Because advisors can direct students to multiple resources and support services to help them along their education pathways, The Ohio State University (Ohio State) believes improvements in academic advising are essential to ensuring that all students flourish and succeed. To establish a baseline from the student perspective for planning these improvements, Ohio State appended the Academic Advising Topical Module to their 2013 NSSE administration. Additionally, advisors’ perceptions about their training and professional development were collected in a survey administered in 2014 by Ohio State. Enhancing Academic Advising, Ohio State’s 2014 Higher Learning Commission quality initiative, defined the framework for the improvement effort: “Academic advising requires a collaborative relationship between advisors and students—an active, sustained, and intentional process, rather than passive, sporadic, and casual contacts.” This initiative implemented programs focused on advancing advising to the next level through the following ongoing activities and offerings:
- Training and professional development for advisors
- Assessment of academic advising learning outcomes
- Increased advisor accessibility to and engagement with information to guide and support students
- Enhanced collaboration between advisors and other university offices
To assess the effectiveness of their academic advising quality initiative, Ohio State re-administered the NSSE advising module in 2016. Comparing data from both administrations, the university found a number of areas in which student responses in 2016 were significantly more positive than in 2013 and no areas in which responses were more negative. Both first-year and senior students responded more positively in 2016 when asked to what extent their advisors helped students understand academic rules and policies and informed students of academic support options (tutoring, study groups, help with writing, etc.). For seniors specifically, Ohio State saw increases in the number of students who said their advisors had been available when needed and listened closely to concerns and questions.
These findings indicate that the ongoing work of Ohio State’s quality initiative to enhance academic advising is having a positive impact—which supports the continuation and expansion of this work. Further, Ohio State intends to share these findings to boost advisors’ morale, to raise their campus profile, and to promote partnerships with them across campus.
