HEA 510 - Final Project

Hello and welcome to advising online students through starfish.

My name is leah flint and today we will discuss

how higher education professionals can utilize starfish technology in there

advising sessions with online students and create collaboration between staff,

faculty and the student.

It is imperative the academic advisors throughout higher education build

a relationship that is positive and supportive.

Students rely on their academic advisors for guidance, academic information,

understanding policies and procedures, assistance in navigating the college or

university career planning and decision making.

Traditional students often find the academic advisor easily accessible and

benefits and face to face guidance when navigating the new

college late landscape.

However, online students often find themselves limited to virtual options

like zoom or phone calls when needing assistance.

There can often be delays in response time and a

feeling of disconnectedness.

While academic advisors should approach their online student advising sessions

with the same process and methodology as they would a

traditional student, they should always keep in mind the unique

needs and limitations there.

Online students may have.

Online advising sessions should include the following key aspects.

Mhm. Offer a variety of options for students to receive

their advising session, whether it be through zoom over the

phone or via email.

Let the student decide.

Each advising sessions should make the student feel cared for,

understood and valued, convey the message that the advisor is

competent and knowledgeable about policies, procedures and student issues.

To ensure these key aspects are being met, academic advisors

should constantly monitor the quality of their communications and ask

themselves. Did I include a warm greeting or warm statement?

Did I provide the information that the student requested and

anticipate the students needs by providing additional information?

Did I reinforce student successes and establish a sense of

shared responsibility?

Did I establish a clear outline of next steps and

invite follow up communication?

What are some best practices for online advising?

Effective communication?

Online student orientation, early alert systems and ease of appointments.

For the purpose of this presentation, we're going to focus

on two best practices, early warning system and ease of

appointments tracking at risk.

Online students is an important strategy and effective.

Online advising institutions should implement a system that drives student

performance during our courses with a way to communicate low

performance to academic advisors.

This early communication can increase persistence and improve performance.

Faculty should be involved in this early warning system with

a focus on collaboration between the student academic advisor and

instructor, creating ways that increase accessibility to advising appointments is

crucial for online students, colleges and universities should invest in

technology that provides students the ability to easily view and

schedule appointments.

These appointments should be available through multiple modalities, like phone,

videoconferencing or web chat and available in various time zones.

The institution should also provide training to students on how

to access and utilize the technology with clear instructions available

on the institution's website.

Now that we know these best practices, we must ask

ourselves, is there a technology available to colleges and universities

that can assist in advising online students?

Starfish was originally through Hobson's, a company that focus on

education technology and helping students explore their strengths, interests and

opportunities that would ultimately put them on a path to

their ideal academic and career experience.

Starfish Enterprise success solutions is utilized by nearly 500 colleges

and universities to assist in their student success and retention

efforts. The program would leverage data to pinpoint areas of

concern and opportunity within courses, student populations, programming and services.

This data would then create action by identifying at risk

students, connecting them with valuable resources and building career in

acting. It plans to ensure the students reach their goals

without delay In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic higher education

institutions had to pivot from in classroom learning to online

options. Institutions already using starfish pre pandemic, we're able to

attract students progress during the at home period and were

able to identify areas of concern and provide the additional

support students needed to stay engaged in their coursework.

During this period, academic advisors and faculty members raised more

than 1.79 million alerts and the number of students reaching

out for help increased 300% When compared to the same

period in 2019.

Yeah, Starfish has features for student engagement advising, advanced analytics,

workflow management and academic career planning.

Since the focus of this presentation is advising online students,

we will discuss two areas of starfish that directly correlate

with the best practices.

We have identified earlier early alerts and ease of appointments.

Starfish uses kudos, flags and referrals as part of their

early warning system.

Kudos are given to celebrate student success.

Flags are raised to alert academic advisors and students to

concerns. And referrals are given when faculty and staff have

identified areas where students could use extra assistance.

This is especially important for online students in creating a

sense of belonging and implementing interventions when needed.

Let's take a look at this video from Long Beach

City College on the early alert system through starfish.

Mm. Mhm.

Uh huh.

Uh huh acre.

You can see here.

Thank you.

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Okay. Uh huh.

Long Beach City College is excited to offer starfish early

alert a new and powerful way for faculty to help

students succeed.

So how does it work using Starfish?

Faculty can raise a kudo to acknowledge strong academic effort

of black for students who are struggling in class, We're

referral to connect students to additional support when students require

assistance outside the classroom, Starfish can initiate communication with campus

resources, such as tutoring or counseling.

Once they've received service, Starfish can update the instructor when

more students complete classes, more students graduate or transfer with

starfish student success is just a few clicks away.

Start using starfish and your classroom today.

Uh huh.

Mhm. All right.

Part of the Starfish Technology is an appointment scheduling program.

This allows students to schedule an appointment with various departments

throughout the institution, including advising the college or university.

Can set up the departments divisions and an appointment types

within starfish faculty and staff can then sink their outlook

calendars to their starfish calendar.

Let us look at how Finger Lakes community College utilizes

starfish to schedule appointments.

Hi, today, I'm going to show you how to contact

your academic advisor on today.

I'm going to show you how to contact your academic

advisor on starfish first, go to blackboard, log in and

click either starfish button the one in the top, right

or below under my courses.

To schedule an appointment with your academic advisor, scroll down

to my services and click schedule under academic advisement.

After clicking schedule, you'll be asked to choose the reason

you're making an appointment, choose registration advisement and hit continue

after you choose your appointment, reason you'll be asked to

select a day and time for your appointment to choose

the day on the calendar on the left.

Then the advisers availability for that day will be on

the right.

Please note that not all advisors are academic advisors are

career and transfer coordinators are listed here too.

On the next screen.

You will see the day and time you pick and

your advisor, you may be asked to input the location

such as a phone appointment or on Webex.

If your advisor has those options on the right hand

side, you'll be asked to put in the reason for

your visit.

Please be as specific as possible.

When you finished it confirmed.

After confirming your appointment you will receive a confirmation page.

It's that easy.

You scheduled an appointment with your advisor.

Sometimes after you make your appointment you need to cancel

it to do that.

Return to your Starfish mean page, click on the three

lines in the top left corner to open up the

menu and click upcoming.

Sometimes after you make your appointment you need to cancel

it to do that.

Return to your Starfish main page, click on the three

lines in the top left corner and choose upcoming from

the menu.

You will be shown a list of your upcoming appointments

on the one you'd like to cancel, quit the three

dots in the bottom right corner and click cancel appointments

if you want.

You can put in a reason you need to cancel

and you're all set.

Oh, there are many other options through Starfish.

But as you can see, these two systems create a

way for academic advisors to ensure they are developing opportunities

to address the concerns of online students in a manner

that is easily accessible, creates collaboration across the campus and

develops a sense of connection between the student and campus

life. I hope you see the benefits of Starfish and

how this technology can improve the experience and persistence of

online students.

It has been my pleasure to present to you today.

HEA 510 - Final Project

Chapters

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