Starfish How-To Guides for Faculty & Staff

Starfish is a tool designed to enhance the way we work across campus to help students be successful by fostering communication and connection between WSU instructors, students, advisors, and support services. The following guides outline the steps for completing common tasks in Starfish. You may log in to Starfish through the Starfish app in eWeber or through Canvas.

For technical support, email starfish@weber.edu, or stop in during our drop-in hours. For urgent help, send a Google Chat to xiaosong@weber.edu.

• Setting up/Updating your Starfish Profile

  PDF with screenshots

  1. Open the Starfish menu by clicking on the three lines in the top left corner of the page.
  2. Click on your name to expand the menu.
  3. Click on Institutional Profile.
  4. Help students put a face to your name by using the Upload Photo link beneath the placeholder to upload a photo. 
  5. Edit your Phone and add an Alternate Email address, if desired, to have Starfish send email to an address other than your WSU email.

  NOTE: If you are a student but also a WSU staff member, your Institutional Email will be your @mail.weber.edu student account. Add your faculty/staff @weber.edu as your Alternate Email. Then check the box to have messages sent to this “secondary” account.  (This edit will ensure that Google calendar integration functions correctly if you utilize Starfish for office hours.)

  1. Double check that the Time zone selected matches your time zone. 
  2. Add information to the General Overview and My Biography sections to let students know a bit more about you. This information will appear to students who view your information in Starfish.
  3. Click the Submit button to save your changes. 
      

  Starfish video: Update your Starfish Profile

• View your Student List and a Student Folder

  You will be able to pull up information about students with whom you have a relationship assigned within Starfish (i.e., instructors to students in their courses). The amount and type of information that you will have access to depends on your role. 

  1. From the Starfish menu in the top left corner of the page, click Students.
  2. Click on the My Students tab. You can search for individual students by typing the student’s name in the Search field or choosing your Connection to him/her.
  3. To view specific information about a student, click the hyperlink associated with a student’s name to pull up the student’s folder. Anywhere you see a student’s name as a link it will take you to his/her folder.
     1. From the student’s folder, depending on your access, you will find information on appointments (past/upcoming), grades (past/current), notes (you added/shared with you), tracking history, and courses and networks. 
     2. From the student folder, depending on your access, you will be able to add a note, create an appointment, email a student, raise a flag, and create a referral.
• Filtering on Student Attributes and Number of Tracking Items 

  Depending on your roles and relationships within Starfish, you can filter on student attributes (e.g., current term enrolled credits, student athlete, international student, class standing, program of study, etc.).

  You can also filter on the number and nature of tracking items (e.g., flags, kudos, to-dos, referalls) a student has that are either "active" or "cleared." 

  For a step-by-step guide on filtering on student attributes and the number of tracking items see the PDF with screenshots

• Respond to a Progress Survey

  PDF with screenshots

  You will receive an email reminder when there is a new survey for you to complete. Each survey presents a roster of your students for whom you can raise flags or kudos. Be aware that you may have multiple surveys to complete as a separate survey is generated for each course reference number.

  1. Select the progress survey link on your Starfish Home page or click on the Students link from the Starfish menu and click on the Progress Surveys tab (only visible when you have active surveys). The selected survey opens, listing your students on the left, and items you may raise across the top.
  2. Check the box for each desired item/student combination. When you check a box an icon will appear next to the student’s name for you to add additional comments, if desired. In most cases, these comments are sent directly to the student as part of an automated email that is generated by Starfish once the Progress Survey is submitted. Click the information icon associated with an item to verify whether or not the student can view the flag and related comments.
  3. Click the Submit button only when you are finished providing feedback. Once you have submitted the survey you will not have an opportunity to add to or undo the items you raised. Use the Save Draft option if you aren’t ready to submit your survey.  If you don’t have any feedback to report, it is important that you still click Submit so we know you have reviewed the survey.

  
  Notes:

  You may be asked to submit more than one survey if more than one of your courses has been included in the survey plan. They will be listed in the drop-down menu on the Progress Surveys tab.

  Starfish Video: Respond to Progress Survey 

  Starfish Video: Faculty/Advisor Features in Starfish

• Manually Raise a Flag or Kudo & How-to Use a Customized Flag or Kudo

  PDF with screenshots

  If you have a concern with a particular student or group of students, you may raise a flag at anytime to communicate your observations.

  1. From the Starfish menu, click on Students.
  2. On the My Students tab, find the desired student by typing the student’s name in the Search box. You may also pull up your student through your Course list using the Connection filter.
  3. Check the box for the student(s) you wish to flag.
  4. Click the Flag button. A list of flags that you have permission to raise on this student is displayed.
  5. Select the desired Flag from the list.
  6. If relevant, select a course from the Course Context, drop down list, and enter notes in the Comments box. Note the information under Student View to see if the flag and corresponding notes are viewable by the student.
  7. Click the Save button.

  
  You can follow the same process as above to provide Kudos (congratulatory messages) to a student or group of students by clicking on the Kudos button instead of the Flag button in step 5.

  Customizable Flag or Kudo

  Based on faculty feedback, a customzied kudo and flag option has been added to Starfish to allow faculty more flexability in providing feedback to students. With this option, faculty write an email that is personzlized to the student or concern or give out a customized compliment rather than sending the standardized email as with our other flags or kudos. The miessage is viewable to the student's academic advisor allowing them to follow up as needed or share in the student's accomplishements. 

  The following are step-by-step instructions on how to raise the customized tracking items PDF with Screenshots

• Faculty Raised: Registration Reminder 

  PDF with screenshots

  Faculty have the option of filtering students within thier courses and reminding students that registration is open for the upcoming semesters. The PDF guide demonstrates how to filter students in your current courses that have not yet registered for the following term. If you have any questions regarding this retention initative please contact starfish@weber.edu 

• "Zoom In" Feature: Manually Raise a Flag or Kudo for Large Classes

  PDF with screenshots

  The Zoom In feature allows you to track the perfromance of students on individual assignments during the semester and can be particularly helpful when faculty have large class rosters and/or a large number of assignments to consider to identify students that should recieve a flag or may need extra attention. You can set thresholds for each assignment grade to catergorize the grades as: Good, OK, Poor, or Missed. You can quickly filter student from the inported Canvas gradebook. 

• Resolve a Flag

  PDF with screenshots

  When a concern raised through a flag has been addressed by student contact or outreach (successful or unsuccessful), advisors and/or faculty should clear the flag to “close the loop” for those who are monitoring the flag.

  1. From the Starfish menu, click Students.
  2. Click on the Tracking tab.
  3. Click the check box to the left of the student’s name. You can check multiple students if the resolution is the same for all selected students.
  4. Click the Resolve button.
  5. Provide details of why the flag is being marked as cleared. Note: If you selected multiple students, the same reason and comment will be added to the profiles of all selected students.
     1. Select a reason for clearing the flag.
        1. The flag may be marked as successfully addressed when the student met with or contacted the professor or advisor or when other outreach was successful.
        2. The flag may be marked as unsuccessfully addressed when outreach has been attempted but the student did not respond.
     2. Enter a comment, when appropriate. 
  6. Advisors should check the box to send a message to the flag raiser to close the loop. Faculty will not see this option.
  7. Click Submit.

   

  Starfish Video: Closing the Loop and Clearing Flags

• Making a Referral

  Based on their assigned Starfish role, faculty and staff who are connected with a student may submit referrals in Starfish to help the student get connected to resources. Referrals are currently enabled for the following services/centers:

  • Academic Advisement
  • Academic Peer Coaching
  • Academic Support Coach
  • Basic Needs Response (Raised through Get to Know You Survey in Starfish)
  • Career Services
  • Center for Community Engaged Learning
  • Honors Program
  • International Students & Scholars Center
  • Money Management Center
  • Nontraditional Student Center 
  • Peer Mentoring
  • Student Support Services
  • SSS STEM 
  • Tutoring Referral
  • Military Affiliated Student Services 
  • Wildcat Scholars 
  • Writing Center 

   

  See our complete list with descriptions of each service

  
  When a referral is received by one of the above services/centers, a representative from that area will reach out to the student and offer information and services based on the comments included as part of the referral process.

  1. Log in to Starfish through eWeber or Canvas.
  2. Click on the Starfish navigation menu  in the top left corner of the page and select Students.
  3. From the My Students tab, locate or search for the student you wish to refer and click the check box to the left of his or her name.
  4. Click the Referral button.
  5. Choose a Referral from the drop-down menu.
  6. Write a comment as to why you are referring that student to the service.
  7. Click Save.

   

  Best practices when using To-Dos and Referrals in Starfish

• Using a To-Do in Starfish

  PDF with screenshots

  Starfish allows staff and faculty to create a To-Do item to be completed by the selected student(s). This is a tracking items that prompts students to take action. When a To-Do is raised, an automated email is sent to the selected student(s) with specific instructions and information on how to complete the task. The staff/faculty member who raises the To-Do is responsible for assigning and following up with the item that is raised through Starfish. 

  Complete list of To-Dos in Starfish

  1. Log in to Starfish through eWeber or Canvas.
  2. Click on the Starfish navigation menu  in the top left corner of the page and select Students.
  3. From the My Students tab, locate or search for the student you wish to refer and click the check box to the left of his or her name.
  4. Click the To-Do button.
  5. Choose a To-Do from the drop-down menu.
  6. Click Save.

   

  Once the student informs you that the task is complete, you can clear the To-Do. 

  1. Click on the Student's name to open the Student folder and select the Tracking tab.
  2. You can add an extra comment, as needed. 
  3. Click Submit

   

  Best practices when using To-Dos and Referrals in Starfish

• Using a Success Plan in Starfish

  PDF with screenshots

  A Success Plan combines a set of tracking items into an integrated prescriptive plan that can be assigned to one student or many. Access to assign Success Plans to students is role based.

  Create the Plan

  1. Select the desired student (or students) and click the Success Plan button from the action bar. You may select up to 750 students at a time.
  2. Select the desired Plan Type from the drop down list presented. The Success Plans you have access to for the selected student will be included in the list. Once you have selected a choice, the default set of information and tracking items for the plan will be filled in on the page.
  3. Update the Plan Name if necessary. The default Plan Name will be included, but you have the option to customize the plan name for the selected student(s). For example, you can personalize the plan for the student by adding the term ID or student's name to the default plan name.
  4. Update the Overview. The overview provides general information about the plan and will be visible to anyone who has access to the plan. It will also appear on the printable version of the plan. The default overview is included, but you can customize this with a more specific description.
  5. Review the details of the included tracking items. As you scroll down, you will find the list of tracking items that make up this Success Plan type as well as detailed descriptions and due dates where appropriate.
  6. Modify plan details as described in the following section.
  7. Click the Submit button to save the plan in the student's folder, and trigger the related tracking items. Note that the individual tracking items will not appear immediately.
  8. The Plan you created will now appear on the student's Plans tab within the Student Folder. From here you can edit or print the plan.
  9. The tracking items that make up the plan are included on the student's Tracking tab. When you click on the menu for the individual tracking item, information about the associated plan is included.

   

  Success Plan Example (Student view)

  Success Plan Example (Print view) 

• Setting up your Appointment Preferences and Office Hours for Online Scheduling

  PDF with screenshots

  You can allow students to schedule appointments with you online through Starfish by setting up your appointment preferences and office hours. Follow these steps only if you wish to enable this feature.

  Setup your Appointment Preferences

  Through Appointment Preferences, you can specify the default location and duration of your available appointment times. In addition, you can set a scheduling deadline and grant access to others to manage your calendar.

  1. Open the Starfish menu by clicking on the three lines in the top left corner of the page.
  2. Click on your name to expand the menu.
  3. Click on Appointment Preferences.
  4. Select your Minimum Appointment length.
  5. Select your Scheduling deadline, if applicable (i.e., appointments must be made by 5 p.m. the day before).
  6. Establish My Locations so students know where they can meet with you.
  7. Designate Calendar Managers, if desired. Calendar managers will be able to see and edit your office hours and appointments.
  8. Click the Submit button to save your changes.

   

  Set up/Refresh your Google Calendar Sync (if desired)

  PDF with screenshots

  
  Setup your Office Hours block

  The first time you log in, Starfish will provide a ‘wizard’ to walk you through setting up your office hours, which enables students to schedule time with you online and will send you both a reminder message the day of the appointment.  If you do not wish to complete the wizard, uncheck the box labeled “Show me this Office Hours Setup Page again next time I login if I don’t have any Office Hours” and click the Close button. You can set up your office hours without the wizard at any time.

  1. From the Appointments page, click on the Office Hours button.
  2. Give your block a title such as ‘Office Hours’ and indicate on which day(s) of the week this block occurs. Note that you can set up multiple blocks with different names and settings, if desired.
  3. Specify the start and end time for each appointment block.
  4. Set the location. Locations set up through Appointment Preferences will show automatically.
  5. Select your Office hours Type. If you are using a kiosk, use ‘Scheduled and Walk-ins.’
  6. Specify the minimum and maximum appointment length.
  7. Enter any special instructions.
  8. You should also specify a Start/End Date which allows you to set a date for your block to end. (Note: Google calendar syncs approximately 84 days into the future.)
  9. Click the Submit button.
      

  To edit/cancel a series of office hours, click on the Agenda view of your calendar. Hover over the clock icon to edit the frequency, time of day, locations, office hour types, minimum and maximum duration of appointments, appointment types, instructions, or start/end date of the series.

  To edit/cancel individual occurrences, click on the Day view of your calendar. Hover over the clock icon to display a pop up card from which you can take additional actions.

  Important  Note: Once an office hour block is saved, you will not be able to edit weekdays on which it occurs or type of frequency (e.g. weekly).

  Starfish Video: Setting up Office Hours

  Starfish Video: Email Notification for Appointments & Tracking