1. The Global Community for Academic Advising
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Utilizing the Academic Advising Syllabus to Communicate Advising as Teaching and Learning Persistence Seminar San Diego, CA February 13-14, Bill Torgler The University of Akron

2. The Global Community for Academic Advising
Where We Are Heading…
General discussion about the syllabus
Steps to creating an advising syllabus (the “how”)
Questions that must be addressed
Why assess learning outcomes?
Professional Development
Connect the advising syllabus with teaching and learning
Advisor use of the syllabus
Outcomes

3. The Academic Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Academic Advising Syllabus
“Creating an advising syllabus can be a catalyst that leads to important explorations and questions about the role of advising, academic advisors, and advisees. Such conversations could revolve around the role of advisors as teachers, academic advising as a discipline with a curriculum and pedagogy, and how best to communicate the discipline to advisees.”
Excerpt from “Syllabus 101” (Tonya Trabant, 2006)

4. Components Reflected Within the Academic Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Components Reflected Within the Academic Advising Syllabus
“Academic advising has three components: curriculum (what advising deals with), pedagogy (how advising does what it does), and student learning outcomes (the result of academic advising).”
Excerpt from Preamble: Concept of Academic Advising
National Academic Advising Association

5. The Need for an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Need for an Advising Syllabus
It can lead to a campus-wide discussion about the role of academic advising on your campus.
It allows the advisor to outline the advising relationship and experience for his/her advisees.

6. The Need for an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Need for an Advising Syllabus
It assists advisors to help students navigate between curricular and co-curricular issues.
Academic advising is the one consistent resource available to a student throughout his/her academic career.

7. The Need for an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Need for an Advising Syllabus
Academic advising is the one consistent resource available to a student throughout his/her academic career.
The advising syllabus provides a “road map” for students on your campus for their academic advising experiences intake through graduation.

8. The Need for an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
The Need for an Advising Syllabus
It is a teaching tool allowing the academic advisor to emphasize the need for the student to be actively involved and engaged with the advisor, the curriculum, and the learning outcomes.
There is no teaching tool more effective and comprehensive exemplifying the practice of advising as teaching and learning.

9. Why Student Learning Outcomes?
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Why Student Learning Outcomes?
Learning outcomes answer the question: what should students learn through academic advising?
Specifically, what should advisees learn to do as a result of academic advising: what information should they be able to articulate and what skills should they be able to demonstrate?

10. Why Student Learning Outcomes?
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Why Student Learning Outcomes?
Learning outcomes are NOT advisor/advisee responsibilities. (Learning outcomes are focused on clarifying the intended learning process rather than the behavior that make those behaviors likely.)
Learning objectives give students a way to think about and talk about what they are learning.

11. Why Student Learning Outcomes?
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Why Student Learning Outcomes?
The process of constructing learning objectives help advisors focus on the question of what students should learn through academic advising and how they are going to teach it.
Specific learning objectives make it possible to more reasonably assess how well the process of teaching and learning is progressing.

12. Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
Oftentimes the development of a curriculum and learning outcomes is driven by this project.
The development of a campus-wide syllabus should be coordinated with the goal of building a cohesive, collaborative campus culture related to academic advising.

13. Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
The creation of an advising syllabus will drive your assessment plan.
The creation of an advising syllabus will aid in the development of a specific professional development plan for academic advisors.

14. Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Creating an Advising Syllabus - Advantages
The advising syllabus is a reminder to both the student AND the advisor that the student is not just the recipient of information!

15. Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
Identify a broad base of individuals on your campus to agree to initiate the project.
- Administrators, Advisors, Faculty, etc.
- Advising Council Project

16. Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
Select a group to create the document with breadth to represent the campus, yet not too large to lose functionality.
- Prepare for an extensive vetting process. A strong committee chair to facilitate the discussions is vital.
- If utilizing an Advising Council, consider creating multiple subcommittees for this project. (Curriculum, pedagogy, learning outcomes, mapping, assessment)

17. Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
Identify and include vital stakeholders important to the success of the project.
- Institutional Research
- Teaching and Learning Center
- Provost Office
- Faculty Senate
- Others
As the project progresses, solicit “buy in” for the use of the syllabus among the various advising units and individuals across your campus.

18. Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
Identify the “point person”, or “voice” for this project.
- Leading to campus-wide implementation
- Soliciting buy-in from your Provost
- Can clearly articulate benefits and advantages
- Believes implicitly in the project
- Can articulate a connection with persistence and retention

19. Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Steps to Creating an Advising Syllabus
Prepare for multiple iterations of the document leading to the final product.
Vet the “final” product through your original campus-wide committee.
Roll out your implementation plan!

20. Questions to Be Addressed
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Questions to Be Addressed
When to give it to students?
- Intake Appointment
- Continuing Student Appointments
- Put it in the “Hands” of the Student!
How to distribute it?
- Portfolio
- Paper Copies
- Electronic Version

21. Questions to Be Addressed
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Questions to Be Addressed
How to use it for assessment purposes?
- Allow the syllabus to drive your assessment plan
- Creation of student learning outcomes
- Mapping!!
How to use it for professional development?
- Assessment of advisor learning outcomes
- Identify training and other professional development activities to “fill the gap”
How to use it during the advising appointment?
- The foundation of “Advising as Teaching and Learning”!

22. Evaluation versus Assessment
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Evaluation versus Assessment
Evaluation is a discrete judgment of value or worth.
Assessment is a systematic process of collecting, reflecting upon, and utilizing information gathered from multiple data-collection techniques.
Assessment is focused on the improvement of student learning and development.
Excerpt from “Assessment and Accountability” (Rich Robbins, 2011)
Academic Advising Administration: Essential Knowledge and Skills for the 21st Century

23. Assessment - Student Learning Outcomes
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Assessment - Student Learning Outcomes
A student may learn the curricular requirements to be eligible to declare a desired major (cognitive learning), scheduling an academic advising appointment (behavioral learning), and appreciate the value of advising in achieving academic goals (affective learning) as results of academic advising.
Excerpt from “Assessment and Accountability” (Rich Robbins, 2011)
Academic Advising Administration: Essential Knowledge and Skills for the 21st Century

24. Assessment - Student Learning Outcomes
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Assessment - Student Learning Outcomes
Student learning outcome statements articulate the knowledge, skills, and values expected as a result of the academic advising experience.
They measure students’ cognitive learning (what students know), behavioral learning (what students do), and affective learning (what students value or appreciate) that result from the academic advising interaction.
Excerpt from “Assessment and Accountability” (Rich Robbins, 2011)
Academic Advising Administration: Essential Knowledge and Skills for the 21st Century

25. The Global Community for Academic Advising
Assessment - Mapping
Mapping is the process of determining when, where, and through what experiences the outcomes for advising will be accomplished over students’ academic careers. (chart – pg. 61)
Examples of assessments include student survey, review of students’ semester schedules, student focus groups, graduation rates, rubrics, among others. (chart – pg. 61)
Excerpt from “Assessment and Accountability” (Rich Robbins, 2011)
Academic Advising Administration: Essential Knowledge and Skills for the 21st Century

26. Professional Development
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Professional Development
Continual professional development of academic advisors is an absolute necessity!
- The development of the advising syllabus with carefully mapped student learning outcomes, along with assessment efforts geared toward continual improvements will IMMEDIATELY reveal this.

27. Professional Development
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Professional Development
Assessment of process/delivery outcomes will reveal what is and what is not being taught in the advising appointment.
- May require different deliver methods.
- Are advisors trained on alternative deliver methods?
- Training!!

28. Professional Development Topics
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Professional Development Topics
Advising Roles and Tasks
Developing New Techniques
Using Current Skills in New Situations
Student Development Theory
Advising Delivery Strategies

29. Professional Development Topics
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Professional Development Topics
Effective Listening Skills (Talk less, listen more!)
Advising Special Populations
Relational Skills
Comprehensive Resource and Referral Knowledge
New Technologies (Skype appointments, Blackboard/D2L, electronic check-in, social media, etc.)

30. Advising as Teaching and Learning Via the Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning Via the Advising Syllabus
Remember the syllabus is not the process for developing the outcomes.
The syllabus is where outcomes are articulated!
The outcomes occur as a result of the academic advising experience.

31. Advising as Teaching and Learning Via the Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning Via the Advising Syllabus
The syllabus assists in creating the campus culture that academic advising is teaching and learning.
Prepare for walls in pursuit of this cultural shift.
Be careful! Do not include everything in the syllabus. Focus!

32. Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
We MUST transition from a service function to a teaching function.
Learning Outcomes which apply to all students must be identified and taught by all advisors.
Intervene (teach), quiz, and reteach where necessary.

33. Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
Continual training is necessary in the Advising as Teaching and Learning Model.
Advisors are taught that everything discussed is intentional.
Advisors ask open-ended questions. We must ask the right questions, and ask them correctly.

34. Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning: USING the Advising Syllabus
Careful planning occurs regarding how to manage different types of appointments.
- What to do during intake
- What to do during the first appointment in the fall
- What to do if the semester is a “train wreck”
- How to guide an exploratory/undecided student
- What to do if a student is indecisive

35. Advising as Teaching and Learning: OUTCOMES
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning: OUTCOMES
Advisors are better equipped to listen to students.
- Advisors dig deeper beyond the mitigating issue initially presented to them by the student.
- Advisors are more intentional in their conversations with a focus on clarity and understanding.
Advisors become better at documenting advising sessions.

36. Advising as Teaching and Learning: OUTCOMES
The Global Community for Academic Advising
Advising as Teaching and Learning: OUTCOMES
Advisors are more aware of the decisions being made by their advisees.
Advisors are specific about why things are done.
Advisors have better conversations with students!!

37. The Global Community for Academic Advising
Resources
Advising Syllabi Available at the NACADA Clearinghouse
Advising Syllabus 101 (Trabant, 2006)
Academic Advising Syllabus: Advising as Teaching in Action, 2nd Edition – Pocket Guide #9
Academic Advising Syllabus: Advising as Teaching in Action (Webcast Recording)