Analysis Research and Public Surveys: Thoughts on improving the advising process
Online research and two surveys were conducted to highlight how IUPUI could address advising concerns. The primary forms of improvement include a four year plan, building strong connections, advising training, and alternative advising forms (walk-ins and eAdvising).
College Planning: advocating for a Four Year Degree Plan
During our team's investigation on how to improve completing a four year degree on time, we found that creating a four year degree plan would be beneficial to increasing on time graduation rates.
The purpose of the four year degree plan helps incoming college students visualize their future, and understand the pathway that they have chosen. The four year degree plan is an organized step by step plan on what classes to take as well as a process to see if you have enough space to add minors, or become a double major, to be able to see if your ontrack to graduating, as well as allowing an understanding if a failed class takes place where you have room to retake said class.
Research by Times Herald is supported by a study by Julie Declour stating that when a student has clear academic and career goals also known as an educational plan, it helps students work through four year degrees and two year degrees. Julie Declour, an associate editor of the Tulsa World, found that many incoming freshmen go into college knowing what they want to do, but most don’t finish and if they do it’s normally a semester or few off of the original graduation date. Inorder to stop late graduation rates, “Texas Legislature passed a feet-to-the-fire law that will require students with at least 45 hours at a public college or university to produce a plan that gets them out of school in four years. This law was aimed to enable students to think deliberately about their education early on" This law compelled our team to create a student and advisor survey question to figure out if students at IUPUI had considered creating a four year degree plan, shown in figure 1.
Figure 1.1: 98 percent of respondence think it is beneficial to create a four year plan
Figure 1.1: This diagram shows that between the students and advisors 72% believe that IUPUI students should create a four year degree plan, and only 28% believe students should not make a plan. The majority of the IUPUI population believe that creating a plan that would be flexible with specific degrees that students are trying to earn, would be beneficial.
Once our team had looked into roughly how many people made a four year degree plan, we looked into whether or not IUPUI had specific degree maps already made, so students could build one based on what the school suggested, and in fact they did. However, here at IUPUI, the plan changes throughout all majors. Some have a chart explaining semester by semester, others have an outdated checklist, or even a degree concept map with different roads to choose from called IGPS.
With having all of these options and more this means:
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Having so many platforms means some of them are not up to date
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It can cause confusion on what classes to look at for next semester
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Could cause them to take classes that are not required
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Combination of both can cause delayed graduation dates
Adelle Waldman, who has written articles for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, found that, “the University of Florida, for example, experienced a big jump in its four-year graduation rate after it implemented a system that guaranteed students places in required classes. After making that change - and starting an online tracking system that enabled students to see how much longer it would take them to graduate - its four-year graduation rate jumped from 38 percent in 1990 to 53 percent 2003.” This example from Florida University, on top of the results shown in figure 1, gave our team the idea to create a student survey question, asking the students who created a four year degree plan, how they started to make their plan, shown in figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2: 92% of the Students Who Filled Out a Four Year Plan Had Some Sort of Help
Survey Question 17 Asked: Did an IUPUI advisor help you create the four year plan?
Figure 1.2: This diagram shows that 92% of students have created some type of plan for college. Out of this 92% many have used IGPS while others have gone to their advisor. 8% have not made a degree plan with their assigned advisor, or they have not created one at all.
Once receiving the results that almost 92% used iGPS to create their schedules we want to see how comfortable students were with using the platform. So our team created another student survey question shown in figure 3. We also added questions in the advisors survey to get some feedback on what they thought about iGPS.
Figure 1.3: Over 85% of Students Surveyed Are Comfortable with iGPS
Survey Question Asked: Are you comfortable using iGPS?
Figure 1.3: This diagram shows us that over 85% of students are comfortable with iGPS. However some do wish that this platform was explained more to them so they could use it to its full capacity. While 10% are very confused by this platform and they were never told how to use it. On the other hand, advisors have stated it is hard for some incoming students to see their plan on iGPS because they start lower in math and science class than what is reported on the given plan on iGPS.
Our IUPUI advisors were asked for their thoughts on why they think students don't graduate on time. A common reason given for students not graduating on time, is when students have to retake classes due to poor grades, or when they do not start college with the proper foundation in math or science based courses.
The opportunity of creating a four year degree plan, seems to be beneficial to improve completing a four year degree on time. This gives students the opportunity to take the proper class, as well as visualize their plan and be able to see any room that may require them to retake classes. It’s found that IUPUI may need to create a more consistent four year degree plan throughout all of the different majors, as well as make IGPS more user friendly, or have a video explaining how to use IGPS.
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How a Personal Connection with Advisors can Foster Professional Success
Our team investigated how undergraduates could gain better advising through building connections with their advisors. A 2021 IU School of Medicine article outlined how advisor relationships encouraged student success. An IUPUI student survey also outlines similar ideas.
Developing a Personal Connection: How Advisors Reaching Out can Encourage Student Morale
In Laura Gates' 2021 article Physician mentors offer support and wisdom to first-year medical students, Gates outlines how 1:5 mentor to mentee groups developing personal relationships reassures medical students of their abilities. Mentors’ reassurance granting a feeling of belonging reminds students of their motivation, increases advisor-student communication, and allows for a more efficient academic experience. Dr. Paul Wallach, MD and faculty mentor, outlines just how this interpersonal connection is the extra encouraging push most students need to continue succeeding. Gates recounts Wallach's statement, "Discussions with his mentees can range from academic concerns and research opportunities to deeper personal issues or philosophical topics. Wallach is often there to remind them why they started this journey—to help people—and to encourage them to persevere" (Gates 2021). Essentially, having a supportive mentor/advisor that students can get to know personally and depend upon helps them feel more secure in their environment and academic purpose. This security helps stabilize the mentor:mentee relationship, allowing students to reach out to their mentors more easily with questions. The same applies for advisor-student interactions.
Our team conducted an anonymous IUPUI student survey concerning obstacles that limit good undergraduate advising in order to identify possible solutions that could benefit students and advisors alike. The questions were mainly geared toward student academic demographics (major/school, first generation scholar, sex, ect.), thoughts on resource availability, and what changes could be made regarding advisor meetings/academic advising related resources. One question asked students if they had ever received an email from their advisor(s) checking in on them- 46% of respondents had and appreciated the gesture, and 29% said they hadn’t and wished that advisors would check in with them throughout the semester.
Figure 2.1: 75 percent of students would appreciate an advisor checking in on them
Figure 2.1: This data demonstrates that having personal touch helps engage students more in their education, and in maintaining consistent communication with their advisor. As a result, it is important to have a balance between a professional relationship and a personal one for students’ moral and chances of success increasing. Checking in via email and discussing potential personal limiting factors that may cause students difficulties throughout the semester are two excellent ways of starting the conversation.
Two Way Communication: How Student Preparation Empowers Advisors
Interpersonal connections and active communication depend on both sides. Our team also sent out a similar anonymous IUPUI survey for advisors to respond to. This survey focused on the advisors’ perspective of how undergraduate advising could be improved.Survey questions inquired about meeting requirements, what obstacles limit advisors in their profession, common obstacles they see students having that prolong graduation, ect.
One question posed was: What are some challenges that you face as an advisor that limit your ability to help your student(s) be successful?. One response mentioned a common obstacle was getting students to respond to advisor attempts to schedule an appointment with them. Since students may not be aware of important deadlines and/or requirements for certain classes, scheduling regular appointments is vital to staying on track.
However, there is not much an advisor can do after notifying students about scheduling an appointment except wait for them to take initiative on the next steps (2021). That being said, students should also make sure they are putting in initiative towards their education as the party of interest. This means checking their emails for updates, scheduling/confirming appointments with their advisor, and coming in with questions. This preparation on the students’ end gives advisors the liberty of determining the most important conversation points during the meeting. This way, advisors can accurately and efficiently answer student questions, and direct them on whatever they primarily need assistance with.
Improving the System: Building a Central Intercampus Advising Portal Across Departments
Furthermore, when advisors were asked how IUPUI’s advising system may be improved, one respondent commented:
This response is important because it also addresses how intercommunication between schools could be improved so that advisors in different departments and students are all on the same page. This could be especially beneficial to students changing majors, double majoring, or transferring to university college or their degree granting school.
IUPUI is a decentralized system. This means that each department and school has a different set of policies that govern them. For example, advisors in the School of Science have different policies and workflows than the advisors in the School of Engineering and technology. I think that having standardized workflow and communication across all schools--would be helpful
Walk-in Advising - Advising Help Within Minutes
Another idea to better the role of academic advising in undergraduate students that our group has studied is the importance of walk-in advising. This is something current at IUPUI, but it is not available for everyone all the time, nor is it always efficient. Many articles have been analyzed, and we have conducted a student survey to aid in the formation of these recommendations.
In a study from 1997, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse created a special area in their campus center that is specifically for students who are unsure or have questions about their major, or anything about college in general. To conquer this, the university trained staff members, whom they called ADL members. They wanted to stay clear of the word “advisor” because they did not want the students to have that vision in their head. They had two graduate assistants, along with their normal staff members who rotated on a daily basis. They all had to undergo training including other aspects besides only mentoring. This system operated on a walk-in basis, that way students did not have to worry about scheduling any appointment.
This new system showed promising results. Within the first year of operation, more than 1,200 students (15% of the student body) used this advancement. In addition, 84% of the students who used the ADL were still enrolled in college the next year. Only 75% of the non-users were still enrolled. Lastly, 38% of the students who started to use it had an undecided major in the beginning but ended up finding their major within the next year.
According to the California Department of Education, the ratio of students per counselor averages 945 to 1 in California. Chegg Inc., an online learning platform for students, addressed this problem and wanted to look for a way to solve it, “Chegg's college counseling platform connects prospective applicants with a network of counselors via video, audio and/or text. Once connected, students can speak with the counselors about the admissions process in general.” This is not all that Chegg Inc. offers to students. With results from the advisor survey that was sent out by our group there was a quote that really stood out:
This advisor clearly stated that they are full every week. In addition, advisors were saying they had hundreds of students assigned to them, so they do not have the adequate time needed to satisfy all of their assigned students. This is what makes it extremely difficult for students to get answers to their last-minute questions. If walk-in advising was available to students, they would not have to worry about making incorrect decisions, or referring to an international platform like Chegg Inc. Concerning comments from students stated as followed:
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Just wish advisors could check up on students throughout the semester more often.
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I feel like during our meetings, they rush me.
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Just wish advisors could check up on students throughout the semester more often.
Kent State University College created a walk-in advising center and their success from it is what the students at IUPUI want to see within their advisors, “With so many students coming into and out of the advising center throughout a short period of observation, it was common to see students and advisors bump into one another in the hallway and have a short conversation when heading into or out of the tutoring lab.”
“In my experience with my assigned advisor, she is very condescending and only looks at names on papers instead of actually getting to know her assigned students.”
This was a comment that a student said in the local survey that we conducted. The problem is though, advisors cannot remember several hundred names, especially if they do not meet with them regularly. Walk-in advising could help establish this problem, as the students who want or need time with advisors can go there whenever. This could be beneficial to all students, and could be used very frequently, if everything is constructed correctly.
Advising Development- Training and Coaching
Our investigation showed that advisors lacked the proper support system and training to provide good mentorship for students throughout their pursuit of a degree. We found that advisors lacked the information and training needed to help students through feedback from the student and advisor survey. Having advisors undergo training would allow students to receive better advice when it comes to picking classes, deciding majors, transferring types, and planning the course of one’s degree.
We found that 48% out of the 53 correspondents meet with their advisors 0-1 times out of the semester through the feedback given. This showed us that a large majority of students are not meeting with their advisors enough. Out of those that do meet with their advisors, 54% out of 53 responses said it takes 1-2 weeks to see an advisor.
I have 35 appointments each week. All of those are full each week.
Academic advisors offer students the personal connection to the institution that the research indicates is vital to student retention and success.
e-Advising: Online Advising Help 24/7
During our research on advising and how other colleges have handled their advising services, we discovered the use of an eAdvising tool or an online resource for students to answer simple questions and to aid them with small issues that they have run into during their academic year.
The purpose of this tool is to provide students with help right away rather than later at an actual meeting with their advisor, which can take weeks, especially around class scheduling time. It also allows for an organized area for student information for the advisors. Here at IUPUI, some students have multiple advisors, meaning that they have to meet with different advisors each time. This would allow any notes taken during these meetings to be accessible to the other advisors and the students themselves. California State University and Winona State University are examples of colleges that have begun implementing the use of eAdvising tools and have so far had great success. These tools have freed up some of the advisors’ time and can focus on students who need more help as well as help students get answers quickly and not cause students to make uneducated decisions, and has increased student graduation and retention rates.
Figure 3.1: Half of students wait two weeks for an advisor response
Figure 3.1: According to our student survey question about how long, on average, students waited for a response from their advisor, 42% of students waited less than a week, 50% waited 1-2 weeks, and 8% waited 2-3 weeks.
C.L Nutt (Zegarra, 2019), a researcher at the National Academic Advising Association, states that
He continues to back up this statement with data from a study of over 200,000 students and 300 institutions about how college students feel about their college experience with an advisor by their side. The study showed that the majority of students felt more comfortable with their college careers and felt more confident in their ability to succeed when they are able to contact an advisor. Not being able to get in contact or being able to meet with their advisors in a timely manner can cause students to have a disconnection with them, leading to them not wanting to reach out. In order to prevent this, the implementation of eAdvising tools began to spread across universities.
Figure 3.2: nine out of ten students support using online advising tools
Figure 3.2: We asked undergrad students if they believe the use of eAdvisng would be beneficial to them. With 83% of the students who took this survey wanting eAdvising, it seems that it would be a great option to help with the advising process due to the positive response.
Colleen Moore, Cynthia Schrager, and Laura Jaeger from California State University did a study on the benefits of online advising resources and found, "the ability to manage limited advisor resources by using tools to target students who need advising most, more efficient utilization and accessibility of staff resources and space through the use of online appointment functions, more effective academic planning sessions through the use of degree-planning tools;" (Moore, C., Schrager, C., & Jaeger, L., 2018). The use of online advising tools will provide some freedom in student and advisor's time, allow students to get answers quicker, lighten how much advisors need to do and allow them to work toward quality advising.
This increase of quality advising can improve the success rate of students, which was shown at Elizabeth City State University. The success of using an online advising tool was shown with a 4% increase in graduation rates, 5% increase in freshman retention, and a 12% increase in sophomore retention with the use of Navigate, their online advising tool (EAB, August 13, 2020). This means that their use of eAdvising was a success and a clear indicator that IUPUI would benefit from using a similar tool.