Starfish

Students: Click here to activate your Columbus State Starfish Account

Login to Starfish

Starfish Request Form (For Employee Use Only)

What is Starfish?

Though primarily used for its early alert functions, Starfish has many capabilities. 

• Starfish ties together the student’s college support network so everyone is on the same page regarding the student’s academic progress, interventions, and contacts. By integrating student information system and blackboard data, it provides those supporting the student with the whole picture (historical and current) of the student's progress.
• Starfish provides a quick way to identify, proactively communicate, intervene, and track student progress, particularly regarding academic difficulty and/or attendance concerns.  Through its “flagging” capability, Starfish streamlines the intervention process, making it possible for multiple departments to reach out and holistically support students. 
• Starfish provides faculty and staff the means to give students a virtual “pat-on-the-back” or “kudos” for noteworthy accomplishments, encouraging persistence and success.
• Starfish provides opportunity for service areas to create and assign success plans and/or “to do” items that provide clear steps to accomplish important tasks and milestones. If desired, timelines for completion can be included when success plans or “to do” items are assigned.
• Starfish provides a consistent way by which faculty and staff can refer students to many College services a few of which are: Tutoring, Accessibility Services, Mental Health Counseling Services, Advising, Military & Veterans, Student Central and the Mid-Ohio Market. Initiating referrals that connect students with specific holistic support services facilitates retention and program completion.
• Starfish provides calendar management, appointment scheduling, and documentation of appointment outcomes for college employees and student services. Students can arrange scheduled appointments with their instructors, advisors, and other support services.  Starfish kiosks can be implemented to allow students to check-in for appointments, group sessions, or drop-in meetings at participating service areas. 
• Starfish provides features that allow the team to measure student progress and persistence in order to provide college leadership with data necessary to make impactful, strategic decisions for student success initiatives.

Starfish makes it easy to support students throughout their academic experience at Columbus State, providing opportunity to give students proactive, direct, meaningful input and referrals that promote student success and retention.

Starfish and Students

Once you are admitted to Columbus State, you will receive a Columbus State account and Columbus State email. You'll use your Columbus State account in CougarWeb, the portal where you can manage financial aid and register for classes.Most official college communications will go to your Columbus State email so check it often. Click HERE to discover your username and password and HERE to access Columbus State email. 

• In Starfish, you can manage your schedule, set up appointments with instructors, advisors, and other support services.
• It helps you stay connected to faculty, to be recognized for your achievements while boosting your motivation for success.
• Overall, Starfish makes it easier for everyone to support you throughout your time at Columbus State, ensuring you get the guidance and resources you need to thrive.

Faculty and Staff Support Requests

To submit a Starfish request (employees only), please use our Starfish Request Form.  Submitting your request via our form ensures it will enter our queue to be handled quickly. You will also receive email updates as progress is made on your request. In certain instances, our team may refer requests to the IT Support Center.

Common support and service requests that can be resolved:

• Most Starfish login issues
• Access requests (initial setup of a user account in Starfish)
• Cohort management (meeting requests for initial creation of cohorts, addition of students or updates to specific faculty or staff associated with a cohort)
• Kiosk configuration (meeting requests for initial setup of a physical kiosk or virtual kiosk, requests to disable a kiosk or change hours of operation to a virtual kiosk, etc.)
• Service configuration (meeting requests for initial setup of a Starfish service, requests to add/remove a user in a Starfish service, setup or changes to the following: appointment reasons, appointment durations, speed notes, etc.)
• Functionality/Error Code (login error codes, kiosk login error messages, error messages received when creating an appointment, setting a block of office hours, etc.)
• Message Templates (meeting requests to set up new message templates, request changes to messages sent via: appointment confirmations, referrals, flags, kudos, etc.) 
  • Note:  We are not able to support message templates at the individual user level (though we do offer templates that allow the raiser to insert customized comments).  Message template requests must have department consensus and/or leadership approval)
• Roles (request changes to specific user permissions in Starfish caused by a change in position/function at the college)
• Training (requests for customized training on how to setup personal preferences and utilize Starfish optimally).
• Outreach/Communication (requests to create/disseminate targeted messages, assignment of “to dos”, or other communications to cohorts of students that nudge them to take action within specific timelines)
• Reports (request specific meeting, service or other reports supported by Starfish)

Starfish Help: Instructions & Related Videos