ARTICLE INTENDED FOR:
Faculty and Staff users of Starfish

INTRODUCTION:
Starfish early and mid-semester progress report surveys are administered at critical periods during the semester to help instructors alert each student's larger support network (including academic advisers, retention specialists, and others) to the student's progress in a course. In most instances, this is the only insight others have into your class.

Progress reporting surveys present you with your course roster alongside select feedback options (tracking items called "flags" and "kudos") that are relevant at that point in the semester. The progress survey is one of three Starfish methods instructors can use to to provide feedback about students and be in compliance with Faculty Senate policy. All of the possible alerts and their associated messages are on the Starfish Info website.

Even if you teach a large course or have no grades to report yet, you still have access to vital student information that should be shared via Starfish.

Some early data points to look for include:

• Missing homework assignments, quizzes, or exams
• Missing clicker submissions or other indicators of participation
• Absences from lecture, recitation, or lab sections

If similar concerns are registered by multiple instructors, this could signal larger problems about a student’s academic performance or even, in extreme cases, that a student is missing or in crisis.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to your Starfish homepage (Go to starfish.psu.edu, and click the “Log in to Starfish” button to get to your Starfish homepage).
2. Select the Outstanding Progress Survey link on your Starfish homepage to go directly to the Progress Surveys tab in the Students section.

NOTE: This message and the Progress Surveys tab are only visible when there are active surveys.

• Opening a progress report survey will provide the following:
  
  • Course Roster listed alphabetically
  • Options for feedback available as checkboxes

3. Select the checkbox associated with the student and the feedback you would like to deliver.

4. To add comments, click the plus icon (+) that is displayed after you check a box.

• The comments you add will be included in messages sent to the student and others in the student’s support network.

5. Your entries are automatically saved, so you may stop and return to the survey later.

6. When you are completely done with the survey, click Submit.

• NOTE: Once you click Submit, you will no longer be able to view or edit the survey, and this cannot be undone. Starfish will prompt you to confirm.

• Once you click Submit, Starfish starts generating emails to students and their assigned advisers and creating tracking items in each student's Starfish folder. This can take some time to completely process.
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• If you use a different Starfish option to provide feedback to students, you can submit the survey without selecting any of the checkboxes. This will stop reminder emails from being sent to you.
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• NOTE: If the progress survey was submitted prematurely, your only options are to raise flags or kudos manually or to use the Zoom In feature in Starfish if Canvas Grades are set up. The progress survey cannot be reopened.

LINKS:

• • Log in to Starfish: https://starfish.psu.edu
  • Information on Early Progress Reporting
  • Faculty Senate Policy on progress reporting
  • Provide Information to Student’s Academic Support Network
  • Messages sent to students and their support network when Flags or Kudos are raised
  • Manually raise Flags or Kudos (Instructors, advisers, and other Starfish roles)
  • Use Canvas grades with the Zoom In feature (Instructors and TAs only)
  • Get help with Starfish