Documenting Efforts to Help Students Succeed

Proprietary institutions are facing turbulent times. Public relations challenges and legislative initiatives are promising to hold your institution to new levels of accountability. The challenge has never been more pressing to fulfill the promise of helping students reach new heights. At the same time, institutions have a terrific opportunity to efficiently and effectively provide quality education to students in all stages of life.

How do you keep track of your efforts to help your students and document that your efforts are making a difference?

Providing Help When They Need It

Students are coming to you for a host of reasons: to complete a degree, enhance their professional credentials, or explore a new area of personal or professional growth. When they need help, your students expect access to services in keeping with their lifestyle. Starfish CONNECT gives students 24/7 access to see who can help them address their concerns '" whether it be an advisor, instructor, or 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.

Putting Data to Work for You

Your organization is smart. You likely have access to reams of data about your students. 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 students' advisors 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)