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Starfish Success Network

General Information

SUNY Niagara Starfish Success is a community-based early alert support and communication tool.  It creates a bridge between students, instructors, success coaches, and other support personnel, to keep students on the right track.

You are letting the student know directly that you are concerned with or proud of their progress/attendance to-date. The earlier an alert is raised, the more quickly we can identify and address potential barriers to student success. If a student’s other instructors also raise concerns, advisors and success coaches can see a pattern and better serve our students.

Students are also very responsive to kudos that let them know their efforts are recognized and appreciated!

Get Started Today with Starfish

  • A new way to keep track of attendance, pull attendance reports, and automatically notify students when they are marked as absent.
  • Helps you facilitate a timely connection to campus support professionals and services for intervention.
  • Merging academic and student services surveys and reports, requiring fewer reporting windows.
  • Provides a way for you to communicate with students and give feedback about their academic progress.
  • See the full list here: “One LESS Thing”
  • Schedule advisement appointments that sync to SUNY Niagara Outlook, make “Notes” on appointments, and view semester tracking items (flags and kudos). Allowing for more holistic and informed academic advisement.
Starfish profile setup

How Can Faculty/Staff Support Starfish?

  • Add this Starfish course statement to your course instructions/syllabi.
  • Close Flags! Faculty have the ability to close flags they raise if a student responds directly to them and the situation is resolved.
  • Give this flyer to your advisees/students.
  • Guide students to Starfish to find contact information for their Success Network (advisors, instructors, success coaches, and service offices).
  • Use the system! Students will catch on when they start receiving notifications.

How Do I Raise a Flag in Starfish?

If you are concerned about a student and would like to connect them with support resources, add a flag in Starfish.

Note: Starfish is not a final grades or behavioral reporting tool.

  • Log into Starfish
  • Type the student’s name in the search box at the top of the page
  • Click on student’s name
  • Click on the “Flag” button and choose the flag that best-meets your concern
  • Add comments as needed and click Submit
  • The student will receive notification of this flag and a Success Coach will reach out to them.

What do the messages say? Check out our templates.

Starfish Notification Process

How Starfish Is “One LESS Thing” for Faculty

  • A new way to keep track of attendance, pull attendance reports, and automatically notify students when they are marked as absent.
  • Helps you facilitate a timely connection to campus support professionals and services for intervention.
  • Merging academic and student services surveys and reports, requiring fewer reporting windows.
  • Provides a way for you to communicate with students and give feedback about their academic progress.
  • See the full list here: “One LESS Thing”
  • Schedule advisement appointments that sync to SUNY Niagara Outlook, make “Notes” on appointments, and view semester tracking items (flags and kudos). Allowing for more holistic and informed academic advisement.

Contact

Starfish Success Team
Phone: 716-614-6888
Email: starfishsuccessteam@niagaracc.suny.edu

Starfish success image