Academics

Starfish to roll out May 9 as advising system of record

Features include online appointments, advising notes, alerts

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s new suite of academic advising tools, the Starfish Enterprise Success Platform, will go live on May 9 as the University’s single system of advising notes and appointment scheduling, filling gaps left as the legacy systems of eLion, ISIS and EARS are decommissioned.  

In recent weeks at least one representative from each college and campus attended Starfish training provided by the platform’s implementation team and will serve as the respective unit’s point person for Starfish training and user questions. Training for end users, including academic advisers, faculty who advise and advising support professionals will take place in the coming weeks in time for New Student Orientation.

Users who have advising or instructing relationships with students will be able to log in to Starfish through a link on the LionPATH Launch Page at http://launch.lionpath.psu.edu. After setting up a profile and an appointment schedule, which will be visible to students, users will be prepared to meet with students and record meeting notes.

Effective May 9 and through the summer, the advising community will be encouraged to use Starfish to record student appointment outcomes; however, existing notes functions in eLion and other legacy systems will continue to operate. By the end of summer 2016, Starfish will be the only advising system of record for the University, and all use of eLion for this purpose will end.

The summer transition period will afford the advising community time to learn the new platform and its functionalities while still being able to access familiar legacy systems. Users who do choose to use eLion or another system during the summer, however, may find the information in some cases is not as current as that available in Starfish.

Also beginning May 9, students will find the Starfish link on their designated LionPATH Launch Page. Depending on the appointment configurations chosen by their college, students will be able to schedule appointments online or through a departmental calendar manager and connect with advisers, instructors and teaching assistants identified in their success network.     

In addition to a new appointment calendaring and notes system available this spring, Starfish will deliver by the fall semester an early alert feature that can flag students at risk, pinpoint areas of concern, and connect students with services and early interventions.

More information about Starfish, including updates, campus/college contacts, resources and training materials is available on the Starfish for Student Success website at http://sites.psu.edu/starfishinfo.

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Last Updated May 12, 2016