Review of Literature:
create a plan,Establish a Relationship, support eAdvising, and Engage walk-ins
Introduction
The following section is meant to summarize the key findings from the sources in the analysis on advising limitations. The most relevant analysis will be looked at in greater detail. For this paper, this entails assessing flaws in the advising system’s set up and how walk-in and virtual advising help with this.
Both students and advisors pine for an equivocal and efficient working relationship with one another, but are limited by the way the advising system is set up. Both parties would benefit from regular personal meetings with one another where they can discuss specific student concerns and get to know each other better to help each other more effectively. However, IUPUI’s advising system is decentralized, meaning that each department or school has different policies than the other.
That being said, advisors from different schools do not have the same workflow, which can lead to communication obstacles amongst faculty. Furthermore, some students have quick clarifying questions that do not require a meeting, or have a multitude of issues that need to be addressed that their primary advisor cannot address immediately considering their already strenuous workload. The following discusses how implementing 24/7 online advising can ease the stress of both students and advisors, and make a step toward adjusting the advising system.
The importance of Creating an Educational Plan
As school semesters pass by, students have to sign up for their required classes in order to earn their degree. To make it easier it is suggested that students create a plan. Times Herald, a newspaper dating back to 1869, stated that “It is a lot easier if a student has clear academic and career goals, and we can put together what we refer to informally as an educational plan.” This educational plan encourages organization, gives a visualization of a clear pathway for students to know where they are headed, as well as a rough completion date.
This idea of creating an educational plan was supported and put in action by Julie Declour. 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 was placed to give their students the opportunity to save time, and get organized before spending money on schooling. Both the newspaper and article go hand and hand with the same idea of how an educational plan is beneficial to students who are seeking a higher education. This educational plan is to be beneficial in keeping students organized and on track to graduate on time.
Students Value Relationships with Advisors, but Unable to Form One due to Advising System
Studies have shown that students having a good relationship with their advisors will help them succeed in college and perform better overall. This relationship allows them to become more comfortable when asking questions and will be more likely to reach out for help, which then leads to an increase in overall success at the university. C.L Nutt (2019), a researcher at the National Academic Advising Association, states that “Academic advisors offer students the personal connection to the institution that the research indicates is vital to student retention and success.” 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. The issue that many colleges are running into, however, is not having enough advisors for their student population. According to a survey conducted by NACADA and the testing company ACT (2012), “U.S. universities had, on average, one advisor for every 367 students last year, down from one for every 282.” With this many students, many will have to wait weeks before they are able to meet with their advisor.
Without guidance, students will start making uneducated decisions themselves because they don’t want to have to wait that long, leading to a domino effect of negative consequences. Other universities stated their issues and ways they have been able to combat the high ratio of advisors to students. Some colleges, such as Arizona State, are using AI options to help students with simple tasks/questions, such as creating class schedules, so the human advisors can focus on more immediate issues. Other universities are testing out group advising, grouping together students with identical academic careers so the adviser can take care of multiple students at once.
How Walk-In Advising is Key to Success
With all of the chaos in the lives of students, it is hard for them to find a specific time to schedule an important meeting with their advisor, especially if they have run into a fast approaching problem and they cannot find an advisor who has availability. This situation is what has led many universities to establish walk-in advising for all students at certain hours of the day. Dr. Shelby Phillips has conducted research pertaining to the differences in traditional advising, and what kind of advising is needed in the evolving world.
The main factor is that more students are enrolling in colleges, so that should make the advising numbers increase, but that is not the case. “Limited access to advisors is detrimental to quality decision making and may result in poor program choice or taking courses outside of program requirements” (p. 20). As you can see, the increase in advisor-to-student ratio is directly affecting students because they do not have the necessary availability to meet with their advisors. Kent State University College was having a lack of advising problems, similar to the discussion by Dr. Shelby Phillips and proceeded to create a walk-in advising clinic.
Michael Levinstein at Kent State University College has completed research based on their clinic, which has developed promising results. “At the beginning of the semester and high peak times, the office reports hundreds of student-contacts a day for a combination of short and long appointment lengths” (p. 91). The appointments are from students who were not able to meet with their advisor when they needed to, so they were able to walk in and get with any academic advisor who was available in that clinic. Clearly, the statistics are promising, limited access to advising appointments can be aided by the creation of walk-in advising for quick access to the students.
How eAdvising Benefits the Student As Well As the Advisors
With the world evolving, online resources have become very popular among the masses. This has been especially prevalent recently in college with the use of online schooling and using the internet to make connections with college advisors. With this increase, however, some issues have come to the forefront that universities are trying to fix: the need for more advisors. With this increase, the ratio of students to advisors is astronomical, causing long wait times to meet with advisors or having to cut meetings extremely short just to keep up with the workload.
This is causing a strain on student retention at colleges. According to Darcie Anderson Mueller and Amy L. Meyer, academic advisors at Winona State University, "the most important online student services sought by students are related to online, real-time academic advising." (Mueller, D., & Meyer, A., 2017). Even if students are unable to meet with their advisors, they would still appreciate communication over email or text just to ensure they can get an answer as soon as they can. With this information brought to many universities' attention, they are starting to create eAdvising tools to provide to students to not only ensure student satisfaction but to aid the advisors and lighten their workload.
These types of tools allow for in-time advising for simple questions or tasks that do not require a long meeting in person and ensure a quick 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, lessening how much advisors need to do, and allow them to work toward quality advising. This was shown in a case study done at Elizabeth City State University about the success of using an online advising tool. It showed that there was a 4% increase in graduation rates, 5% increase in freshman retention, and a 12% increase in sophomore retention with the use of Navigate, which was their online advising tool (EAB, August 13, 2020).
Conclusion
eAdvising is a way to improve undergraduate advising at multiple angles, specifically lightening advisor workload, granting students greater resource accessibility, quicker responses, and encouraging self sufficiency in students. Providing all day online advising allows students to ask any urgent or quick questions they need without scheduling an in person meeting with their advisors. This allows students to get quick intel on their questions while allowing advisors to focus on more pressing matters on their priority list. These changes also help students be more organized and self-sufficient about preparing their futures through degree planning tools. Using such materials frequently allows students to get a head start on organizing their education and formulating core questions they can ask their advisor at meetings. With the digital age only going forward, this implementation can provide efficiency for the number of students while still maintaining a personal touch.