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Solving the Academic Advising Problem at ISU Brady Smith Project 5
Entering college can be daunting or overwhelming. Many college students just starting out are unsure what path of study they will choose, and on average, change their major three times and 80% change at least once.
4/17/2015
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Table of Contents Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………..2 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………..2 Findings ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 What do the Students Know …………………………………………………………………3 Academic Advising Help From the University ………………………………………3 DegreeWorks ………………………………………………………………………………4 General Advisors ………………………………………………………………………….4 Degree Advisors …………………………………………………………………………..4 Comparing College to a Long Vacation ………………………………………………….4 Recommendations …………………………………………………………………………………….5 Solve the Problem at the Root ………………………………………………………………5 Solve the Central Academic Advising Problem ……………………………………..6 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………………………......8
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Executive Summary The academic advising at Idaho State University (ISU) seems to have numerous problems. In this paper I will discuss the major problems students are facing near graduation as well as incoming freshman with credits and required classes. This document will talk about the proposed solutions to these problems, some more appropriate than others. You will find in this paper, stories to help illustrate ideas and topics, illustrations that reference certain topics during the paper, and a conclusion to sum everything up. Introduction My wife and sister-‐in-‐law both of them had issues with class requirements and being able to graduate this semester. They had been up-‐to-‐date with speaking with their advisors and were all set to graduate. Well, when they went to apply for graduation there were conflicts with class requirements and credit requirements. Thankfully, ISU offers 8-‐week courses and both are still eligible for graduation this semester. I believe that students need to be better advised about all of the requirements needed for graduation. I registered for ISU as an incoming freshman only 3 weeks prior to the start of the semester. I am a person who enjoys doing things and getting things done on my own, when possible, hence, I decided to try and register for classes and select classes on my own. I was able to log into BengalWeb and register for classes without too much trouble. What I had the hardest time with, was knowing which classes I should be taking. After pondering for some time about which degree I would like to pursue, I decided on pharmacy.
My brother-‐in-‐law was just finishing up pharmacy at the time and I used him as a resource on which classes I should be taking, and we came up with a rough draft of the fastest way for me to finish school. I registered for a science class, an advanced chemistry class, and mostly just generals. It was a difficult semester and I really struggled doing well on exams and keeping up with the workload. I took 16 credits of difficult classes that I was not prepared for. Two of my classes didn’t count as general credits and I had to retake another. My first semester of college was pretty much a wash.
In hindsight, there are a ton of things that I would do differently, as well as numerous things that ISU could have done better at keeping me informed of what classes I needed to be taking that would work for everything. That is the reason for this paper, to suggest ways in which ISU can make the academic advising program better.
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Findings What Do the Students Know? I have talked to a lot of students and have heard a lot of stories. Some things that have been somewhat surprising to me is how little the typical freshman (or even any class level student for that matter) knows about how long it will take them to graduate. I mean, they kind of have an understanding, but not so much. I am going to use Baylor’s story (name changed) to help explain a common problem that has occurred with the advising program at ISU.
Baylor began his college career at Dixie State University. He was a typical freshman just trying to get by. He took the usual general courses, down the slippery slope of a general business major. He enjoyed his time at Dixie State, but after one short year, decided to travel back to his native lands in the great state of Idaho.
He began his sophomore year at Idaho State University, and lucky for him, most of
his credits all transferred with him, like a flock of birds traveling back from a long winters migration. And just like that, there were a few birds that straggled behind and didn’t quite make the trip, like some of his credits. So here Baylor was, in a new school trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Baylor had a change of heart and wanted to become a Rad Tech (Radiology Technician) instead of a business man. He sat down and met with his advisors, and figured out everything he needed to do to accomplish his dream. Soon enough, Baylor was accepted into the Rad Tech program and began focusing strictly on his desired degree. Baylor continued to meet with his advisor every year and before long, he was entering his final semester. This is when things get interesting, like a tie ball game heading into the fourth quarter.
Like a typical student, Baylor waited until a week before graduation applications
were due to apply for graduation. The results were processed shortly and he found out that he was not going to be able to graduate this semester because he was lacking a communication 101 class! How could this be possible? He had talked with his advisor several times and made sure his ducks were in order for graduation. It turns out, the communication class Baylor had taken at Dixie State didn’t match up with the communication class here at ISU. The reason the advisor didn’t pick up on the error, was because the communication class at Dixie State is qualified to get him into the Rad Tech program. This is where one of the major flaws in the system is uncovered. A major argument could be made against ISU’s required general courses. Baylor’s argument was that if the program of study recognizes a certain course as being completed and ‘good enough’ for the program, the University should recognize it as well. The University is saying, no these are our rules and we are sticking too them. I’m not going to go into many details about the argument, but it is essentially that, and that’s what is important right now. Academic Advising Help from the University I was able to do a lot of digging into what sorts of help students are receiving from the college in regards to academic advising. I scoured through numerous Idaho State
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University websites as well as talking with my academic advisor about all of the options that students have. I was actually surprised at how much help is out there, and if students just knew where to look, dancing through college would be a breeze. -‐ DegreeWorks I would like to start out with my personal favorite advising tool, DegreeWorks. Straight from the Ellucian Degree Works website, DegreeWorks is, “a comprehensive academic advising, transfer articulation, and degree audit solution that aligns students, advisors, and institutions to a common goal: helping students graduate on time.” (Ellucian) DegreeWorks is now up and running for all students at the University and it is an excellent tracking device for students. Many problems would be solved if students paid close attention to this tool. I found, though, that many students don’t check Degree Works often and, more than I anticipated, don’t even know that Degree Works existed. For those who are not sure where DegreeWorks is located, it is right next to the Moodle icon if you were to get into Moodle from BengalWeb. -‐ General Advisors This is an area that I think needs improved dramatically. General Advisors, or Central Academic Advising, offers freshman and undecided sophomores’ guidance and degree advice. Most students that I talked to, have never really talked to any general advisor and the few that had talked with them, explained their experience as not very helpful. I was able to them and it seems the problem lies with both the students as well as them. I explain later a few solutions to this problem. -‐ Degree Advisors Students are required to talk with their degree advisor at least once a year and are recommended to do so every semester. Degree Advisors seemed very helpful and knowledgeable about the programs and setting students up on appropriate class schedules. There are, however, certain cases that Degree Advisors make mistakes, like in the story about Baylor. Advisors meet with tons of students daily and are extremely busy, it is possible for them to make mistakes, this still doesn’t excuse them, but I will explain in the recommendations how to solve this problem. Comparing College to a Long Vacation In my findings, I learned that college, if done correctly, is like planning for and going on a wonderful trip. If we can teach students this one concept, it will cure most of the academic advising problems college seems to come with. The idea is simple, and it is essentially this. Imagine you are going on an expensive and luxurious vacation, what sort of things do you have to plan for? Where are you going? What are you going to do there? Who can you talk with to make the experience the most enjoyable and easy to accomplish? What sort
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of things do you need to bring with you? I’m sure there are numerous other questions you could ask yourself, but these are the most important questions to you. Every one of the answers to these questions, except one, is almost entirely up to the person going on the vacation. There are, however, better answers for who you can talk with to make the experience better.
You can talk with a travel advisor, they can answer most of your questions, and it would also be wise to talk with someone who has recently gone on the trip. I emphasize recently because many things have probably changed if you talk with someone who did the same vacation many years ago. Knowing what to take on the trip would also be answered by a travel advisor or someone who recently did the trip.
College is very similar to taking a long (and expensive) vacation. Students need to
plan out what they want to do and have things prepared for when they are ready to take the plunge and jump right into the classes. Students need to realize that it is vital for their success to talk with advisors, and other people who have recently finished their desired program of study, to make sure they are taking the correct classes. Recommendations Solve the Problem at the Root I found that almost all of the problems that occurred with students’ schedules and not having all of the required classes to graduate, or having to stay in school longer than expected, start from even before college begins. Too many college students are coming into college unprepared and oblivious to what they need to be doing. College is a major transformation from high school and students are unprepared for it.
To solve this we need to give high school students a roadmap of what college is and explain it to them in a way that they can understand. I think it would be appropriate to use my vacation example to them and relate college to things that they understand. This way they will know who they need to talk to and get important information that is vital for them to graduate on time and with all of the necessary classes. Another good solution is to encourage students not to decide on a major until after the first or second year of college. Encourage students to take as many general classes as they can so that they will qualify for any major degree. My biggest mistake was jumping right into what I thought my major would be and losing out on lots of time and money. Students can still get just as far ahead if they are taking only generals. Along this note as well, students should be required to take a short online course before they even begin their freshman year. I know that ISU already requires that students take a short Fundamentals of Advising and Registration, but student’s need more than this. They need a course that will help them get the gist of how college works and advising and all those necessary things.
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Solve the Central Academic Advising Problem Students seem to think that the central academic advisors are no help at all and sometimes are more confused after speaking with them. These are supposed to be your travel agents and advisors and are supposed to make sure you have everything in order to finish the trip successfully and have a great experience. After speaking with general academic advising, I have a better understanding of why students are often times leaving confused or feel like they didn’t get all of the help they needed. It seems as if students are going to the advisors looking for all the answers. The advisors are there to give the students advice and council, not to completely plan out the students’ entire plan. Advisors will generally give students information that they already know, but are probably not doing. They will give them a list, or book, that has all the information about what classes are required for each major and let the students do what they want with it. It would be more beneficial if the students already had a major in mind and was just confused about where to look up the required material for that specific major. I do not have an excellent solution to this problem. One solution, my best solution, would be to have the academic advisors spend more time with each student and find out which course of study they are leaning most towards and just give them a list or book that has all of the business majors in it, or medical majors, and just split the book/list to more specific categories to not overwhelm the student. The biggest downside to this is when someone goes from a business major to medical. They would just have to get a different book/list of all of those majors and required courses.
Another solution would be to have the advisor do a walk-‐thru of the entire registering process, from finding the classes to actually registering. However, I feel like this process is not necessary if the student actually reads and does what he/she is supposed to with the whole short advising session they are required to take before they begin classes. Conclusion I found that in most cases, both students and advisors are at fault. College students need to realize that not everything is going to be spoon-‐fed to them, and they are ultimately responsible for their lives and how their college turns out. Advisors, though, need to realize that college is a major change to students and most students have no idea what is going on and are too scared to ask questions because they don’t want to look stupid for not understanding something. The university certainly has enough help out there if students would just be proactive in looking for it. That is also half the problem, if students aren’t proactive the advisors are not being proactive and students are getting frustrated and upset that their classes aren’t working out or they are having to stay in college longer than expected. In order for this
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issue to be solved, high schools will have to jump in and lay out the roadmap for students before entering college. I also think a short online course should be given to every student before they even start their first semester of college that helps them choose a major as well as understanding all of the aspects of registration, online classes, regular classes, and just college in general.
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Works Cited
"Ellucian Degree Worksâ„¢." Ellucian. Ellucian Company LLC, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. http://www.isu.edu/advising/ Ramos, Yuritzy. "College Students Tend to Change Majors When They Find the One They Really Love - Borderzine." Borderzine. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
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