UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Instructors are encouraged to use Starfish for mid-semester reporting as part of a team-based approach to supporting students.
The next reporting window will run from Oct. 5-14, where instructors will be prompted to give feedback and students, in turn, will be encouraged to make contact with their instructor and/or assigned academic adviser.
The mid-semester reporting window also correlates with the scheduling of next semester’s courses, which this year will happen in a more compressed timeframe than usual. The schedule of courses will be available Oct. 15 through LionPATH, with registration beginning on Nov. 2 for undergraduates and Nov. 1 for graduates. The late-drop deadline will also coincide with peak registration time. Students are encouraged to sign up for a course-scheduling session with their academic adviser as early as possible.
The Starfish early reporting window from Sept. 8-16 saw 22,283 flags raised in Starfish and 118,439 kudos offered. About half of all sections, or courses, participated in reporting, totaling 6,712. In all, 59,657 students received some sort of Starfish feedback, or about 67% of the undergraduate student body.
Flags are intended to draw attention to a concern and academic advisers are expected to clear flags when certain criteria are met. Because the purpose of a flag is draw attention to a potential situation, just because a flag was lowered does not necessarily mean that underlying problems have been alleviated.
One flag instructors can raise is to ask for additional help from academic advisers, said Janet Schulenberg, a senior director in the Division of Undergraduate Studies.
“We’re paying very close attention to those and asking that advisers are making sure they are closing those flags to document what outreach they've attempted and whether a student responded to that outreach,” Schulenberg said. “Getting better at this practice and documenting how we have responded to a concern as a University community will help us better assess long-term what the effects are for students for this kind of intervention.”
There can be many factors that are affecting a student’s performance and their level of engagement in course material.
“Sometimes, it’s not really an academic problem. It could be something else,” Schulenberg said.
Factors such as homelessness and lack of access to technology or food can have major impacts on students’ academic success. Some students struggle with a single class, others with multiple classes. A student may have stopped showing up to classes altogether.
It is through notifications such as Starfish flags that academic advisers and faculty can connect and collaborate to help students, Schulenberg said. Flags from multiple instructors, for example, could signify deeper problems, and that signal wouldn’t be possible without progress reporting.
“Our ability to support students is significantly advanced by the collective work of so many across Penn State,” said David Smith, associate dean for advising and executive director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies. “Starfish helps us to connect what instructors know about student challenges with others who are here to provide students with critical support. The more we can work together, the better we are able to let students know that we care about their success.”
In August, Executive Vice President and Provost Nick Jones asked instructors to make use of Starfish reporting and said it helps the University fulfill its obligations to students.
“A team approach to supporting our students is more important than ever,” Jones wrote in an email to instructors. “You have access to vital student information that should be recorded via Starfish to enable others to help.”
The Division of Undergraduate Studies is part of the Penn State Office of Undergraduate Education, the academic administrative unit that provides leadership and coordination for University-wide programs and initiatives in support of undergraduate teaching and learning at Penn State. Learn more about Undergraduate Education at undergrad.psu.edu.