ARTICLE INTENDED FOR:

Faculty and staff users of Starfish

INTRODUCTION:

Each student's Starfish folder includes academic information imported nightly from LionPATH, as well as a record of meetings, notes, and tracking items created in Starfish. View permissions for each item in the student folder are granted by role. Different Starfish roles have different view permissions, and the information you are able to see may differ from student to student based on the type of connection you have with them.

ARTICLE BODY:

Overview Tab

The Overview tab of the student folder shows academic information imported from LionPATH, as well as a link to Elevate data for that student (visible to the student's Assigned Adviser only) and a graph of active warning flags for current courses.

The displayed Student Information is a snapshot of LionPATH information taken at 6:00 p.m. ET the previous day. LionPATH should always be considered the authoritative source for a student’s academic record, but this snapshot can make it easier for advisers to quickly review important academic information.

NOTE: All items on this tab are filterable, meaning you can use these categories and values to find other students with the same criteria.

NOTE: If there is no value for a particular piece of information, it is not displayed. For example, the student below does not have a minor, so no entry for Minor is displayed.

Starfish student folder

In this example folder, the adviser can quickly see this student is an 2nd-semester, pre-major student in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, currently enrolled full time and in good academic standing with no active flags. The student was admitted to Penn State in fall 2021 as a first-year student.

Info Tab

The Information tab displays admissions, demographic, and enrollment information imported from LionPATH. You will only see this tab if you have a role that grants you permission to see this information about students with whom you have a relationship.

In the Admissions section, the Math score under "Placement" is the student’s highest ALEKS score.

Success Plans Tab

The Success Plans tab displays any Success Plans that have been assigned to the student, provided that you have have view/edit permissions for those Success Plans.

Success Plans are action plans designed to help students achieve certain academic goals (e.g., get out of academic warning or suspension, meet clinical requirements). Success Plans are available only for select groups of students (i.e., ROTC, Nursing, and World Campus).

The Success Plans tab will show the Success Plan name, description, creator, and status. You can click the arrow icon next to the Success Plan to "View/Print," "Edit Plan," or "Delete Plan," depending on your permissions.

NOTE: You can use filters to find students on your roster with or without Success Plans and students with Success Plans completed or in progress.

Courses Tab

The Courses tab displays information about each of the courses the student is taking/has taken in the term selected, including information on the course section schedule, instructor, semester, and credit hours.

To see courses the student is currently taking, choose Term = Active and Status = Active.
To see courses the student late dropped, choose Term = Active and Status = Dropped.
To see more detailed information from the course (e.g., course-based tracking items raised), click on the window icon next to the course's header.

Tracking Tab

The Tracking tab displays the tracking items (flags and kudos) that have been raised for this student, whether in the past or currently active.

You can change which tracking items display by changing the "Status," "Created By," and "View" selections.

To see items that are currently active, select Status = Active.
To see items that were raised in the past, select Status = Resolved.
To see both current and past items, select Status = Both.
To see items you raised yourself, select Created By = Me.
To see items raised by anyone, select Created By = Anyone.
To make other changes to the view, use the "View" dropdown menu. For example, if you want to know if the student has any active flags specifically, you can choose the "Flag Inbox."

NOTE: Even when a tracking item has been marked as resolved, it is still part of a student's record and visible to those with appropriate view permissions within Starfish.

NOTE: If you do not see the tracking items you expect to see, check your selections; previous selections remain in place even after you close the window, move on to a different student folder, or log out of Starfish.

If your Starfish role allows, you can add notes to a tracking item by hovering over the icon and choosing “Comment” or “Clear.” A comment remains with the student’s folder. Choosing "Clear" allows you to also send a message to the person who raised the tracking item, "closing the loop" with that person about the concern. Find additional details about managing flags.

Meetings Tab

The Meetings tab shows the history of all meetings scheduled through Starfish that your Starfish role allows you to see.

Clicking the plus (+) symbol expands the meeting entry to show additional details, including the meeting notes.

Notes Tab

The Notes tab brings together all comments saved about the student for which you have view permissions, regardless of how the note was recorded (e.g., tracking item, meeting note, Starfish message, or note in the Student Folder).

Any comment typed into a text box is stored as a note in Starfish. Notes attached to meetings and tracking items are also visible in the Meetings and Tracking tabs respectively.

You can use the "Written By" and "Note Type" dropdown menus to filter these notes to see only the ones written by people in a particular relationship to the student or using a particular note type. For example, you could select "Assigned Adviser" as the note writer and "Academic Review" as the note type to limit your results only to those that fit both conditions.

Network Tab

The Network tab lists those individuals with whom the student has a relationship along with their contact information. The student's network includes instructors, assigned advisers, and others with whom a student has a direct connection in Starfish.

NOTE: Starfish receives the most recently assigned adviser from LionPATH. If the student has recently changed enrollment units, but the new unit has not yet assigned a new adviser, the previous adviser remains visible and connected to the student. Likewise, if a student has discontinued enrollment at the University, the most recently assigned adviser connection persists in Starfish.

Starfish: Reading the Student Folder