Navigate360: Faculty/Staff - Importing, Creating & Utilizing Student Lists & Advanced Searches

Overview

This guide will go over how to import student lists and generate advanced searches. Additionally, it will demonstrate how to save the lists and searches you create and how both may be used to communicate with students.

The main difference between a saved student list and a saved advanced search is that student lists are static (not changing) while saved advanced searches are dynamic (changing).

• For example, a user could have either a list or advanced search saved for all of the students enrolled in a particular section of a course. However, if a student drops the course mid-semester, the advanced search will reflect this, while in a saved list, the student would still appear since lists are static.
• Additionally, advanced searches allow the user to layer multiple criteria. An example may be if a user wanted to generate a search of students in their course who are also honors students, and so on.

Note: As of Fall 25 MavCONNECT has been rebranded as Navigate360. 

Both names refer to to the same system which was implemented in Fall 2023 and took the place of our Starfish-based system. Faculty and staff may continue to use "MavCONNECT" when referring to the system; however, know that MavCONNECT and Navigate360 mean the same thing and refer to the same system. 

Importing & Saving a Student List

If you have a list of students with their TechIDs or StarIDs that you want to track, you can use Navigate360 and the Student List functionality to store this information.

Student Lists are static lists of students created through a variety of methods. Some lists are automated, such as students in a faculty member's courses, or students assigned to a staff user as academic assignees.

Navigate Staff users with permission can also create their own student lists. The steps below guide the user on how to import and save a student list.

• Using the left-navigation menu, find and select the Bullet Point icon. 

• In Under the Student List section, find the New Student List icon and select it. 

• This will open a new screen that allows you to name your list. We strongly recommend that you include a date in the naming of your list, as well as other information which will help identify which group of students are on your list. 

• After naming your list, de-select the "Do Not Show this list in analytics dashboard". Click on Save Student List. 

• This will bring you back to the Student Lists home page. Find the list you want to add your students to and check the box to the left of the name of the list.

• Select the Action link and choose Upload Student List. 

• Confirm which list you want to add your students to and load a CSV file of your students with their StarIDs or TechIDs listed. Note it must be CSV formatted.

• Confirm the column where the student's TechID (Student ID) or StarID (Alternative ID) is at in your CSV file. This will Save and Import your Student List.

  • Important to include a field header of "TechIDs" or "StarID" so the system can grab the proper column and all techIds or StarIDs. .

Reminder: Student Lists are static lists. This means they do not change unless you upload a new student list and/or add a student to an existing list.

Setting Up an Advanced Search & Common Advanced Searches

Advanced Search is a search function in Navigate360 that lets you create unique cohorts of students based on the layering of various search parameters. The Advanced Search functionality allows faculty, staff, and administrators to layer a series of filters onto a specific query in order to customize student searches. The steps below guide the user on how to generate common advanced searches using the appropriate filters.

• First step to any advanced search, log into Navigate360 and find your navigation area on the left. Click on the looking glass icon (Advanced Search).

• Navigate360 data is term-based and therefore most reliable for currently registered/enrolled students. Always choose a term under Enrollment History to ensure most accurate data for that term. The system may default to the current or most previous term so check the term for accuracy.

Searching for students by assigned advisor and category (e.g. new students for specific term). 

1. Under the Student Information filter, choose the Category option.

2. Ensure you are pulling students that are currently enrolled by going to the Enrollment History filter and choosing the current semester to pull enrolled students.

3. To connect with assigned advisees within a specific category, you can use the Assigned To filter. Choose “Advisor” as the relationship and then find the advisor/team you want to pull data for.

4. Click Search to pull your list.

 

Finding students that were added to a saved student list.

1. Under the Student Information filter, choose the Student List option. Find the list you want to use and add any additional search criteria.

 

Finding currently enrolled students for the current semester.

1. Under the Enrollment History filter, choose the semester you are wanting to search for. Click Search at the bottom.

 

Find students in a specific major, degree, concentration, area of study.

1. Under the Area of Study filter, choose the criteria option you want to use to pull a list of students. Click Search at the bottom.

Find students in a specific minor program.

1. Under the Student Information filter, click on the Category option, and then start to type Z-minor to pull up a list of all minors. Scroll through until you find the minor you are looking for. Click Search at the bottom.

All Minors are found under Student Enrollment area under "Categories", starting with “Z-Minor:".

Saving an Advanced Search as a Search

After completing an Advanced Search, you can save this search using the Saved Search functionality. 

1. On the Search page/your results, find the Unsaved Student Search header.

2. Click on the Save button.

       3. In the pop-up, enter a Name for your search/result list.

Saving Advanced Search Results as a List 

After completing an Advanced Search, you can save your list of results as a List using the Save List functionality.

1. On the Search page/your results, click on the square next to "Name". If you have more than 100 results, look to the center and make sure to click on the "Select all XXX items" link.
2. Once you've selected all of the students names/search results, click on "Actions", and then "Add to Student List"
3. Then click on "Create new list..." at the bottom 
4. Then create a list name that will make sense to you. We recommend you start lists with the date as it will remind you when you made the list and that the list is static (won't change unless you add names to it.
5. Click on the Save button.

Accessing Your Saved Search or Student List

Your saved search is now dynamic. This means that when you execute this search, it will update as students meet or no longer meet your search criteria. 

There are two places you can find saved searches or lists.

1. Via the bullet point icon on the left-hand navigation bar. To find/access your saved search or list, 

• Use the left navigation bar and choose the bullet list icon.

• Find the Saved Search or Student List box and click on the name of your desired search to execute the search and retrieve fresh data.

2. On your Home Screen, Staff page, under the "List Type" Area. Scroll until you find your desired list.

Note: Saved Searches and Saved Lists are only visible to the creator. They are not sharable within the system at this time. ​​​​​​

Acting With an Advanced Search or List

1. After you’ve pulled your search criteria (or pulled up a saved search/list), you can take bulk action with those students. Click on the square under “Actions” to highlight all students and choose them.  

NOTE: when a search list has MORE than 100 recipients and you want to execute an action on all of them, you will get this message, and you need to click “Select all xxx items” to add the entire group to your action – see highlight below.

2. Once everyone is selected, click Action, and it will open an extended menu. From here you can choose common actions. 

a. Send a Message to Student- This will be an EMAIL sent to their Outlook/MAVMail account, and you will be able to see it under their student profile under the More/Conversations area. Anything you send from your profile, you will see on your account under the Letter Icon on the left.

c. Add a Note- Creates an ad-hoc note on a student’s record and displays it under the History tab within their profile.  

d. Export Results-This action should not be used unless discussed with Navigate360 administrators. Most actions you need to take with student data can be done within the system itself and for data security purposes, data should remain in the system unless there is a specific and approved business need for downloading it out of the system. Please email navigate360@mnsu.edu with questions on this.  

Important Notes & Reminders

• Always choose a term under Enrollment History to ensure most accurate data for that term.  

• Please do not export data gathered via an advanced search. If you feel you must export it, please reach out to the Navigate360 team (navigate360@mnsu.edu) before doing so, as many desired functions can be handled within Navigate360 and do not require a download of data. See Minn State System's Data Privacy for more info. 

• Data pulled via an Advanced Search in Navigate should not be used for formal reporting purposes. Please contact the Navigate360 team (navigate360@mnsu.edu) if you are interested in pulling data for a report or other internally or publicly shared document. 

• Reminder that data in Navigate is imported daily from data in ISRS, though there may be a 24 – 72 hour delay of when data will show up in Navigate360. If you see a data discrepancy of a change made in ISRS which is more than 72 hours old, please report it to navigate360@mnsu.edu. 

• Please ignore/do not use the bottom three new search features (Goals & Interests, Polls, and Success Indicators). These categories are not currently/consistently populated and are not reliable.

Still Need Help?

For Navigate360 staff system questions or issues, email navigate360@mnsu.edu or contact the Office of Student Success.