Advising Online Graduate Students: Methods for Student...

Advising Online Graduate Students: Methods for Student Success

Heather RicksAssistant Director & Academic AdvisorOnline Master of Science in Food Safety ProgramMichigan State University (USA)

“…learn from the past,

reflect on the present,

and together plan for the future…”

Michigan State University

➢Founded in 1855

➢Arguably the oldest land-grant institution in the U.S., established under the Morrill Act of 1862

➢Students: ~50,350 • 39,100 undergraduate• 11,250 graduate and professional students

➢Faculty/Academic Staff: ~5,500

➢Support Staff: ~6,975

➢Living Alumni: ~552,000 worldwide

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

How CAN you reach students in an online environment?

How DO you reach students in an online environment?

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Presentation Outline

➢Task & Team: making room for online advising

➢Creating Community through elements that students appreciate and use

➢Self Assessments to increase online engagement

➢Connections to physical campus & people

➢Future pathways to increase student success

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Some questions to consider…

• How many of you advise students?

• How many of you teach students?

• How many of you advise using technology?

• How many of you work with a fully online population?

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

George E. SteeleRetired, The Ohio State University (USA)

Task & Team

➢Founded in 2001 with on-campus component

➢30 credit degree

➢Now fully online

➢~275 current students

➢317 alumni

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Students are typically:

➢mid-career

➢mid-20s & mid-30s (74%)

➢full-time professionals (mostly industry)

➢located in 44 states and 32 countries

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Instructors & Staff➢academia

➢industry

➢government

➢alumni

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

➢Why move to fully online?

➢How do we capture what we loved about the on-campus component?

➢What can we gain from this transition?

MSFS students during previous VM 810 course

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

➢Key: Required as first class (offered three times per year)

Semester Total enrollment Continuing New to MSFS

Fall 2013 70 47 23

Spring2017

33 0

Summer 2017

344 (+16)

361 83 278

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Creating Community

➢Short videos of faculty and staff

➢Optional audio recordings

➢Student self portraits

➢Social Media

➢Spartan Trivia: campus icon snapshots

➢Ask the Director forum

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Getting started online

Spartan Systems

Communication

PlagiarismCourse

Planning

Academic Performance

Graduation & Commencement

Dairy StoreMeet Sparty

Spirit Week

Athletics

MSU IconsMSU Gear

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Video

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Audio

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Self Portraits

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Self Portraits

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Social Media➢Closed

➢Private

➢Direct feedback

➢Informal peer-to-peer learning

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Self Assessments

➢Self-reflected and applied assessments

➢Visual and audio components to lectures and assignments

➢Transcribed lectures

➢Discussion forums

➢Quizzes

➢Short essay

➢Group work

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

➢Learning Styles• Visual/Auditory

• Reading & Remembering

• Right/Left Brain

➢MBTI• Perception

➢Jones Belbin• Teams

NACADA Region 5Poster Session

Toronto (Canada) – 2016

Included in online session documents

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Video tutorials

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Video

Interactive link to article

Video tour of Green Meadows

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Connections

Faculty➢Personal welcome email at beginning of week

➢Excellent on-going communication with students

➢Summation email to the class

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Faculty

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Campus

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Campus

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Understanding of MSU policies and procedures?

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Feeling connected to MSU?

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

“Even though it's all online & I'm only one class [into the program] I am absolutely already 100% proud to be a Spartan.”

“This course certainly made me a Spartan!”

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

How CAN you reach students in an online environment?

How DO you reach students in an online environment?

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Future PathwaysChallenges:

➢Multiple content pieces each week➢High number of instructors (many outside MSU)➢Students working all over the world

Opportunities:➢Increasing accessibility➢Balancing new technologies (meeting the students

where they are)➢Increasing support between welcome and 1st day of

class

2017 NACADA International Conference - Sheffield, England

Thank you!

Heather RicksMichigan State UniversityWeb: foodsafety.msu.edu

Email: ricksh@msu.edu @hmricks74