How to set up an advising appointment using Starfish

As class registration rapidly approaches, students are eager to set

up the required advising appointments with their advisor. However,
some students are left confused about how to set up their
appointments with UNCCs newly adopted Starfish system. Here is
a basic guide on how to set up your advising appointment using
Starfish.
1. Open a browser that allows you to access the internet (i.e: Internet
explorer, google chrome, safari, etc...)

2. In the URL box, enter the following website address:

www.49express.uncc.edu this will direct you to the 49er express login
page.

3. Enter your username and password in the designated areas.

4. You will be directed to the 49er homepage. To access Starfish, the advising
page for UNC Charlotte, click on the large green Starfish button on the
bottom right hand corner of the page.

5. Another login page may appear before you get to the Starfish homepage.
If so, enter your Niner login information. If you are directed to the
homepage, skip this step.

6. You will be directed to the Starfish homepage. Examine the contents of the
homepage, and direct your attention to the left hand banner.

7. Click on My Success Network.

8. You will be directed to a page that will list your instructors and advisors.
Navigate to the name of your major advisor.

9. Click on Schedule Appointment under your major advisors tab.

10.You will be directed to your advisors schedule for either the day or the
week. You may change the schedule viewing from day to week and
vice versa, using the tabs on the top labeled day and week.

11.Use the schedule to find a day and time that you find convenient to
schedule an appointment. Utilize the arrows and customization buttons to
expand your view of your advisors schedule. If a time slot is open, it will
read Sign Up. Click sign up to proceed to confirm your time.

12.A pop-up will come up that will ask you to tell and confirm the details of
your appointment. Fill out each field that best describes the conditions
and reasoning for your visit.

13.Press submit if everything is to your liking, or press never mind to

select a different date or if youve changed your mind about setting up an
appointment.
14.Log out of Starfish.
15.Close your browser.

Audience Analysis:
The audience for the instructions is UNC Charlotte students who are looking
to register for classes for next term. Students at UNC Charlotte are all different
ages, so there is no specific age group. The instructions are for students who have
little to no knowledge on how to utilize the newly adopted Starfish to set up their
advising appointments. They will use the instructions to make their advising
appointments so they may register for classes for the next term. The technical
background of the target audience ranges from novice to intermediate (as experts
should be able to make appointments without much chance of fail). Some technical

constraints may include lack of internet connection (which is necessary), and lack of
computer access (which is also necessary).

Final Memo
Naturally, writing instructions seemed rather easy for me. I believed all that instructions
included was list of steps that helped guide them towards completing a certain task. Essentially,
that is what instructions aim to dobut much to my surprise, they are a little more complicated
than that. Instructions that are superbly easy for a target to follow are hard to write. Instructions
that make sense to the author may not necessarily make sense to the target audience. While it
may seem remedial to the writer, instructions should be so easy that someone without any type of
background knowledge should be able to follow the instructions somewhat easily.
Through this project, I was able to at least somewhat understand how much time and
effort goes into writing instructions. For the most part, I didnt have to make many revisions in
my instructions. The steps were fairly straight-forward and to the point.

As far as difficulties go, it was fairly tedious having to spell out each and every step. For
someone who knows the content in which they are writing about, doing something like that
certainly seemed unnecessary. However, thinking about the target audience, spelling out every
step bluntly is completely necessary to create proper instructions.
The group project was revolved around How to create a blog. I was the final editor.
Everyone played a part in coming up with a topic and putting it into action, but Neph, because of
her extensive background in blogging, helped the most in putting the project into action. We all
collaborated nicely, and consequentially, there werent many problems at all.

Pre-test Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

On a scale from one to ten, how tech-savvy would you consider yourself to be?
Have you used Starfish, the advising portal site, in the past?
How well do you follow directions? (Scale from 1-10)
Do you consider yourself to be a kinesthetic, visual, or auditory learner? (Do you

learn by hearing, seeing, or doing?)

5. Do you find it more convenient to set up appointments in person or using
technology?
Post-test questions:
1. On a scale from 1-10, how well did the instructions cater to your level of techsavviness?
2. After following the instructions, do you feel more comfortable using starfish?
a. Yes
b. Somewhat
c. Not at all
d. Whats Starfish?
3. On a scale from 1-10, how easy did you find the instructions to follow?
4. After using the instructions, how do you prefer to set up your advising appointments?
a. Starfish

b. In person
c. Other
5. How well do you understand starfish?
a. Well
b. Somewhat well
c. Ehhh
d. Not well
e. Not at all