Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Before Advising Conference at MSU
Michigan State University has an awesome process for incoming undeclared first year students including giving assignments to be completed before coming to orientation in the summer. Here is the link to their booklet https://www.msu.edu/unit/uud/documents/AOP%20Freshmen%20booklet%202008-2009.pdf
Assessment
The following was written by Crissy L. Davis about her efforts in assessment in academic advising. Specifically, it explains how rubrics can be a useful tool in the advising process. The full text can be found at http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/AAT/NW30_2.htm#10
Assessment
“As implied by the label, the designer starts the process by imagining a time when the course is over, say one to two years later, and then asking: What is it I hope that students will have learned, that will still be there and have value, several years after the course is over?” (Fink, 2003). Fink’s quote is also applicable to advising. Advisors do not have the luxury of teaching structured courses, but we do facilitate advising sessions. Just as assessment is critical in teaching, the same is true for advising. The ultimate goal of assessment is to determine if students attain an educational gain. Confirmation is visible when students apply skills learned during the first semester during subsequent semesters.
Based on the information I gathered and the knowledge I gained from the text, I created an academic advising rubric. I hope that this rubric will assist all advisors with the concept of Advising is Teaching.
What is an academic advising rubric?
An academic advising rubric is a basic, user-friendly matrix that assesses three competencies: Timeliness, Preparedness, and Communication-Written and Verbal. It is based on a four-point Lickert scale.
How can advisors use the academic advising rubric with students?
Advisors should:
1. disseminate the academic advising syllabus,
2. discuss the mission and goals of advising,
3. provide the students with a visual aid, i.e., the rubric,
4. explain how the rubric works, and
5. make sure that students understand how each component ( e.g., mission, syllabus, and outcomes) is connected to the rubric.
The academic advising rubric can be utilized after each advising session, and it does not require a lot of time. Recommendation: Students should know up front that this is how their progress will be monitored.
Why use the academic advising rubric?
Advisors can use the rubric to:
1. evaluate students’ performance (similar to employee evaluation). Advisors are preparing students for the future, in particular, the workforce. One significant factor about the workforce is evaluation.
2. close the feedback loop between advisor and advisee. According to Fink (2003), feedback should be: Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating (based on criteria and standards), and done Lovingly (or supportive). This is known as the FIDeLity feedback loop.
3. coordinate program evaluations and rubric data. After three to five years of usage a cross-analysis could be conducted on student satisfaction and individual evaluations.
4. communicate the significance of ACCOUNTABILITY. Providing the students with a visual aid and conversing about the level of responsibility, in relation to the rubric holds students accountable for their performance, or the lack thereof.
To view a copy of the academic advising rubric I designed, go to http://www.sccc.edu/academics/assessment/Resources/Rubrics/documents/cldadvrubric.pdf
Assessment
“As implied by the label, the designer starts the process by imagining a time when the course is over, say one to two years later, and then asking: What is it I hope that students will have learned, that will still be there and have value, several years after the course is over?” (Fink, 2003). Fink’s quote is also applicable to advising. Advisors do not have the luxury of teaching structured courses, but we do facilitate advising sessions. Just as assessment is critical in teaching, the same is true for advising. The ultimate goal of assessment is to determine if students attain an educational gain. Confirmation is visible when students apply skills learned during the first semester during subsequent semesters.
Based on the information I gathered and the knowledge I gained from the text, I created an academic advising rubric. I hope that this rubric will assist all advisors with the concept of Advising is Teaching.
What is an academic advising rubric?
An academic advising rubric is a basic, user-friendly matrix that assesses three competencies: Timeliness, Preparedness, and Communication-Written and Verbal. It is based on a four-point Lickert scale.
How can advisors use the academic advising rubric with students?
Advisors should:
1. disseminate the academic advising syllabus,
2. discuss the mission and goals of advising,
3. provide the students with a visual aid, i.e., the rubric,
4. explain how the rubric works, and
5. make sure that students understand how each component ( e.g., mission, syllabus, and outcomes) is connected to the rubric.
The academic advising rubric can be utilized after each advising session, and it does not require a lot of time. Recommendation: Students should know up front that this is how their progress will be monitored.
Why use the academic advising rubric?
Advisors can use the rubric to:
1. evaluate students’ performance (similar to employee evaluation). Advisors are preparing students for the future, in particular, the workforce. One significant factor about the workforce is evaluation.
2. close the feedback loop between advisor and advisee. According to Fink (2003), feedback should be: Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating (based on criteria and standards), and done Lovingly (or supportive). This is known as the FIDeLity feedback loop.
3. coordinate program evaluations and rubric data. After three to five years of usage a cross-analysis could be conducted on student satisfaction and individual evaluations.
4. communicate the significance of ACCOUNTABILITY. Providing the students with a visual aid and conversing about the level of responsibility, in relation to the rubric holds students accountable for their performance, or the lack thereof.
To view a copy of the academic advising rubric I designed, go to http://www.sccc.edu/academics/assessment/Resources/Rubrics/documents/cldadvrubric.pdf
National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition
I found this website to be very useful in thinking about our goals for the first year experience at UKY.
http://www.sc.edu/fye/index.html
http://www.sc.edu/fye/index.html
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Feed, wikis, tagging and social bookmarking
The assignments for this session were all new to me except subscribing to a feed. It is really easy to set up feeds for your igoogle page. I use igoogle almost like a private bookmark. I have feeds there from my blog and the Blue 2.0 blog so I can quickly link up to them from one convenient location.
Setting up the wiki account was easy. I have found it to be difficult to personalize the wiki "look". I like to have links between all of my pages to make it convenient to click from one to another, but my link to my blog ended up in a strange place. I'm not sure how to make it pretty!
Social bookmarking is a great way to share sites for at-risk student research. I can see how having a wiki for everyone on campus who is doing the similar work would be helpful.
Here are the links to my sites:
http://applesandanthropology.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
http://del.icio.us/shedorvin
Setting up the wiki account was easy. I have found it to be difficult to personalize the wiki "look". I like to have links between all of my pages to make it convenient to click from one to another, but my link to my blog ended up in a strange place. I'm not sure how to make it pretty!
Social bookmarking is a great way to share sites for at-risk student research. I can see how having a wiki for everyone on campus who is doing the similar work would be helpful.
Here are the links to my sites:
http://applesandanthropology.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
http://del.icio.us/shedorvin
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