Leveraging Data to Inform Student Success Programs

Students love the convenience of attending class online, and running an online program provides new revenue streams to your institution. But there are downsides as well. Student completion rates within online programs are 10% to 20% lower than at the same institution with face-to-face delivery. Providing students the same set of services offered on campus is tough but required by accrediting organizations. In a virtual K-12 environment, you have the extra challenges of keeping so many people informed when a student is in trouble, including parents, instructors, online school administrators, local school's liaison, local school's administrators, and maybe others!

How do you put the data you already have within your learning management system to work for your student success programs?

Connecting Students to Help

Students are taking online courses for a variety of reasons. Many are getting access to subject matter that they cannot get otherwise at either their traditional school or program. Others are taking advantage of the convenience of completing coursework on a more flexible schedule. Regardless, when your online students need help, they expect convenient access to the same services that they could go to if they were on a physical campus. Starfish CONNECT gives students 24/7 access to see who can help them address their concerns - whether it be an advisor, an instructor, or a financial aid counselor and to reserve time with that person immediately over the Web. At the same time, your advisors and other service personnel can efficiently keep track of their students and manage their efforts to help. See Features and Benefits of Starfish CONNECT.

Accessing Your Learning Management System

In an online program, there is no "back row" for a student to hide, which makes it difficult for instructors to gauge the level of student engagement. The good news is, you have a world of data already flowing through your learning management system that can provide great insight into how your students are doing. The challenge is putting that data together in an actionable way that allows you to help a specific student when trouble arises. Starfish EARLY ALERT helps your full-time and adjunct instructors and your advisors efficiently and securely share information about their students so they can together help a student overcome a potential barrier to success. Starfish makes it easy to get feedback from instructors to identify potentially at-risk students, route those concerns to the student's advisor and other support services, and then keep track of the efforts to intervene. See Features and Benefits of Starfish EARLY ALERT.

Outcomes You Can Measure

Starfish offers comprehensive reporting where you can evaluate potential trends within your student success initiatives to help guide your decision making. Through the use of Starfish, institutions are reporting measurable outcomes in a number of areas, including:

• Institutional accreditation or reaffirmation of accreditation support data
• Student persistence and retention measures
• Correlations between services provided and impact on student outcomes
• Overall course completion and pass rates
• Referrals to support services (e.g., tutoring)
• Appointments scheduled with support services
• Active instructor participation in early alert process
• Evidence of students being helped through the number of cleared flags
• Number of students completing term in good academic standing
• Insight into challenge areas (e.g., courses, cohorts, demographics)