In our efforts to support students and provide better tools to faculty and staff, we are proud to announce that Shoreline Community College has purchased Starfish, a retention-oriented student success software that provides students with targeted interventions and a seamless, intuitive experience. Over 500 colleges and universities nationwide use Starfish, including 11 of the Washington Community & Technical Colleges.

Starfish meets a critical need

Our advising teams’ already inadequate tools will be less functional after the transition to ctcLink. Starfish will fill this gap with a strong suite of case management tools that enable advisors to provide a higher level of service to students than ever before. After multiple product demonstrations and Q&A sessions, both our resident and international advising teams have expressed universal enthusiasm for Starfish and are excited to incorporate the tool into their daily work.

Starfish will enhance Shoreline’s student success efforts

• Centralized Student Network: Students who log into Starfish will be greeted with a personalized network of student success professionals
• Predictive Tools: Using predictive analytics, advisors can provide proactive outreach to students who need additional supports
• Coordinated Support: A system of flags and kudos allow advisors to collaboratively provide assistance and positive reinforcement to students
• Centralized Student Information: For the first time, a single record of case notes for each student will be available across departments
• Targeted Communications: With just a few clicks, advisors can send blast messages to specific cohorts of students, including SMS text communications

Starfish integrates with our current tools

Starfish will integrate with the College’s core technology systems including Outlook 365, ctcLink, and Canvas. Advisors will be able to find the most up-to-date information about a student all in one place: grades, class activity, recent appointments, and case notes will be readily available. The software integrations will be relatively simple to configure, as much of the heavy lifting has already been done by our peer institutions.

Starfish is aligned with Guided Pathways

As Shoreline moves into year three of the Guided Pathways project, our tools must be compatible with the Guided Pathways framework. By enabling advisors to provide a more proactive style of service, Starfish supports the key Guided Pathways tenets of helping students choose a path, understand the path, and stay on the path.

What’s next?

Beginning July 1, the College will begin assembling the Starfish team and planning the implementation project. We will carefully consider our technical team’s workload and the needs of our staff when creating the implementation timeline. The Starfish team will collaborate closely with the ctcLink and Guided Pathways teams to align the project with the College’s strategic goals.

Throughout the implementation, we will work hard to obtain feedback from the Starfish users to continually improve the tool. There will be meaningful, timely trainings offered throughout the year. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as the project progresses!