Lori What Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg? UW-Platteville Distance Learning Center

About the Presenters Lori Wedig Academic Advisor and Outreach Specialist Amy Foley Advising and Outreach Manager

Agenda About UW-Platteville Advising at the UW-Platteville – Distance Learning Center Previous Advisor Training New and Improved Advisor Training Assessment

Disclaimer A commitment to the UW-Platteville Distance Learning Center’s (DLC) mission, goals, and students is demonstrated each day by dedicated DLC staff and faculty. The following materials are directed to support the mission and vision of the DLC and its core advising team. While each institution is different--we hope that there are some transferable skills, knowledge, and goals that you can provide to your institution.

About UW-Platteville Founded: 1866 Campus: 821 acres 400-acre education/research farm 20 academic/services buildings 12 residence halls Undergraduate Programs: 41 Majors 78 Minors 17 Pre-Professional Graduate Programs: 3 Distance Education: 2 Undergraduate Majors 5 Graduate Programs

Online Education at UW-Platteville

Online Education at UW-Platteville Distance Learning Center (DLC) Operates as a "mini university” Liaisons with other departments Financial Aid Registrar VA/Military Benefits Cost Recovery Courses also available to on-campus students

Online Education at UW-Platteville About our students: 2400 students, 50/50 split undergrad/grad Mainly non-traditional Average age: 35.6 (lowering slightly) Female: 44.5% Male: 55.5% Students of color: 14.9% Military/Veterans/Families Served: 37.3% Average credit load: undergrad - 5.8 Average credit load: graduate - 4.8 Students in 45 states, 11 countries

Advising in the Distance Learning Center

Advising in the Distance Learning Center Philosophy We are the students’ advocate, guide, and resource to help them succeed in earning their degree. Our goal is to make a connection with our students so they are comfortable in contacting us with questions pertaining to courses or the university’s policies. Focus Success of the student Build and maintain relationships Retention Graduation Meeting their needs so they can accomplish their goals

Advising in the Distance Learning Center Structure Advisor receives name of student Advisor sends out welcome email Introduce ourselves to our students First advising session help Undergraduate is mandatory Graduate is highly recommended Goals of students within their program Registration outreach Payment outreach Capstone Graduation

Advising in the Distance Learning Center Build and maintain relationships Bridge between DLC and Department Academic Advising Student Success Coach Outreach Capacity Coach Counselor Therapist Conflict Negotiator The “bad guy” The Hero Sounding board

Otherwise known as….

Previous Advisor Training

Previous Advisor Training Responsibility Relationships Resources

Previous Advisor Training from Manager Challenges Manager removed from day-to-day operations Timeline and Schedule Delegating Opportunities Mentoring, coaching, and guiding Involvement from day-to-day operations Overall Rough and inconsistent Flexibility was good Advisors did complete training

Previous Advisor Training from Advisor Challenges Checklist started at time of need within registration cycle Had to locate information in several places Advisors located on two floors Hours of advisors’ availability Opportunities Build relationships with other advisors Cross training on course offerings Develop course rotation knowledge Overall Flexibility Inconsistent

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Previous Advisor Training Training Plan Not comprehensive Checklist-based Common Pitfalls No consistency in training Best Practice Offered flexibility

New and Improved Advisor Training

New and Improved Advisor Training Responsibility Relationships Resources

New and Improved Advisor Training Training Plan More comprehensive Detailed Common Pitfalls Timeline Best Practice Offered flexibility

New and Improved Advisor Training Amy’s Goal to Improve Training Process Documenting all Advising related processes Advising is more of a practice than a process Best Practices/Collaborative Resources To support process; created collaborative resources Goal to have information all in one place such as D2L PCOE Project: Professional Certificate in Online Education Best practices/collaborative opportunity

New and Improved Advisor Training How? Worked with Instructional Designer Created teams and scheduled monthly meetings Why? Utilized Desire2Learn--same as online classes Provides additional training Methodologies Relied on lessons learned from the PCOE Course

New and Improved Advisor Training

Assessment

Assessment Fine Tuning Understanding the Need By manager By new hire Next steps

Summary

Questions/Comments/Observations… Lori Wedig – wedigl@uwplatt.edu Amy Foley – foleya@uwplatt.edu