Best Practices for Advising in Departments/Advisement Centers

Consistent with the mission of Missouri State University and the goals of maximizing student recruitment, learning and retention, academic advisement is an important aspect of student success. The following “best practices” are recommendations for successful advisement at the level of departments or college advisement centers. Excellent advisement programs help provide a positive student educational experience.

1. Structure academic advising processes to meet student needs and best utilize faculty/staff talents.

Several models have proven to be successful at Missouri State:

Some Colleges within the University may be best served by a Centralized Advisement Center staffed by qualified full-time professional advisors.
Other Colleges with greater diversity among available majors may be best served by decentralized departmental advisement where faculty members serve as advisors.
In some cases, a hybrid structure may work best, where a Departmental Advisement Coordinator works with a small support team (i.e., Full- or part-time staff members, and/or graduate assistants) to manage Advisement Center services.
A similar model would involve a Departmental Advisement Coordinator who works with departmental faculty to facilitate training updates, to match advisees with advisors based on interests, and to maintain equitable advising loads. In a few departments, one designated professional academic advisor serves as the advisor for all departmental majors.

2. Divide faculty advising loads equitably so appropriate time can be spent with each advisee.

Some faculty members excel as advisors. Students should have the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge, experience, and accessibility of faculty who are invested in promoting student success through advising. These talents should be recognized in performance evaluations, and where possible, lighter expectations in other areas (i.e., teaching, research, service) may be appropriate.
Some faculty members excel in academic areas outside of advising (i.e., teaching, research, committee work) and may not be well-suited to advising students. In these situations, departments should determine equitable workloads that account for the number and type of advisees assigned to each faculty member.

3. Designate individual(s) in each department/advisement center to receive specialized training and coordinate advisement of special populations of students.

Transfer advisors should be specifically trained and keep current with this training (e.g., internet native Banner training; regular contact with Admissions Transfer Coordinator; consistent communication with Transfer Advisor in Academic Advising and Transfer Center). Because of this extra training, it is generally wise to limit the number of individuals who advise transfer students.
The specialized needs of online, evening, and internationalstudents should be considered when structuring advising duties. Individuals who are advising special populations should be prepared to meet the needs of those students.
Academic advising for graduate students will vary among programs, particularly dependent on the manner in which the research component is satisfied. While research advisors must have Graduate Faculty status, academic advising could be performed by anyone familiar with program requirements and the profession.

4. Promote, encourage, and track the ongoing training and professional development of staff/faculty advisors in the department/advisement center.

Examples of training and development activities include:

Encourage or require all advising staff/faculty providing advising services to obtain and maintain Master Advisor certification.
Maintain and disseminate current information to advising staff/faculty related to general advisement, careers, graduate study, internships, and other opportunities for students to engage more fully in the process of achieving academic and professional goals. This information could be communicated, for example, through a departmental bulletin board or time devoted to advisement in department/staff meetings.
Train all faculty/staff providing advising services on the specific requirements for the majors and minors served by the department/advisement center.
Maintain contact with the Academic Advising and Transfer Center. Assist the Academic Advising and Transfer Center in developing workshops on relevant advisement topics. Participate in student surveys and evaluations of advising.

5. Develop effective methods within each department/advisement center to communicate with advisees, traditional and special populations.

Examples of effective communication methods include:

Develop and regularly update an email distribution list(s) for rapid dissemination of pertinent information.
Develop and regularly update an advising webpage with information (e.g., forms, documents, and links) of interest to advisees in the department or unit.
Consider adopting more student-friendly and high-tech methods to communicate with advisees (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, a Blackboard “class” for advisees, and/or regular newsletters).
Develop a procedure to communicate with students who will not regularly be on campus (e.g., campus email after an initial phone conversation).

6. Promote within each department/advisement center the best practices of individual advising as established by the “Best Practices for Academic Advisors at Missouri State University” document.

7. Designate one person (i.e., Advisement Coordinator, Department Head, or Center Director) to manage provision of advisement services within the department/advisement center, with charges based on the advising model adopted by that unit.

Responsibilities of this individual might include:

Carry a significant advising load.
Assign students to faculty advisors as equitably as possible, ideally matching student and faculty areas of academic and/or professional interest.
Maintain consistent communication with faculty advisors (e.g., provide information regarding policy changes, helpful hints, and reminders of important dates).
Be involved with recruitment at the departmental level (e.g., through Campus Visits and departmental tours).
Provide advising assistance when faculty advisors are not available to students.
Teach departmental or University courses when appropriate.

8. Ensure that quality advising is appropriately available through the department/advisement center to all students, traditional and special populations.

Examples of ways to ensure appropriate accessibility of advising services:

Make advising services available to students during evenings, summers, and academic intersessions, as well as during the traditional academic year.
Ensure that another qualified advisor (e.g. Department Head, staff advisor or graduate assistant) is available to assist students when an academic advisor is unavailable during normally scheduled times (for example, at a conference).
Encourage students to schedule advising appointments in advance so a department can schedule an advisor to be available.

9. Implement a consistent plan to assess advisement within the department/advisement center, and use results to facilitate process improvement.

10. Devise a method to follow up with graduates. Potential students may be interested, so availability of this information could boost departmental/college recruitment and retention efforts.

Examples of ways to follow up with graduates:

Learn graduate and professional school plans.
Survey employers that are hiring recent graduates.
Maintain current contact information for University advancement purposes.

11. Develop a concrete system to recognize and reward faculty/staff who are dedicated to providing quality academic advising through the department/advisement center.

Examples of ways to recognize and reward advising:

Consider weight given to advising as teaching in promotion and tenure planning.
Nominate outstanding advisors for Missouri State’s “Excellence in Advising” awards.

Best Practices in Group/Hybrid Advising at Missouri State University

Excellent academic advising helps create positive experiences for students, shares information about academic rules, regulations, and programs, and helps students develop meaningful educational plans to help them pursue their life goals. As enrollment increases and numbers of faculty and staff advisors stay relatively constant, many advisors find themselves looking for creative ways to provide advising information. Some departments are turning to group or hybrid advising models to help provide timely and effective advice to their declared majors. Information dissemination to groups of students may free up time, resulting in more meaningful conversations with individual students about their academic concerns and plans.

Departments who wish to consider group/hybrid advising should consider these best practices, as well as the mission of advising at Missouri State University and the overall Best Practices for Academic Advisors and Best Practices for Advising in Departments/Advisement Centers.

1. Group/hybrid advising sessions provide effective opportunities to share information that all majors in a particular program need.

Invite student groups by hours earned or by milestones in the major that have been achieved.
Advisors conducting group/hybrid advising sessions should use care to cover all necessary information with each group and all participants. Checklists for individual students with space for notes from advisors may be useful.
Information covered in the advising session may be reinforced with advising handouts, information posted on departmental websites, or Blackboard pages.

2. All group/hybrid advising sessions must be conducted with utmost sensitivity to FERPA regulations and student privacy concerns.

Students participating in group advising sessions should receive instruction about what confidential information may and may not be shared in these sessions. Students may need to sign releases or statements of understanding.
Students in computer labs pulling up academic records should be seated so that others may not view their screens.

3. All students must be offered an opportunity to speak individually with an academic advisor in addition to participating in a group/hybrid advising session.

4. Two or more advisors are strongly recommended at each group/hybrid advising session in order to address individual concerns.

5. Students should have sufficient notice to arrange to attend a group/hybrid advising session and should be able to choose a session that fits into their academic schedule.

6. Follow up with student participants should include exit survey/evaluation opportunities. Advisors should also follow up with students who seemed troubled or confused as well as students who did not attend.

7. Notations of participation in group/hybrid advising sessions should be properly documented in Advising Notes.

Approved by the Provost’s Academic Advising Council on May 9, 2017.