iAdvise uses Starfish by EAB to maintain information on students and to provide an opportunity for intervention using a system of different types of flagging for students in courses, called iAlert. Faculty members can use iAlert to indicate that there is a challenge for a student through the system and no longer need to worry about identifying the student’s advisor and sending an email. In user flagging, an instructor can raise a flag on any undergraduate student in one of the courses they are teaching in the current term by clicking their name in iAdvise and selecting the appropriate flag individually for each student about whom they are concerned.

• In user flagging, when there is an issue for a student and a faculty member wants to contact advising, it can be done through the “iAlert” system.
  • A faculty member raises an item (see full list at bottom of this page)
  • Once a flag is raised, an advisor is notified and can take action with the student.
  • Also, in most cases, a student is notified and can take action accordingly. (Some alerts do not notify the student directly.) Once acted upon, an advisor can close the loop with an instructor by letting them know that their alert has been addressed, and where appropriate to the concern, inform the faculty member of the results.

We have recently developed a series of roles in iAdvise for faculty members that are not part of their instructor role or driven from a course context. These roles include:

• Directors of Undergraduate Studies
• Faculty Coordinators – this role is most often used for faculty members participating in grants that are geared for student success and bring them in contact with students that are not in their courses.
• Faculty Advisors – this role is designated by your college administration, but is generally used for faculty members serving in advising roles for undergraduate students.

There is information available about the access and activities for the DUS and faculty coordinator roles – download the quick guide here.

Please email iadvisehelp@uic.edu for information and to get access to these roles.

iAlert has four different types of “tracking items” (so named because they are items that users want to keep track of to take action on): Flags (calls to attention; the most common used by faculty), Referrals (to direct a student to a service), To-Dos (to direct a student to complete an action), and Kudos (to acknowledge progress or achievement).