1. Starfish Faculty Training How to Raise Flags and Kudos
Starfish is an early alert system designed to help the college identify students who are facing obstacles or who are at-risk. Depending on the concern, either the student will be notified and encouraged to seek assistance or that information will go to people who can help.
Starfish Faculty Training How to Raise Flags and Kudos

2. Learning Outcomes You will:
Learn how to access Starfish through MyTCC;
Learn how to search for students;
Learn how to raise flags/give kudos manually in Starfish;
Learn when to raise the different flags and what happens when each type is raised;
Learn about Progress Surveys.
Please remember that this system is live. If you are going along with me and practice raising a flag or giving kudos to a student, an will be sent to the student if you hit Save. Hit Never Mind to not raise flags.

3. How to Access Starfish in MyTCC
You can access Starfish from the Welcome screen on MyTCC. It is located under Quick Links. When you click on it, you will be logged into Starfish.

4. How to Search for Students
The first picture is your dashboard. You will see a record of flags you have raised and any recent changes to your tracking items. If you would like to raise a flag or give kudos on a student in one of your classes, you can search for students by clicking the Students tab.
The second picture is the Students tab. From this screen, you can either search for a student by name or college-wide ID by typing it here or you can choose a specific course that you are teaching and see all students enrolled in that course. When you’ve found the student for whom you’d like to raise a flag or give kudos, click on the name.

5. How to Raise Flags and Give Kudos
From here, you can raise flags or give kudos by clicking on Flags or Kudos.
You can also see other information about the student. If you click Info, you can see the student’s major. If you click Courses, you can see the course that you teach in which the student is enrolled. If you click Tracking, you can see any flags that you have raised for the student. As you can see, this student doesn’t have any flags raised. If you click Notes, you can see any notes about this student shared with you. For instance, if an Academic Advisor or Retention Specialist is working with this student because of a flag you raised, and they want to share any progress or concerns with you, the notes will be here. If a note is shared with you, you will also receive an . If you click Network, you will see a collection of people who are able to work with this student, including Academic Advisors, other instructors for courses in which the student is enrolled, and Retention Specialists.

6. Giving Kudos
To let a student know they are doing well in your course, click on Kudos.
There is only one option at this time, Keep Up the Good Work. Select it.
We’re going to walk through this process together. Think of one student in one of your courses, who is doing well, and let’s give that student kudos. Remember how to search? Click Students, search by name, CWID, or look for that particular course in the drop-down menu. When you’ve selected the student, click on the name. (Follow directions on slide from this point.)

7. Giving Kudos, cont. Select the course under Course Context.
You can enter Comments. These comments can be seen by students and other users.
Hit Save and an will be sent to the student.
(Continue following the directions on the slide.)
If at any point you decide not to send the kudos or raise a flag, hit Never Mind.
The appears to come from the instructor and reads: Dear Student, Congratulations! I appreciate your dedication and hard work in the class. Keep up the good work! Here are my additional comments: (this is from the Comment section).

8. Flags Flags are raised when you have a concern about a student.
There are 5 types of flags:
Attendance Concern
General Concern
In Danger of Failing
Low Scores
No Show
We’ll now learn how to raise a flag for a student. However, we are not asking you to go ahead and raise one at this time.
When you raise a flag, the description of the flag will tell you everything you need to know: why you would raise this flag, who receives an , and what the contains. If a student receives an , it will appear to come from the instructor. We will go through all 5.

9. Attendance Concern
Raise this when a student isn’t attending class regularly.
The student will receive the following
Attendance Concern is best used for students who were attending class but have begun missing. Only the student is contacted via ; other offices do not intervene.
Dear [Student],
You've been flagged for Attendance Concern in [Course].
I believe that you can be successful in your academic studies and know that attending class is the first step to accomplishing your goals. Missing class content can affect your grades and academic performance. It is not too late to change your attendance habits.
Here are my additional comments:
[Any comments you enter appear here]
TCC has many resources that can aid your effort to improve academic performance and assist with personal concerns. Please reply to this to contact me, or consider contacting an academic advisor for resources and suggestions for improvement.
We care about your success!
Sincerely,
[Faculty Name]

10. General Concern
Use this flag to express various concerns you have about a student.
A Retention Specialist will receive the alert via . It will contain your specific comments. If you do not want the student to know that you raised the flag, please put this in the comments.
The student will be contacted by the Retention Specialist. The Retention Specialist will clear the flag.
The student will not receive an .
If there is an alleged violation of the Student Code of Conduct (please refer to the TCC Student Handbook), do not raise a flag. Instead, please contact the Dean of Student Affairs on your campus.
Use this flag to express various concerns you have about a student. Examples of when to raise this flag include poor time management due to various reasons, Blackboard knowledge concerns, poor study skills resulting in low scores, missing class due to personal issues, anxiety, textbook issues, food concerns, transportation, etc.
Read bullet 2
The student will be contacted by the Retention Specialist. The Retention Specialist will clear the flag. When flags are cleared, you get an with comments from the person who cleared the flag. Please note that this is an early alert system, not a case management system. The comment may just be that the retention specialist has reached out to the student. Detailed notes about subsequent visits may not be provided.
Read bullet 4 and 5
When you raise this flag you will notice a warning that the information is disclosable under FERPA. This is a reminder that this information is part of the student’s records. If they request a copy of their records, this would be included.
When flags are cleared, you get an with comments from the person who cleared the flag. Please note that this is an early alert system, not a case management system. The comment may just be that the retention specialist has reached out to the student. Detailed notes about subsequent visits may not be provided.
Examples of when to raise this flag include poor time management due to various reasons, Blackboard knowledge concerns, poor study skills resulting in low scores, missing class due to personal issues, anxiety, textbook issues, food concerns, transportation, etc.

11. In Danger of Failing
Raise this when a student is in danger of failing a course.
The student will receive an (below).
An will also be sent to the student’s primary academic advisor who will contact the student and clear the flag.
Dear [Student],
A concern has been raised about your academic progress in [Course Name]. Your instructor raised this flag because TCC cares about you and your academic success. Based on your progress in this course thus far and without a substantial change in your work, you might be in danger of failing this course.
[Any comments you enter appear here]
Please contact me immediately, either by replying to this or speaking with me in person, to see what your options are for this course. You should also consider contacting an academic advisor.
I believe that you can be successful in your academic studies, and I am here to help. I care about your success!
Sincerely,
[Faculty Name]
There is also a Low Scores flag, which we will address next. If the student has reached a point where it is getting impossible to pass the course, choose In Danger of Failing. If they have only gotten a low score on one or two critical assignments and there is still time to raise their grade, you may want to choose Low Score.

12. Low Scores
Raise this when a student receives a poor grade on a critical assignment. This can also be used if the student is missing assignments.
The student will receive the following
Dear [Student],
Based on your course grades, you've been flagged for Low Scores in [Course Name]. It is not too late to improve your overall grade in this class!
Here are my additional comments:
[Any comments you enter will appear here]
TCC has many resources that can aid your effort to improve academic performance and assist with personal concerns. Please reply to this to contact me, or consider contacting an academic advisor for resources and suggestions for improvement.
We care about your success!
Sincerely,
[Faculty Name]
The student is only contacted via this ; other offices do not intervene.

13. No Show
Use this flag to indicate that a student has never attended your class. This does not replace the WN process.
The the student will receive is the attendance concern .

14. Progress Survey
Progress Surveys are sent to faculty at different points in the semester based on course and the part of term.
You are asked to go through the students enrolled in that course and raise flags or kudos if applicable.
Progress Survey Video
Because the system is live so we cannot do a “mock” Progress Survey, we will watch a 2 min video on how to complete one. Don’t worry, when you get the announcing a Progress Survey, it includes specific instructions and link to the video.
Please check your Clutter folder periodically to make sure Starfish s are not there.