Academic Advising

          Academic advising is a core student service used by almost all students.  It is also closely tied to other services such as registration, orientation, and career counseling.  Faculty, professional advisers, and the student him/herself generally share responsibility for academic advising.

          The Internet can enable an institution to provide a range of academic advising services at a distance, from assistance in building a course schedule for the next term to long-term, informed educational planning.  It is helpful to provide opportunities for one-on-one personal communications with advisers as well as self-help tools to empower students to make some decisions themselves.

Good Practice Recommendations  

• Offer one-on-one access to advisers.  Institutions have developed different approaches to direct communications between advisors and students.  Some provide advising via email and assign each student to a specific adviser; others develop an advising pool with one or more advisers "on call" at any time to respond to all students' email questions.  In some places, advisers have established online chat rooms to provide opportunities for live or asynchronous discussions of students' questions.  (Weber State University) 

• At a minimum, define all general education and major requirements clearly and concisely.  To meet students’ needs for any time, anywhere convenience in planning their academic careers, simply all requirements post on the Web.  (North Dakota State University)  

• Give self-help pointers.  Include descriptive or interactive materials to help students think through the process of choosing a major or other issues.  (Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus) 

• Link to automated transfer/articulation information.  Such information can help students who are interested in transferring among institutions in the same state.  It may include information on course equivalencies and guides that enable students to identify community college courses applicable to academic programs they plan to pursue.  Some institutions provide transfer/articulation materials specifically relevant to their own programs.  In addition, there are a number of useful statewide transfer guides available.  (ASSIST)  

• Make advising guides accessible online to faculty, students, and/or advisors.  Online curriculum guides and handbooks can help students, advisors, and faculty stay up to date on current requirements and advising guidelines.  Include tips for effective advising and information on referrals to other sources of assistance.  (Washington State University) 
          

• Provide students access to their own records.  Perhaps the most effective way to provide online advising services is to integrate Web applications with the institution's student information system (SIS) and to allow students access to parts of their individual student record.  Access to these interactive services is based on a secure login.  These tools enable students to assume responsibility for many routine functions such as recording address changes.  They also may permit students to check their account balances or to assess their own progress toward a degree through a degree audit system.  In some institutions, advisers also have access to students' records, including the ability to maintain their own password-protected access to advising notes on students*.
  
  *Note: Institutions across the country are rapidly adopting such interactive tools.  A number of vendors and institutions have also developed successful approaches to utilizing individual student records in their provision of services online.  Giving students access to their records constitutes such a powerful tool that this recommendation is cited specifically here under "Features to Consider."  See, also, the section of the Guide, “Two Comprehensive Web-Based Student Services Systems” for additional examples of features to add to this section.   (University of Colorado Boulder)