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MCC Daily Tribune

New Starfish Attendance Early Intervention Project

This Fall we are piloting a Starfish Attendance Early Intervention Project to identify and support students with early attendance issues.

In a June 30, 2017 memo regarding faculty-initiated withdrawals, Provost Wade referenced several Faculty Senate recommendations for implementation this fall.

One recommendation was that we "leverage Starfish more aggressively by raising flags to intervene with students at the point where they start to have attendance issues. Follow-up with students to find out what is keeping the student from attending, reconnect student and instructor, and/or assist students with withdrawing themselves, if that is the best option for the student."

We will be implementing this recommendation this fall utilizing Starfish attendance surveys at the end of the 2nd and 4th weeks of classes to identify students with early attendance issues.

For the first survey we will identify students who have missed 50% or more of class meetings within the first two weeks of classes. The second survey will focus on the 3rd and 4th weeks of classes. A Starfish flag will be raised which will automatically send an e-mail to the student raising the concern and include recommendations to address possible challenges. Additionally, every student will be called to connect them with the resources they may need.

The dates for the two surveys are:

  • Attendance Survey #1: Opens on Thursday 9/14 and closes on Tuesday 9/19.
  • Attendance Survey #2: Opens on Monday 10/2 and closes on Friday 10/6

Starfish surveys are sent through email and include links to surveys for each section that you teach. The following emails will be generated for Attendance Survey #1.

  • Starfish pre-survey announcement with instructions on completing surveys - Wednesday 9/13
  • Starfish Survey message with links to survey(s) for each section you teach - Thursday 9/14
  • Starfish Reminder #1 for those who have incomplete surveys - Saturday 9/16
  • Starfish Reminder #2 for those who have incomplete surveys - Monday 9/18

To accomplish this recommendation, we will need all faculty members to respond in a timely manner to these surveys so that we can identify and intervene early with any students at-risk for attendance issues.

Please check your email on Wednesday 9/13 for the pre-survey announcement with instructions.

Instructions are also attached here with details on how to compete the attendance surveys.

For technical questions about using Starfish, please contact Kim Ross (kross25@monroecc.edu). For questions about this pilot, please contact Terry Keys (tkeys@monroec.edu).

Attached Files:
Starfish Attendance Survey How To.pdf

Terrance Keys
Instructional Services - AVP Office
09/11/2017