Can technology be used effectively to meet goals of academic advising in higher education, namely building student communities and providing virtual advising? The answer is absolutely! This presentation will provide participants with an understanding of the benefits and challenges of implementing virtual advising while meeting students’ needs and intuitional goals.
Crucial goals for academic advising are helping students create a sense of belonging and navigating the many facets of their academic career. The College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah faces the challenge of being the college with the most majors with minimal advising resources.
The current landscape of advising is ever changing to meet the needs of the students with relation to institutional goals and initiatives.
Because our online students may live in another state, city or country, it’s our responsibility to meet students where they are, provide a platform where community building can take place, and have all resources available as if they were on campus ( library resources, writing labs, advising, etc.) Additionally, with the millennial generation expecting quicker responses, immediate appointments, and 24/7 access to an advisor, the challenge then becomes keeping up the academic needs for our on-campus and distance learning populations.
In order to meet the needs of our students, we’ve tapped into the technology resources available at our institution. This includes our learning management and advising systems. Utilizing both of these resources allows us to create virtual advising courses for all academic majors and programs within the college.
By the end of this presentation, participants will walk away with the following three things:
- A better understanding of how to enhance advising through technology.
- Developing strategies to implement online advising services.
- How to build and assess a student online community.
The college has a strategic initiative to provide generation two online courses and more fully online programs. As we look to this future of online courses in the college, students will need more online resources in order to support their academic and advising needs. The steps we are implementing now will set the ground work for meeting student needs and institutional initiatives.
Presentation Outline:
- Scavenger Hunt for items on Utah.edu page and Canvas Advising Course
- Technology and advising and how they affect each other in the changing landscape of Academic Advising.
- Two goals for advising are to help students create a sense of belonging on campus and navigate the many facets of their academic career. How do we achieve this in our digital age?
- Solution to changing landscape and why building community is important.
- Assessment: How do we know we are successful building community?