Starfish Frequently Asked Questions

Starfish is an online tool designed to enhance the way we work across campus to help students succeed by:

• Facilitating communication and connections between instructors, students, advisors, and support services
• Providing a streamlined means for faculty to give feedback to students on course performance and/or attendance through progress surveys
• Helping us prioritize and coordinate outreach for students
• Keeping students informed of their own progress and achievements and prompting them to action if needed.

There are three ways to log in to Starfish:

1. eWeber – search for the Starfish app or find it under the “Browse All” category
2. Canvas – Open one of your courses and a link will be listed at the bottom of the menu bar
3. Click on the “App” link on the menu bar of this page

Verify you are using the most current version of your browser or try another browser. Starfish works best with Chrome. If you continue to have issues, email starfish@weber.edu. 

A Progress Survey allows a faculty member to raise concerns (flags) or send compliments (kudos) related to a student's academic performance at specific points during the semester. Each raised flag or kudo sends a standardized email, including any notes entered, directly to the student on behalf of the faculty member. The message is shared with the student’s academic advisor, keeping advisors better informed about student performance and possible needs.

Progress Surveys are only open for a specified period of time, usually one or two weeks. If your course is included in the Progress Survey, you will receive email notification including the open and close dates. If you miss the window to provide feedback via the Progress Survey, you may raise flags or give kudos manually at any time. 

A flag is a tracking item within Starfish that allows a faculty member to notify a student about a concern relating to his or her course. Flags may be raised manually at any time during the semester or as part of a Progress Survey. It is best practice to avoid raising multiple flags for the same student.  This avoids sending duplicative emails to students and helps advisor prioritize their outreach based upon the number and nature of flags raised. 

The following flags are currently enabled in Starfish:

Never Attended (UW danger) - Raise this flag when student is in danger of earning a UW; this indicates the student never attended, never logged into Canvas, or has entirely stopped participating in course

In Danger of Failing - Raise this flag when a student is not passing course but is participating (Multiple possible reasons include low scores, missing work, and/or absences)

Low Quiz/Test Scores - Raise this flag when a student grade(s) on assessment(s) are below course expectations (as defined in the syllabus at discretion of the faculty member or program)

Missing/Late Assignments - Raise this when a student has pattern of missing, late or incomplete work. It is at the discretion of the faculty to determine the type of assignment to consider/exclude when raising this flag.

Attendance Concern - Raise this flag when the student has pattern of absences or lack of engagement time in Canvas (if online course); use particularly when the student's grade could be negatively effected or if you/your department has an attendance/participation policy 

A kudo is a tracking item within Starfish that allows an instructor to provide positive feedback to a student. Kudos may be sent manually at any time during the semester or as part of a Progress Survey. Currently, the “Keep Up the Good Work” kudo is enabled.

Whether the flag or kudo is raised manually or through a Progress Survey, the student is sent an automated email (see templates) on your behalf notifying him or her about the concern or encouragement. Any comments written are also sent directly to the student as part of the email.  See guidelines for these comments here.

Academic advisors and some specialized support staff monitor flags and may follow up with the student by phone and/or email based on the nature of the concern and number of flags raised.  Academic advisors try to reach as many as students as possible within time constraints.  Starfish staff also reaches out to students with open academic flags using the Ask Waldo/Mainstay SMS text messaging platform at periodic intervals during the semester.

If the student responds to outreach attempts, or if the concern no longer exists, the faculty member who raised the flag and/or the student’s academic advisor can mark it as resolved. Some flags are informational in nature and may not be cleared until the end of the semester. These flags are important to help advisors know how a student is doing overall and can be aggregated to help us identify and prioritize student outreach as an institution.

Utilizing a To-Do in Starfish can automate processes and communications through due dates, selecting multiple students or as part of a group, and automate standard work flow (see complete list of To-Dos in Starfish). 

Starfish allows staff and faculty to create a To-Do item to be completed by the selected student(s). This is a tracking itemthat prompts students to action. The staff/faculty member who raises the To-Do is responsible for assigning and following up with the item that is raised through Starfish (see the PDF with screenshots). 

Best practices for using To-Dos and Referrals in Starfish

No, although, faculty have been encouraged by the Provost to take attendance in Canvas if possible. In the future, attendance information pulled from Canvas may be used to create automatic notifications in Starfish to students who miss a certain number of class sessions.

Starfish is already in use at more than 300 institutions throughout the United States and takes FERPA seriously. Starfish takes data (educational records) that many of us already have access to through Banner, CatTracks, Lynx Self Service and/or Canvas and organizes the information in a way that we can collaborate and communicate across campus to help students succeed.

As with any software or database system used by the university, Starfish has been reviewed by the Information Security Office to ensure the system complies with information-related laws, regulation and policies.

Starfish gives schools the option to put a FERPA notification on many screens to remind faculty and staff of their duty to comply with FERPA. This feature has been activated for Weber State. Nonetheless, all who interact with student data should be vigilant of the policies and regulations surrounding FERPA.

For more information see: Q&A: Starfish and FERPA

Levels of access to information within Starfish are role-based and closely mirror access that faculty and staff have already been granted through the provisioning process. This was done to ensure that users are only seeing the information pertinent to the role they have in relation to their student.  

• Faculty teaching a course will only be able to raise or view flags or kudos about students in their course.
• Student support advisors will be able to see specific information about students assigned to their area.
• Faculty advisors and academic advisors will be able to see a holistic view of the students, similar to what they already are able to access.

Advisors and other support staff are monitoring flags and reaching out to students based on the nature of the concern and number of flags raised. Advisors resolve/clear flags after successful or unsuccessful attempts at outreach. This function is used for tracking and assessment purposes. The advisor will indicate one of the following reasons for resolving/clearing a flag:

The concern was successfully addressed (i.e., student responded to outreach)
When this reason is selected, it is not meant to indicate that the specific concern or issue is necessarily resolved but that the student is aware it and has discussed a course of action with an advisor or other support staff. If the student’s behavior or actions continue to cause concern, faculty members are encouraged to raise another flag.

The concern was not successfully addressed (i.e., student did not respond to outreach)
This reason is selected to notify the faculty member that an advisor or other support staff has attempted to contact a student by phone and/or email but the student did not respond.  If the student has not reached out to the faculty member to address the concern, the faculty member is encouraged to raise another flag.

The concern is no longer relevant
This reason is most commonly selected when a student has dropped the class for which the flag was raised. 

The flag was raised by mistake

I don’t have enough information

Yes. Faculty members are encouraged to resolve/clear flags if a student talks with them about the concern raised by the flag. Instructions can be found on our How-to Guides page.