Play can be beneficial in academic advising as it can be used to help students make decisions, explore options, and create plans. Additionally, play can assist students in solving conflicts and sharing values, both of which help students make educated decisions regarding their college choices. Examples of types of play in all six phases of appreciative advising (disarm, discover, dream, design, deliver, don't settle) are discussed, as well as ways advisors can engage in play themselves.
[Read the rest of this article...]
First-generation college students' (FGCS) challenges to a successful college transition were magnified during the height of COVID-19. With the return to normalcy, FGCS continue to face barriers and the effects of COVID-19. We utilize Schlossberg’s Transition Theory to conceptualize FGCS experiences and provide practical implications to support FGCS.
College students are faced with difficult and sometimes complex personal financial decisions, often without having the resources or training available to help them. Financial stress is causing students to experience anxiety and it is leading to poor performance in classes, reducing the number of credits taken, or leaving before obtaining a degree. Studies show that students may learn financial education best if it is currently relevant to their situation and if the information provided is succinct. The brief academic advising meeting is an incredibly useful moment to incorporate financial management and budgeting tips to encourage positive behaviors. This article offers practical ideas for the academic advisor to serve as a resource to students experiencing financial distress.
Academic advising is the very core to education and sustaining students, but how academic advising supports student learning is unclear, especially international students who grow up in a foreign culture. Supporting international student learning in academic and career advising is rarely discussed in professional practices nor scholarly work. To build a sustainable model of retaining international students, universities and academic advising must proactively invest efforts to define and deliver outcomes related to international students’ academic success. This article is to introduce Syracuse University’s International Student Success Model, share strategies and initiatives developed and implemented to help achieve increased international student retention. The significance of this model will change the narrative of international student support services, most importantly, bridging the gap between academic advising and international education.
Research on academic advising has demonstrated a positive impact on many student success outcomes, including grade point average, retention, and graduation rates (e.g., Kirk-Kuwaye & Nishida, 2001; Molina & Abelman, 2000; Swecker, Fifolt, & Searby, 2013; Vander Schee, 2007). Knowing this impact often compels advisors to approach the task with as much effort as possible. Unfortunately, for professional staff advisors, high caseloads can quickly lead to exhaustion. For faculty advisors, advising is only a small part of their workload. In both cases, advisors need strategies to make advising more sustainable. In his pivotal book, Essentialism, McKeown (2014) teaches individuals to focus their efforts on the highest priority in order to have the biggest impact. McKeown’s (2021) follow-up book, Effortless, guides individuals towards making it easier to do those essential tasks. First is creating an effortless state, followed by engaging in effortless action, and then achieving effortless results. Through a series of questions, advisors will be able to apply these principles to their practice.
This essay covers one advising unit's approach to accelerating advisor onboarding and professionalization through the creation of a new advisor reading program. The author frames this contribution through the exemplarity/model framework. By outlining the program and the problem it helps solve for this unit, the piece provides readers with a model to think with (via analogical reasoning) when trying to solve similar problems in their own contexts.
College facilitates exploration, experimentation, and identity development, all of which can lead students to change programs of study. A change in major is often pivotal for students and assistance from advisors is critical. Change of major students are a distinct population with unique advising needs. Advising change of major students requires an intentional approach focused on helping them make an informed decision and achieve degree completion. Advisors serving specific major programs must develop deliberate advising practices for change of major students, especially while balancing this responsibility with other duties. Program-specific advisors can intentionally develop advising strategies for supporting change of major students that are ethical, efficient, and effective.
Advising excellence is critical to student success. NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising (NACADA) offers guidance on academic advising excellence and why it matters. Realizing these lofty goals is particularly challenging in a large, decentralized university context. This article, cowritten with an undergraduate student, is an interdisciplinary thought exercise that applies key constructs from Hospitality Management to academic advising. Although there are many relevant cross-disciplinary connections, this piece focuses on providing consistency in the advising experience for students from diverse academic colleges.
Academic advisors have the unique opportunity to assist new students as they transition to higher education. Thus, it is important for an academic advisor to be equipped with an abundance of resources in their toolbox pertaining to student success. This article shares some examples of topics and action items advisors can share with new students to help them on their road to success.
The “cafeteria model” of course selection and academic planning has long been a tradition in higher education and can complicate the advising experience. The cafeteria model is meant to offer students choice, but it can also lead to excess credit accumulation, longer time to completion, and negative outcomes for students. Harrisburg Area Community College has demonstrated positive outcomes by deconstructing the cafeteria model in favor of a more focused and intentional model of educational planning that builds relationships - student-to-advisor as well as colleague-to-colleague.
The goal of this paper is to learn about the professional competencies of academic advisors with doctorates. To gather information, an IRB-approved survey was distributed through the NACADA listserv and collected responses from 430 advisors, including 73 with doctorates. Responses illustrated that advisors with doctoral degrees surpass the standards for academic advising detailed in NACADA’s core competencies. And yet, survey results also revealed hesitancy and misconceptions around hiring advisors with doctorates.
Quality faculty advising is often noted as vital and critical to student success. However, most institutions are not assessing the quality of faculty advising. In fact, when faculty advising is assessed it is often limited, including only quantitative surveys of student satisfaction. Moreover, when assessment occurs it is not typically intended to improve faculty advising and it is not typically used in formal reviews of faculty performance (e.g., tenure). Meaningful and comprehensive assessment is key to quality advising that supports student success. This brief review of the research literature on assessment of faculty advising, identified areas for improvement in practice and policy. Institutions of higher education, professional associations, unions, and accrediting bodies all play a role in improving and/or maintaining quality faculty advising through setting expectations for advising and outlining best practice for assessment.
A message from NACADA Board of Directors, Teri Farr
Higher education professionals have reported an increase in student’s needs for access to mental health care and students’ feelings around disconnectedness. Institutions may be able to respond to some of these challenges through various support services such as counseling and emergency funding. At the same time, students working with campus advisors may decide that taking a step away from college for the moment is the best decision for them. This article provides insight into the ways in which advisors may still be a valuable resource while students are temporarily not enrolled in an institution in order to support a smooth return to campus.
At-risk adult learners face a myriad of challenges when it comes to degree completion. In order to effectively build relationships with this population, student affairs professionals should be aware of their communication strategies. Utilizing Social Penetration Theory and the Appreciative Advising model can allow for student affairs professionals to form a stream-lined communication plan with these at-risk adult learners, in order to help them be successful.
Academic advisors help students achieve their goals and earn degrees, but few studies explore advisors’ own educational backgrounds. This paper reports findings from a survey—distributed through the NACADA listserv—on the experiences of 430 advisors with advanced degrees. The survey asked questions about advisors’ educational backgrounds, including types of degrees and majors, the academic activities they participate in (teaching and research), the advantages and drawbacks to having an advanced degree, and how their degrees impact their advising. After a summary of these findings, there are recommendations for how institutions of higher learning could improve advisor satisfaction and strengthen universities.
In this article, two STEM advisors share their perspectives on the challenges of advising for technical disciplines that can lead to dissatisfaction or burnout. The authors also provide recommendations for advising staff and administrators on how to cultivate higher job satisfaction among advisors of all disciplines.
The authors share their experiences of the transition from working with traditional undergraduate students to working with graduate and professional students, highlighting the need for more literature, resources, and support for those advising graduate and professional students.
What kinds of learning behaviors do Chinese students have? Why are these learning behaviors so different from students in western countries? This article will display some typical learning behaviors of Chinese students and explain reasons behind them from a cultural perspective, help international academic advisors build a deep understanding on Chinese students and offer more personalized and professional service.
In Fall 2019, three academic advising professionals joined the NACADA Center for Research’s NACADA Writes program and embarked on a four-year journey of finding community through scholarship and long-term professional development. Through this experience, we walked together through the stages of the writing group process and supported each other through personal and professional growth experiences. This article reiterates the value collaboration and community can have in professional spaces and the importance of sharing growth experiences with others. Through NACADA Writes, we took an active position to champion our own growth and now use these experiences as conversation points when connecting with others in our personal and professional lives. Our hope is to leverage scholarship to encourage and motivate advisors and other higher education professionals to explore similar opportunities for themselves.
Student success hinges on the utilization of existing resources and educational opportunities effectively. With this in mind, academic support workshops teach valuable knowledge and skills that can significantly improve lifelong learning. Unfortunately, many students are reluctant to proactively attend such workshops, making it difficult for educational institutions to effectively harness their full potential. To address this issue, successful incentive and perk programs have been implemented at various universities and schools worldwide to motivate students to attend academic support workshops. The purpose of this article is to discuss the effectiveness of material incentives for students to attend academic support workshops in a challenged Global South context. The study uses a quantitative methodology to investigate the effect of offering material incentives on attendance at exam preparation workshops for EBIT students at The University of Pretoria. Tangible rewards in the form of exam packs, comprising of notebooks, translucent pencil cases, highlighters, pens, and lanyards were provided as material incentives for all students who attended the exam preparation workshops. The statistical analysis conducted indicates that the material incentive offered to students yielded a positive effect on attendance rates for the exam preparation workshops. This article reviews the necessity and efficacy of employing material incentives to promote student participation in academic workshops. Additionally, this paper explores various potential strategies and approaches to enhance the effectiveness of material incentives in challenged Global South context.
Advising as Teaching is a recommended model for advisors of artistic undergraduate students. Through this model, advisors can help guide artistic leaders of tomorrow into self-efficacy through use of principles related to metacognitive practices. It is important for students in the arts to be supported by advisors who have a keen understanding of the field, and of those who call the arts their professional home. The collaboration between the advisor and their artist-student throughout the undergraduate journey, as built through the “Advising as Teaching” model, can affect the student’s ability to reflect, to choose, to grow, to exemplify and to achieve. Advising students in the arts can have an incredible impact on the learner, and their community of practice, by choosing to engage in Learner-Centric Advising.
Research shows that academic advising is the most impactful when advisees are engaged in the process. Yet, as academic advisors we often find advisees who are not engaged. This article will examine student agency theory as a tool to engage advisees in academic advising. In this article, readers will learn strategies to 1) foster an advising relationship that centers on student agency, 2) promote student awareness of student responsibilities in advising and 3) maintain an advising space in which students are active co-agents. In fostering our advisee’s agency, we are able to unleash the various possibilities and opportunities for their academic and career success.
A recent study analyzed academic advising structures at U.S. research institutions and how they relate to student success outcomes of first-year retention and six-year graduation rates. It found that a significant relationship exists and is improved with a shared model of academic advising. However, it is also the case that many institutions across the U.S. are organized such that individual academic units together comprise a university’s decentralized undergraduate structure. What can a siloed university do to begin to shift towards a shared model of academic advising? With collaborative and holistic advising at the core, this article provides five practical recommendations to assist institutions at any stage in advising redesign: 1) define advising, 2) develop a university-wide advising counsel or committee, 3) create standard training resources and communication mechanisms, 4) provide informal opportunities for advisors to connect, and 5) recognize and celebrate advisors.
How we feel as advising professionals carries over into the student experience, directly impacting our interaction with students. Acknowledging this and developing tools to cope with stress gives us the capacity to enhance that student experience. The authors present the BRIGHT model using lessons from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), resilience theory, positive organizational psychology, and personal life experience. BRIGHT is an acronym for: boundaries, reframing, intuition, goal setting, help-seeking, and time management. The authors have developed the BRIGHT acronym to stand for consideration points when battling burnout. Each component of the model stands for actionable items that advisors can practice and incorporate into their professional work to improve their experience and their interactions with students.
While some academic advisors remain at one institution, many professionals inevitably move to another institution throughout their careers. Whether it be for monetary, family, or other reasons, it is often necessary to make the leap. Many advising roles have some similarities regarding registration, graduation, and orientation. However, there are many subtle but significant differences that can be taken into consideration when looking for a new academic advising position. In this article, authors who have advised at multiple institutions explore the differences that can be seen from one institution to another and examine what to consider while searching for a new advising position. This includes advising structures, office dynamics, salary and benefits, and campus culture.
Hiring an advisor can be quite the endeavor. However, hiring is just the start. Onboarding, training, and consistent professional development are paramount to helping a new advisor acclimate to their new role and responsibilities. Advising leaders are tasked with helping a new hire to gain the confidence, skills, and to believe they can succeed in their job. We also play a critical part in the professional development of our advisors to shape not only their performance with our team, but can also forward them in the next steps of their professional career.
Academic Core Advising is a hub-and-spoke model of academic advising that incorporates professional academic advising, faculty mentoring, and staff support to reduce student barriers and improve student success. This article details the need for advising shifts at a mid-size, public, flagship institution. Discussion includes the process for change, success of the model thus far, and hopes for continued success in the future.
Higher education professionals routinely encounter situations that warrant ethical decision-making. Often, team members find themselves navigating ethical dilemmas without the proper training. This results in team members experiencing a lack of confidence in addressing ethical situations, employing inconsistent approaches and compromising the quality and integrity within a team. It is imperative that leaders foster a culture that promotes ethical decision-making. This article shares how supervisors and administrators can educate and empower team members to foster the development of ethical decision-making skills. Strategies to create a foundation to effectively instill ethical decision-making within teams are provided. Pearls of wisdom that supervisors and administrators can share with team members are highlighted.
In the shared responsibility of academic advising, we are attuned to pay close attention to students' nonverbal cues. Less often discussed, however, are strategies for the academic advisor in improving their own understanding of the ways in which conscious and unconscious gestures may subtly buoy or inhibit trust-building in an advising relationship. Using Schlossberg's (1989) Marginality and Mattering as a theoretical framework, two specific forms of nonverbal communications "the 5 gestures lines and energy states" will be explored and how appropriately determining and expressing nonverbal emotion affects the student experience.
In the advent of recent, new technologies shaping the world, it’s important to consider how the advising community can best use technology to leverage student resources and implement strategies that meet institutional goals or metrics. Many institutions are already compiling important data to create individualized support systems and interventions to increase student success and support institutional goals. This shift to data gathering and analysis can drastically alter the individualized support students can receive and will allow for more meaningful interactions between the advisor and advisee during sessions. Most importantly, this work highlights collaboration within institutions and a shared responsibility for student success.
Advising STEM community college transfer students takes some specific considerations to bring up in advising meetings. Looking at the demographics of who attends community colleges in the United States in 2023, community college student mental health, and specific STEM transfer success ideas will help advisors know some areas to focus on in their transfer appointments for community college STEM students. This is the start of the conversation of how to make the STEM transfer process smoother and more clear for community college students in the United States.
This article focuses on the challenges faced by second-year college students, often overlooked in academia. It provides strategies for academic advisors to support these students effectively. Emphasizing the importance of advisors guiding sophomores through reflection and goal-setting. The article also advocates for flexibility, and intentionality, as well as proposing unified resources to enhance accessibility and reduce student confusion. In this article, advisors are recognized as pivotal in empowering students during this crucial phase of their educational journey.
