Responding to warning flags

by | Oct 18, 2016 | Training Update

Flags are intended to warn students that they need to take some action. Assigned Advisers are included in notice of these flags because they are a key resource to students who may not know how to best respond to the warning. Once a flag gets a student’s attention, the flag has done its job.

Ideal workflow around warning flags (see AAPPM G-7)

  1. Person who is in a position to know alerts the student to a problem
  2. Student reaches out for help
  3. The person who interacts with a student responding to a flag adds a comment to the flag, and may choose to clear the flag.
  4. Assigned adviser reaches out to students who have more than one flag, and documents that outreach

1. Person who is in a position to know alerts the student to a problem

Instructors and academic advisers have access to flags and kudos at all times, and can choose to deliver them to students at any point.

At critical times of the semester, a subset of flags and kudos are packaged into a survey format for courses enrolling first-year students at University Park campus, and all undergraduate courses at all other campuses. Learn how to complete a progress survey.

2. Student reaches out for help

Students have the responsibility of responding to warnings raised by instructors or advisers. This may include seeking additional information from instructors, seeking advice from academic advisers, or using other resources on campus (learning assistance, counseling offices, etc.).

3. The person who interacts with the student adds a comment to the flag or clears the flag

Instructor and adviser roles in Starfish are able to manage course-based tracking items. Both Assigned Advisers and General Advisers can manage all adviser-raised tracking items. The manage privilege allows users to Clear or Comment on tracking items.

If a student interacts with an instructor or adviser about an issue a flag identified, it is important to indicate this in the flag’s comments. That comment will be added to the flag’s record, and can also be sent to the flag raiser or the student.

To Comment on a flag:

  • Hover over the Flag (e.g. from the Tracking tab of the Student Folder)
  • Click the Comment button
  • Enter a comment
  • Choose whether or not someone else should receive an email with your comments
  • Click Submit

flag-box-commentFigure 1: An interaction box for an unresolved flag, highlighting the Comment button.

To Clear a flag:

  • Hover over the Flag (e.g. from the Tracking tab of the Student Folder)
  • Click the Clear button
  • Enter a comment that summarizes what the student has done to address the issue
  • Click Submit

flag-box-unresolvedFigure 2: An interaction box for an unresolved flag, highlighting the Clear button.

Clearing a flag or kudo marks it as “Resolved” (as opposed to “Active”). Clearing flags enables instructors and advisers to use the filter on the Tracking tab to identify students who have active flags and may need additional outreach.

Record that the flag or kudo was raised and any comments associated with that tracking item are retained as part of the student’s file and remain visible in the Tracking section of the student folder. Cleared tracking items are removed from the student’s Starfish dashboard.

There are two actions that resolve a tracking item.

  1. Cleared by an adviser or instructor who chooses the Clear button on the Flag interaction box. Flags should be cleared when some action was taken to address the issue flagged by the tracking item. Clearing a flag does not mean the overall issue was resolved, but that the flag did its job of getting the student’s (and adviser’s) attention.

flag-box-resolvedFigure 3: An interaction box for a flag resolved by an adviser.

  1. Cleared in bulk by Starfish admin at a point in the semester when those tracking items are no longer relevant for current action. Cleared tracking items remain in the student’s record, but are marked as resolved. Flags marked resolved through a batch process (rather than by student action recorded by an adviser or instructor) are marked “Cleared by [name of admin user].” The comment, “Cleared in bulk by admin user” is added to the item, and is in the Details portion of the tracking item’s record. Figure 3 shows a flag raised during an academic review that has been resolved through a Starfish administrative process, and Figure 4 shows the Details of that cleared flag.

flag-box-bulk-clearedFigure 4: An interaction box for a flag that was cleared in bulk by Starfish Admin.

flag-bulk-clear-commentsFigure 5: Flag’s tracking history after the bulk clear by the Starfish Admin.

 

4. Assigned adviser reaches out to students who have more than one flag

Students who receive multiple flags, particularly warning flags for multiple courses, are at high risk and are likely to be the most in need of support. Academic Advisers can use Starfish to identify students with multiple flags and to reach out to those students.

To identify students who need outreach:

  • Go to the Students section of Starfish
  • Click on the Tracking tab
  • Choose the Assigned Adviser connection from the pull down menu
  • Click on the Student heading to sort by student last name
  • The Filter button can be used to further filter the results (e.g. to show only active flags) or to only show a particular tracking item (e.g. Missing graduation requirement, see adviser immediately)

A suggested practice is to either add a comment to a Flag, choosing the “Send a copy of note to student” option or to create a new Advising Note, choosing the “Send a copy of note to student” option. If students do not respond to messages sent to their Penn State email accounts, many student folders show alternative contact information for the student.