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Institution Deploys Technology to Reinforce
Commitment to Student Engagement and Success
ARLINGTON, Va. – Feb. 18, 2009 – Starfish Retention
Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of student success
systems, today announced that the University of Chicago
has licensed Starfish CONNECT™, educational support
networking software intended to enhance collaboration
between faculty and students, with the goal of improving
student engagement and success.
With an annual enrollment of nearly 15,000 undergraduate
and graduate students and more than 2,100 faculty and
academic personnel, the University of Chicago has long
been globally recognized as a leading research and
teaching institution. With a clear commitment to student
achievement, the university made available for the last
three years a locally developed scheduling system that
enabled students to secure dedicated appointment times
with their instructors. Although the system was
valuable, the community desired more advanced
functionality from the proprietary system, including the
ability to synchronize appointments with their
electronic personal calendars (e.g., in Microsoft
Outlook).
“Our students and faculty rely heavily on the Blackboard
course management system. By offering Starfish CONNECT
as a link from the course environment, we hope to
simplify the task of scheduling office hour appointments
with faculty,” said Ken Sadowski, director of
instructional technology and design for the University
of Chicago. “We know from our experience with our
proprietary system that faculty want to avoid the
dreaded sign-up sheet on their office doors. And
students want the flexibility and convenience of
Web-based self-service.”
Accessible with a single log-in to an institution’s
course management system (e.g., Blackboard), Starfish
CONNECT enables students to access a personal Rolodex of
instructors, advisors and counselors who are dedicated
to helping them succeed. The system places these people
and services at the students’ fingertips, offering
self-service scheduling at times that are convenient for
both parties. Starfish CONNECT also helps students
overcome the natural reluctance to engage with new
people and campus services by letting them learn more
about the support services available and making
available endorsements from other students who have
benefited from the services. In addition, the system
generates valuable performance data, including resource
utilization that helps optimize future service
offerings.
“Starfish Retention Solutions is honored to include the
University of Chicago as part of its community of
institutions that are using technology to drive greater
student success,” said David Yaskin, CEO and founder of
Starfish Retention Solutions. “Simplifying the way that
students and faculty connect with each other has such a
powerful effect on a student’s ultimate success. We look
forward to a strong partnership with the University of
Chicago to meet the needs of their students, faculty and
academic staff.”
About Starfish Retention Solutions
Starfish Retention Solutions is a leading provider of
student success systems. The company offers a collection
of software solutions that harness the power of the
campus community to engage, motivate and graduate more
students – securing valuable tuition revenue through
student retention. Specifically, the solutions help
institutions identify at-risk students in real time,
based on their daily course work performance, and then
connect them to the resources designed to help (e.g.,
advising, tutoring) – all while assessing which services
and interventions are working. For more information,
please call 703.260.1186 or visit
www.starfishsolutions.com.
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