Dear Faculty,
Please see the note below about our new Early Alert tool, Starfish. Starfish has many capabilities and one of them is an early alert system that allows instructors/professors to indicate when a student is struggling. This alert is then sent to their academic advisor who will reach out to the student and develop a plan with and for them. Our NxtGEN support center staff are also involved in this process and can create individualized plans for tutoring, homework help, one-on-one planning and support, etc..
This process is very critical for our undergraduate students. If you are teaching a course, please make sure you follow the directions below to sign into the system and use this particular tool. We will be providing a focused exploration and training on how to use this tool at our next faculty meeting.
Take care and thank you!
Barbara Seidl
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From: starfish@ucdenver.edu [mailto:starfish@ucdenver.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 11:31 AM
To: Franklin, Jeff ; Cooper, Ashley ; Chisler, Benjamin
Subject: Early Alert opens today!
Dear Faculty,
It’s the Early Alert time of the semester: late enough in the term that you have a sense of how students are performing, yet early enough that they still have time to change their behavior, consult with you and/or tutors, and do what they need to do to succeed in your course.
Many of you have been using Early Alert for years. Thank you! This year we are trying a new system, Starfish Early Alert, which is more intuitive and more capable than our old system.If you have not used Early Alert and are unsure if you want to, please download and read the one-page document, “Why it is a good idea for CU Denver faculty to use Starfish Early Alert.”
It’s easy: click Starfish. You can choose either to enter your office hours or skip this step and go straight to your courses and enter alerts. When you click on one of your courses, the roster of your students will pop up, and within 10 minutes you can check a box for those you choose, sending them a specific performance “Flag” (e.g., “Low Assignment/Quiz/Test Score”) or a “Kudos” (e.g., “Keep up the good work!”). If you’d like further quick instruction, download and read the document “How to Log On and Use Starfish Early Alert.”
That’s it. The student is notified, and so is her/his advisor, who will follow-up on your Flags, and you will be able to see that your communications prompt real follow-through. Results for alerted students who participate with their advisor are higher grades and lower likelihood of slipping into academic probation. But it all depends on you taking the first step. Please do. Thank you.
Need additional help?: Go to the Starfish website, or e-mail starfish.support@ucdenver.edu.
Be well,
Jeff
J. Jeffrey Franklin, Ph.D.,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Experiences
303-315-2134
University of Colorado Denver
1380 Lawrence Street, Suite 1421
Campus Box 137, P.O. Box 173364
Denver CO 80217-3364