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Institution Enhances the Ability for Students and
Advisors to Connect Arlington, VA –
October 21, 2009 – Starfish Retention
Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of student success
systems, announced today that the
University of Mary
Washington has adopted Starfish® to power the
institution’s move toward electronic advising records
and foster greater communication between students and
advisors.
Located in historic Fredericksburg, Va., the liberal
arts university was founded in 1908 and enrolls
approximately 4,000 undergraduate students and 1,000
graduate students. The institution has long prided
itself on offering students a comprehensive advising
program facilitated by faculty advisors. In particular,
the first-year advising program helps ease students into
the college experience.
“Everyone who comes to the University of Mary Washington
is qualified for academic life. When students come to
college, however, they have choices on how to spend
their time. Sometimes students need direction,” said
JoAnn M. Schrass, Ph.D., associate dean, academic
services for the University of Mary Washington. “We
offer our students extensive access to faculty members
who are trained as first-year advisors to help students
make a successful transition to life as a college
student.”
With the emergence of social media and mobile
communications, the institution has sought to make
itself available in the online and offline settings in
which students live, learn and connect. Similarly, the
academic services organization wanted to take advantage
of new technology solutions that could make their
interaction with students more efficient and valuable.
In the spring of 2009, the institution conducted a pilot
program with 40 first-year faculty advisors using
Starfish for their first-year students. Following a
one-week implementation period, Starfish enabled more
than 400 first-year students to schedule appointments
through the Internet with their faculty advisors. For
the fall term, the institution has made Starfish
available to all students. Advisors also will maintain
and share their records of student interactions through
Starfish.
“We had such a positive experience in the pilot program
that we decided to introduce the system to all
students,” said Schrass. “In our post-pilot survey, we
found that students loved the system and commented on
how easy it was to use. Similarly, our faculty advisors
liked how the system reduced the number of email and
voicemail messages typically sent simply in their
attempts to schedule time with students. Because they
are also faculty members teaching courses, the faculty
advisors indicated that they wanted to use Starfish for
all their students, not just their advisees.”
Students and advisors access Starfish through a link in
Blackboard, the
institution’s course management system. From there,
students can schedule time to meet with their advisors.
Advisors can review a student’s academic performance,
such as grades, and can record notes from an advising
session. These notes can be shared with other advisors
and remain with the electronic folder as the students
progress from their first-year advisors to their major
advisors.
“We have wanted to go electronic for a long time,” said
Schrass. “Now an advisor is able to meet with a student
literally anywhere with Internet access. Advisors log in
to the system, pull up a student’s folder, add notes
from the meeting and share them with other advisors,
instructors or even the student. The electronic files
also provide a greater level of security because you
don’t have to worry about files getting misplaced or
accidentally left out where they can be viewed by
others.”
Accessible with a single log-in to an institution’s
course management system (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT or
Angel), Starfish CONNECT™, an
education networking support system, helps students
access a personal contact list of instructors and
advisors who are dedicated to helping them succeed. The
system generates valuable performance data for the
institution, including resource utilization that helps
optimize future service offerings.
“Starfish Retention Solutions is excited to be working
with the University of Mary Washington as it introduces
a completely new approach to offering services to its
students,” said David Yaskin, CEO and founder of
Starfish Retention Solutions. “The university has been a
terrific partner for Starfish, providing us valuable
feedback that has already helped improve our solutions.
Together we are empowering students and advisors with
easy-to-use online tools that help them stay connected
to each other.”
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 in order 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 coursework performance,
and then connect them to the resources designed to help
(e.g., advising or tutoring) – all while assessing which
services and interventions are working. For more
information, please call 703.260.1186 or visit
www.starfishsolutions.com.
Contact:
John Plunkett
Vice President, Marketing & Operations
703.260.1185
jplunkett@starfishsolutions.com
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