Starfish is part of student support services and located in MyBTC. The Starfish tool can assist students in making appointments with individuals and/or offices around campus. Students can also use the Starfish kiosks to keep track of their attendance in labs and time in appointments.  Students can see their Success Network in Starfish and easily connect with faculty, advisors and other support staff and locate their contact information (i.e., phone number and email address).

Throughout the semester, the faculty will use Starfish to identify positive student behaviors through kudos or student attendance and/or other academic concerns through flags. The student’s assigned academic advisor will be notified of any concerns via a flag within Starfish. The advisor will then contact the student to share resources to help keep the student on track (i.e., counseling, tutoring, academic planning, emergency financial assistance, time management, etc.).

Progress Surveys, Flags, and Kudos

Students experiencing problems completing program or course requirements should seek help immediately. Select faculty will complete an Early Alert Progress Survey through Starfish. Faculty identify attendance and/or other academic concerns early in the semester. The student’s assigned academic advisor will be notified of the concern via a flag within Starfish. The advisor will then contact the student to share resources to help keep the student on track (i.e. counseling, tutoring, academic planning, emergency financial assistance, time management, etc.).

During the semester, if the faculty has concerns about a student, the faculty member can raise a flag in Starfish that will notify the student and the assigned academic advisor of the area of concern. The assigned advisor will again contact the student to share resources and/or create a plan for the rest of the semester. Faculty are encouraged to speak with the student first regarding the concern(s) and inform the student that the advisor will be contacting him/her.

Flags raised in Starfish either through Progress Surveys or throughout the semester will be cleared after the advisor has contacted the student. The advisor will identify how they closed the loop (i.e., student reached out to advisor, call made to student-no response, etc.). All interactions will be tracked in Starfish.

Faculty can raise Kudos through Starfish and encourage and recognize the good work students do to progress in their class or college. Students are notified of these Kudos; no follow-up is needed. The use of Kudos is highly encouraged.

Midterm Grades

Midterm feedback is issued to provide students with early feedback about academic progress, as well as to provide students with services to support them in their success. At the semester midpoint of 16-week courses, Faculty are encouraged to provide feedback to students through a progress survey in Starfish. This is not required. Feedback issued may include a flag (concern), kudo (accolade), and/or comments from the Faculty. Flags raised during a midterm progress survey will result in an outreach to the student from a Blackhawk staff or Faculty member.