diverse
student population," said Keith Solarczyk, academic
advisor for A.J. Palumbo School of Business
Administration. "Within one week of
using Starfish CONNECT, 200 students made
appointments with me with ease. The email notifications
from Starfish allow me to prepare for each student
appointment and understand any reasons for
cancellations, which is important to me as an advisor.
Starfish is clearly dedicated to making us successful so we can focus on helping our students." |
The Latest and Greatest from StarfishNew enhancements and functionality, based on user feedback and client suggestionsShared and Private NotesAdvisors, counselors, faculty and staff can add notes to a student's folder. System administrators set privileges, including who can view shared notes. Any note can be made private to the author only. Service CatalogInstitutions can create a catalog of student services, including resources such as advising, tutoring, career or disability services. Students can search and browse the catalog, view service members' profiles and schedule appointments. Faculty and staff can view the catalog to find the right services to recommend to students. Group SessionsCalendar owners can create group sessions in which multiple students can sign up for the same session - ideal for training, discussion groups, advising meetings and exam review sessions. Attendance Tracking and FlaggingInstructors and teaching assistants can track attendance in Starfish for each of their courses. Administrators can run attendance reports and set up flag rules that are triggered automatically by poor attendance. >>register to attend a Webinar
>>more about summer pilots
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The Newest Starfish Clients!
The following institutions have licensed Starfish to streamline their retention efforts:
Duquesne University
Idaho Digital
Learning Academy
Joliet Junior College
Kettering University
Tulsa Community
College
>>more client news
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New Feature! Closing the Loop
The best way to motivate an instructor to utilize an early warning system is to let them know their efforts are valued.
When the appropriate individual clears a flag in Starfish EARLY ALERT, they can now communicate to the flag raiser (e.g., instructor) that the issue has been resolved without divulging private information - thus closing the loop.
>>read more
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Upcoming Events
Distance Learning Administration Conference
June 21-24, 2009
St. Simons Island, GA
BbWorld
July 14-16, 2009
Washington, DC
NACADA
October 1-3, 2009
San Antonio, TX
SACS
December 5-8, 2009
Atlanta, GA
>>schedule a meeting
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Track Starfish in Real Time
>>Twitter
>>Facebook
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Pilot Starfish
This Term
Starfish summer and fall pilots can target one or many student populations, including:
First-Year
Athletes
Achieving the Dream
Distance Learning
Transfer Students
>>start a pilot
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