We belive in core values ... how we think Aviso links to NACADA's
The 2011 NACADA Conference is just a few days away. Thousands of advising professions will converge upon Denver and spend the week sharing, learning and thinking about academic advising and best practices. (Sadly, I won't be there this year - it's one of my favorite fall activities... but this fall I have something more exciting going on. I became a mom to son, Ernie Alexander, on September 21, 2011 so I think NACADA will take the back burner. I will be at Region V in Akron in April though, so look for me!)
We spend a lot of our time in Aviso team meetings on thinking about how we can better communicate with advisors, and recently our conversation took us to NACADA's core values. We incorporate these values into our work as well and wanted to share how we make the link...
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/clearinghouse/advisingissues/Core-Values-Exposition.htm
Advisors are responsible to the individuals they serve.
We believe that academic advisors are dedicated to a holistic approach to serving students. This includes being engaged and listening to their goals and beliefs while helping the student to be successful. In doing so, advisors are responsible for assisting students create a plan for to achieve those goals, which is also aligned with the university mission and goals (graduation, etc.).
Aviso provides a platform for capturing and assessing this responsibility.
With large caseloads and students who are neither required to nor opting to meet with advisors on a regular basis, communication can become an obstacle in and of itself. The system allows students and advisors to work together (face-to-face or virtually) to plan and evaluate the student’s progress, while its reporting and notifications let advisors quickly identify barriers to that progress. The reporting mechanism is focused on efficient use of advisor’s time, such that it allows advisors to prioritize outreach and interaction with students who have the most critical needs.
Advisors are responsible for involving others, when appropriate, in the advising process.
Each advisor sees his/her own advising caseload, while having access (on a need-to-know basis) to all students in the system. Similarly, student success staff, administrators, etc. can access student records, which include the plan, transcript and advising notes, allowing them to have the most complete picture of the student’s situation when assisting in the advising process.
Aviso allows the institution to decide who has access to the system.
Advisors are responsible to their institutions.
Advisors have many responsibilities beyond the actual advising – administrative reporting, teaching, supporting the institutional mission, etc. That said, one of the greatest challenges facing advisors is a large caseload - the recommended caseload is 300:1 with an "ideal" population - at medium and large institutions caseloads are often upwards of 500 students are common. Aviso makes a caseload much more manageable as it quickly identifies students facing challenges/experiencing success, presents all student information in one convenient location and has superior reporting capabilities, creating efficiency and maximizing administrative productivity for the advisor.
Furthermore, there are times when faculty members are serving as advisors, in addition to managing their teaching load. (Many times, especially at large institutions, students will have a professional advisor and also a faculty advisor.) For these faculty members the time saving/efficiency aspect of Aviso is critical.
Advisors are responsible to higher education in general.
The beauty of pursuing a higher education is that it is not compulsory. Students are exploring their interests and setting their own goals. Advisors get to share in this experience by way of educating students about academic programs, assisting in goal setting and monitoring the student’s plan for success. Aviso makes supporting students’ goals easy because the system captures the student’s intent and alerts the advisor and student when the plan is off track.
Advisors are responsible to their educational community
Education is the first component of good academic advising. Often times advisors are educating students not only about academic programs and curriculum, but about campus services, programming and extracurricular activities. Aviso’s messaging feature presents the perfect mechanism for engaging students in conversations regarding these “other” educational opportunities. And, that the conversation is captured in a threaded discussion between advisor and student makes following up with the student a breeze! Likewise, the advising notes feature allows advisors to share this additional information with other advisors/student success professionals who might also be assisting the student.
Advisors are responsible for their professional practices and for themselves personally
While not a component of the Aviso software, the Aviso team is dedicated to promoting professional development opportunities available to the advising community. Our quarterly newsletter highlights upcoming state, regional and national conferences as well as webinars and online learning opportunities. We believe professional development helps us to stay “fresh and energized” about our professional pursuits, which ultimately benefits the students we serve and our institution.
Kristin is an implementation consultant at Infinum Education, LLC and a higher education professional with 8 years experience in advising and student success.