Starfish Connect

Starfish Connect, the College's new Academic Early Alert system is a communication tool for students, faculty and staff at the College, designed to provide students with feedback about academic performance.

Goals:

• Help students successfully complete courses
• Connect students with campus resources
• Engage students in their academic success
• Increase student persistence from semester to semester

Using Starfish Connect, faculty can raise flags when they have a concern about student performance, give kudos to provide positive feedback to students and make referrals to campus resources.

Why are we using Starfish Connect?

We want all Community College of Philadelphia students to successfully complete their degrees or certificates. The Starfish Connect software allows faculty to easily communicate their concerns to students while at the same time communicating these concerns to student support staff on campus. Starfish provides a way for faculty and students to directly communicate with one another about student issues that need to be resolved. Students can be more successful when direct faculty-student communication is combined with effective support from advisors, counselors and other staff on campus. Students do not succeed alone but need the help of all their current instructors and the College's student support staff.

Are we still using the old Early Alert System?

No, 20% attendance and mid-term grades will continue to be completed in Banner; however, faculty will no longer see the check boxes available for early alert risk indicators. Starfish Connect is the method the College is using now for early alert.

How are FERPA and other student privacy concerns being addressed?

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) gives colleges a lot of flexibility in terms of designating campus officials that can be allowed to see portions of a student's education records. "A school may share education records or information from education records, with anyone it has deemed a 'school official' and has determined to have a 'legitimate educational interest' in that information.” At Community College of Philadelphia, current instructors, faculty advisors, counselors and other appropriate individuals who provide academic outreach have access to student information within Starfish Connect. In the case of counseling referrals, only the referring instructor, the student, Counseling Center and appropriate student support staff can view this information.

How do I access Starfish Connect?

Canvas LMS (See Getting Started guides)

What to do if I have problems with Starfish Connect?

Email us at Starfishconnect@ccp.edu

Faculty

New! Starting with the Spring 2016 term, Starfish Connect will include 3 types of counseling referrals and 5 types of learning lab referrals.

Counseling

• Career/Transfer
• Emotional/Personal
• Academic/Classroom Concerns
• Flags for attendance concern, low quiz/test grades and missing/late assignments can still be raised; however, if you feel a student can benefit from meeting with a counselor, you may also want to use one of the referrals above.

Learning Lab

• CIS
• Math/Business
• Reading/Writing
• Science
• General Learning Lab

Faculty, Staff and Students

Coming Soon! Student Success Plans

Student Success Plans can be created to help a student get back on track academically or stay on track. These plans can be created by faculty, advisors, counselors and other student support staff. The plans will be electronic and can be accessed through Starfish Connect.

Videos for Faculty and Staff

Starfish Two Minute Tip: How to Update your Profile
Watch the Starfish Two Minute Tip: How to Respond to a Progress Survey video for helpful tips.
Starfish Two Minute Tip: How to Create Office Hours
Starfish Two Minute Tip: How to Clear the Flag and Close the Loop*

*Please note that newer version of Starfish Connect requires you to hover the cursor over the flag to open a dialog box to clear the flag and/or close the loop

Important Dates

*50% Progress Survey includes In Danger of Failing Flag