Ease of Use, Convenient Access Enable Instructors to Efficiently Engage in Student Success Initiatives

Decades of academic research consistently point to the importance of faculty engagement in student success efforts, including providing feedback that enables others on campus to assist students when they encounter challenges.

Accessible through a link either in an email or from the institution's course management system or portal, Starfish® has streamlined the feedback process so that instructors can efficiently share their concerns with advisors and retention specialists who are then able to reach out and offer help. 

As a result, we are thrilled that the Starfish system has been utilized by more than 50 percent of faculty on average at our client institutions within the first few weeks of the spring 2011 academic term to report concerns about a student's performance.

 >>read the full announcement, including comments from Marshalltown Community College 

Institution Providing Timely Student Services to Rapidly Growing Student Population

Estrella Mountain Community College, a Maricopa Community College, is expanding its use of Starfish following a Spring 2010 pilot program. The institution is leveraging the technology to reach students with the help they need, when they need it, while also reengaging faculty in the institution's student success initiatives.

The institution enrolls approximately 15,000 students annually and is master planned to be a large comprehensive learning college of more than 40,000 students. Because EMCC is an open enrollment institution, a large number of students enter the college needing to complete developmental courses in English, math and/or reading prior to beginning college-level courses. This reality, when coupled with the institution's continuous growth, has resulted in an increasing number of students needing early intervention. 

"It is important that we provide systems and tools to our faculty and student services personnel that support our efforts to foster a student success culture," said Dr. Bryan Tippett, vice president of academic affairs for EMCC. "Starfish is offering us an effective technology platform from which to identify those students who need help and then keep track of our efforts to intervene and provide support."

>>read the full announcement 

As vice president for client success, Ana Borray will lead all client-facing services including system implementation, account management and technical support. In addition, she will guide clients' efforts to measure and optimize outcomes related to student success and persistence initiatives using the Starfish system. Over the past three decades, Borray has worked with hundreds of academic institutions to define systems and processes that improve an institution's ability to serve its students. Borray held a series of management positions at Datatel Inc., where she worked for more than 11 years to implement complex enterprise systems. She also has held administrative positions at Barry University in Miami, Fla., and Columbia University in New York City. Borray holds an M.A. in education administration from Columbia University and a B.A. in business administration from Florida International University.

As vice president of sales, Sean Gannon joins Starfish to expand and lead a sales organization of direct sales representatives as well as a number of reseller partners. During his 10-year career in sales and marketing, Gannon has introduced a number of products and services to the higher education community. Most recently, Gannon helped lead sales efforts at Presidium Inc., a leading provider of administrative and academic support services to higher education which was recently acquired by Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB). He also has served in sales roles at Regent Education, a financial aid management software provider. Gannon holds a B.A. in communications from Temple University.

>>read the full announcement

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