Online Advising

Carolyn Foster, M.A.
Counselor/Professor
San Antonio College

Introduction

Students come to our institutions with varied levels of understanding of the educational planning required to successfully complete their educational goals.  According to The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), “The primary purpose of an academic advising program is to assist students in the development of meaningful educational plans that are compatible with their life goals.  Academic advising should be viewed as a continuous process of clarification and evaluation”.  

Many colleges employ counselors to provide the service of assisting students with their educational planning.  This planning process requires career exploration as well as the identification of a major field of study.  Many times personal problems surface and require a counselor’s expertise.  This academic support service is critical to student retention and success.  Some students are undecided majors.  Many of those who have decided on a major are not aware of the curriculum of courses required to complete their major and earn their degree.  Academic advising will assist these students to choose the required courses to complete their degree.  This service is best provided by master’s level counselors, although some college campuses use bachelor degree personnel to provide this advising service to students.   

This advising process is not new to students on college campuses.  Therefore, it is not necessary to discuss the need for advising students to help them reach their educational goals.  The need to provide advising to students has been established many decades ago.  We must now continue to provide this service to all students.

 “Academic advising should be available to distance learners at the same level it is for a traditional campus setting.”

http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Spring_2001/advising.html

For online advising to meet the needs of all distant learners, the process and procedures must be innovative and creative.

Once an online student has decided on a college major, the online advisory process can begin.  The model suggested below is applicable for community college students.
 

Involve All Components of the College

Online advising requires the cooperation and collaboration from all components within the college.  The college administration must collaborate with other colleges within their region to develop articulation agreements to ensure a seamless transfer from the community college to the 4 year institution. 

Admissions and records must receive and evaluate the transcripts of transfer students.  This process will require collaboration with the academic units within the college to ensure that all equivalent courses are recognized and labeled on the computer system.  The online counselor will view this system to properly advise students. 

An online degree audit system will give students a list of courses remaining to complete their educational goals, as well as, a list of all the courses completed and how they fit into the educational plan.  This will allow students immediate feedback during registration and other busy times.  The student can select courses during registration and get back with the counselor, at a less busy time, to discuss future course selections.  Of course, the ideal situation is when students plan ahead and seek advisement early in the semester.

Assessment and testing is an important part of the advising process.  First time college students and transfer students may need their skill levels assessed before proper advisement can be received for course placement. 

All of the colleges’ departmental degree plans must be available for the counselor’s use.  All departments within the college must keep up to date websites.  This information will be linked to the online advisor’s website.  The college helpdesk is needed to provide technical support for students.
 

Build a Virtual Office

Using this advising model, the advisor will need to create a virtual office.  One software program that can be used is Elluminate, an online, real-time, eLearning collaboration solution software.  This software allows users to talk over the Internet, chat online, share whiteboards and share applications.  Elluminate will provide synchronous interaction between the counselor and student.  This software will allow the advisor and students to talk to each other online and share printed material on the whiteboard, such as degree plans, testing scores, and transcripts.

Other systems may use a similar integrated software package in the advising process or collect a variety of common tools such as Yahoo or Microsoft Instant Messenger.  Many advisors even utilize components of a course or learning management system such as Blackboard learning System or Educator in order to hold individual or group discussions in a closed environment with their students.

The advisor will need to be able to collect and integrate student information within secure databases.  Often, the information may be added directly into a student information system but, particularly if you're dealing with confidential information, may need to be collected within files only available to the advisor.  The advisor may need to master a common program such as Microsoft Access or tackle a specialized tracking program such as Accutrack.
 

Provide the Advisor with a Website

As you may expect, the virtual office will need to be supported by a strong website for use in student discussions.  A website will be developed to include links to:

·         College Career Services

·         College Transfer Center

·         College Assessment Center

·         Transfer plans for 4 year institutions in the area

·         College AA, AS, AAS, and certificate plans

·         Texas Common Course Numbering System

·         Texas Core Curriculum where you can choose an institution in Texas, choose a core category, compare two institutions, or choose a specific course - http://statecore.its.txstate.edu/

·         Online degree audit

·         Live chat

·         Frequently asked questions

·         A calendar with available appointment times where students can meet with the counselor in the virtual office within Elluminate

·         Online Advisory Resources

·         Procedures for downloading software to complete the advising sessions

·         Methods and options for conducting the advising sessions

This website will also need a form for students to complete to discuss their advising concerns.  After checking the calendar of available appointment times, this form will allow students to include their requested time for the advising session. When completed by the student and submitted, it will be emailed to the counselor.  The form will include a scheduled meeting time for the counselor and student to meet in the virtual office.  The counselor will then reply with a confirmation of their meeting time and request more information for the scheduled meeting, if necessary.    

Once the advising appointment has been confirmed, the counselor will be required to locate all of the students’ transcripts of courses completed.  This may require more dialogs with the student via email to locate all of the materials needed to ensure a productive advising session. 
 

Equipping the Virtual Office

Due to the expanding capacity of the typical office today, a lot of additional equipment may not be necessary to work in an online advising environment.  Of course, the advisor will need the regular office setup, including a computer and a telephone (with long distance access), along with access to a printer, scanner, and fax machine (often included in one unit). Other tools may include a web camera and microphone and earphones or an ear-mounted telephone to make discussions easier.
 

Additional Resources

http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/

http://www.mymajors.com/index.jsp

http://www.psu.edu/dus/ncta/linkacad.htm#office

http://virtuallyadvising.com/qa.shtml#choosing

http://virtuallyadvising.com/

http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Spring_2001/advising.html