Advising Summit
Project Purpose
M State participated in the Community College Research Center’s (CCRC) summer 2021 Institute on Guided Learning Pathways at Rural Community Colleges. During the two-week training, teams analyzed their college’s data to identify inequities between student groups, which aligns with M State’s Equity 2030 initiative.
The CCRC institute resulted in the College determining internal advising training was the next step to helping M State leverage the power of advising to shape positive student experiences that affect the core elements of student success. This includes supporting students with:
- Setting academic goals based on career interests
- Developing an academic plan to attain those goals
- Helping students stay on track to meet their goals
This advising approach will also result in students feeling more welcome, engaged and build their confidence.
The Advising Summit project purpose is to:
- Develop a formal advising structure for all advisors, including learning outcomes
- Define the relationship and connection between students and their advisors
- Provide professional development opportunities for advisors to deepen their capacity
- Determine how non-advising faculty and staff and support advising
- Create an advising model that incorporates principles of guided learning pathways (Ask, Connect, Inspire, and Plan), a case management approach and Equity 2030
Deliverables
- Define key relationships that intersect with advising and discuss ways in which M State supports advisors and advising across the college.
- Discuss next steps, including a draft of an advising model and a continuity plan.
- Maintain a Faculty Advisor Toolkit.
- Provide professional development activities for professional and faculty advisors (e.g. lunch and learns, advising summit, onboarding, training).
- Implement ASIC principles for professional and faculty advisors.
- Define the case management approach/model that M State will use.
- Create program maps that are aligned to what will be expected of students upon program completion in the workforce and/or in education at the next level.
- Create a framework to provide ongoing assessment of the advising process using data and other advising assessment best practices as recommended by the CCRC.
Project Scope
In Scope
Advising structure and content, setting academic goals based on career interests, developing academic plans, helping students stay on track to meet their goals.
Out of Scope
Non-advising processes and procedures.
Financial Impact
Professional development conferences, training and retraining costs for faculty and staff advisors.
Summary of Results
Professional Development Event Accomplishments
All employees were invited to attend the advising brown bag lunches and the Advising Summit events in FY22. Topics included:
- Advisor Technical Training - Understanding the Basics of Advising, Advisor Tool Kit, Continuing Advisor Training
- Advisor Development and Partnerships - New Advisor Onboarding, Role of Advisors, Best Practices for Advising, M State Support for Advising, Professional Development Opportunities
- Assessment and Institutional Support - Advising Data, Desired Outcomes for Advising, Criteria for Assessing Advising, Ensuring Students have Common Advising Experiences, How Advising Contributes to Students’ Education, Persistence, and Retention
- Advising Summit - Recap of the monthly Lunch and Learn sessions, breakout sessions with topics to help define key relationships that intersect with advising and discuss ways in which M State supports advisors and advising across the college, and discussion and next steps, including a draft of an advising model and a continuity plan.
Ongoing Activities
Ongoing activities include creating a continuity plan, maintaining a Faculty Advisor Toolkit, identifying professional development activities for professional and faculty advisors, and providing ongoing assessment of the advising process.
Recommendations to Cabinet
The Advising Summit Team presented recommendations for continued development of advising at M State to Cabinet for approval at the end of the spring 2022 semester. These recommendations reflect ideas and feedback from the Advising Summit as well as the work of the SESS Team and Community College Research Center Institute Team.
From the recommendation: “Our vision in implementing Guided Learning Pathways is that students would find deep connections to M State and their future. Attaining this vision will require transformation across all offices and in the lives of individuals. These recommendations represent a common starting point and direction. The details will be developed in collaboration with our employees, students, and communities.”
To ensure the Associate Vice President (AVP) can build on this work and continue to move it forward, Cabinet reviewed the recommendations and made the following decisions:
Communication
Recommendation
Provide consistent ways for professional advisors, faculty advisors, non-advising faculty, and other M State roles to access one another and just-in-time information to support our students.
- This should facilitate collaboration and support student success by preventing “cracks” in students’ college experience.
- The solution will include strategic use of technology and person-to-person connections.
- The college will Implement the Salesforce Student Success Hub platform and determine how it will be used across all constituencies.
- It must also consider a plan to sustain these connections across the campuses and over time.
Cabinet Decisions
- The college will Implement the Salesforce Student Success Hub platform and determine how it will be used across all constituencies.
- An advising steering team will be formed, led by the AVP. The call-out for members will be in mid-August with the team starting their work in September 2022.
Immediate Action
Form an Advising Steering Team to provide feedback on technology implementation, develop shared calendar of advising events, and make recommendations for internal communication best-practice.
Alignment with the Five Schools
Recommendation
Help connect students and facilitate effective planning by aligning professional role advisors with each of the five schools and developing a case-management model to support student success and cross-functional collaboration.
- This will support development of program network, supporting expertise in career advising and connection within the college.
- Paired with effective program plans, this alignment will also facilitate effective planning as advisors become experts regarding programs within their school.
- We recommend creation of Student Success Navigator (coach) role that supports the “school of” model.
- Equity 2030 and Guided Learning pathways will guide discussions and collaboration between the schools.
Cabinet Decisions
- The college will align advising to the five schools. It is understood there are nuances that need to be worked out in our process(es) for the model to be effective and successful. We also understand there will always be place-based elements to our service; effectively assisting students who come to a campus location will have to be factored into our planning.
- We agree to secure a professional consultant with expertise in multi-campus, discipline-specific advising structures with a focus on student success to gather feedback and help address challenges of realignment.
Immediate Action
Secure NACADA (or other professional) consultant with expertise in multi-campus, discipline-specific advising structures with a focus on student success to gather feedback and help address challenges of realignment. Consistent with the consultant recommendations, create an implementation timeline with estimated resource needs, position descriptions (for new or revised positions), success measurements and training for current employees.
Commitment to Ongoing Discussion and Support
Recommendation
Address potential issues with continuity by establishing regular events, process for faculty/staff onboarding and resource update.
- This will ensure that our efforts to support advising are institutionalized beyond a single initiative.
- It will support assessment of the impact of our advising efforts.
- It must support on-going faculty and staff development and training as student needs and local context shift.
Cabinet Decision
Implementation, support and development needs to be ongoing and intentional. The AVP will lead the efforts and work with the team to schedule advising sessions/presentations and professional development opportunities.
Immediate Action
Schedule annual advising sessions and presentations and secure development opportunities for the next year and beyond.
Assessment Plan
Recommendation
Create an assessment plan for measuring the effectiveness of the advising model in consultation with the Advising Steering Team and the College Assessment Committee.
Cabinet Decision
The measurements of effectiveness and success need to be established and communicated. The AVP will work with the Advising Steering Team, Dr. Erickson and the College Assessment Committee to develop an assessment plan.
Future Direction
Advising's future focus will be on CRM implementation, which will address many of the recommendations identified in this project.
