Academic Advising and Educational Plans
A recent Institutional Research graduate survey showed that students’ satisfaction with academic advising has increased over the last several years. While such information is encouraging, there is still room for improvement. The College has long provided advising resources to students; however, a successful Guided Pathways model necessitates that all advising systems have a greater impact than what has been in place. With Guided Pathways, “the central idea is that advising services need to build upon and reinforce the Guided Pathways program design features by helping students select and enter a program of study, tracking students’ progress through program milestones, providing frequent feedback to students on their progress, and intervening with individual students who stray off track.”1
As part of its commitment to expanding advising, the College operationalized a new Academic Advising Department in 2016-17. These full-time advisors use a caseload management model and are assigned to specific programs: Accounting, Business, Computer Information Systems, Allied Health, Liberal Arts, Liberal Arts – Social/Behavioral Science, Justice, and Psychology. These programs were chosen to impact the highest number of students possible with the available resources. The Academic Advising Department began with 7 full-time assigned academic advisors in Fall 2016; there are now 11 full-time assigned academic advisors working across the College. Approximately 75% of the incoming first-time students have an assigned academic advisor. Full-time academic advisors work with their assigned students throughout the first one to two semesters. This work includes creating student educational plans which provide a path for students not just during their time at the College but also for any future studies.
Since implementing the Academic Advising Department, having full-time advisors has significantly expanded the support and resources the College is able to provide to students in their assigned programs. As part of their responsibilities, full-time advisors:
- provide extensive and proactive academic advising to students utilizing both individual and group formats via in-person and virtual delivery systems;
- document all student contacts in Starfish to provide students with on-going wrap-around support;
- provide ongoing outreach via email, phone and Starfish to their assigned students with special attention given to alerts and kudos being provided via Starfish;
- refer assigned students to tutoring and other academic support services as needed;
- create ongoing and collaborative relationships with the administration and faculty in their respective programs,
- collaborate extensively with faculty on first-year experiences courses, such as AH 101, FYE 101, and BUSL 101, including presentations during class meetings;
- visit courses for programs that do not have a first-year experience course to ensure those students receive important information about advising services and the educational planning process.
- assist with drop-in appointments in the Advising Office; and
- assist non-assigned students with a myriad of advising support.
Academic advising is often a challenging area for community colleges; advisors may see a very high number of students and students may see several different advisors over time. Student surveys such as the CCSSE and Noel-Levitz report that student engagement positively correlates with the frequency of seeing an academic advisor. With more full-time advisors available to our students (and plans for hiring three additional full-time advisors), the College is better able to not only monitor student progress, but more importantly, proactively address any apparent detours from a student’s chosen academic path.
1Bailey, Thomas R., Jaggars, Shanna Smith, Jenkins, Davis. (2015) Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Educational Plans:
The Guided Pathways reform is marked by intentionality. As part of the movement, faculty at Community College of Philadelphia recently reviewed in-depth their curricula and developed detailed curriculum maps. These curriculum maps are comprised of carefully chosen course sequencing and information on milestones and policies; maps thus are able to provide students a clear and focused pathway through their studies. This intentionality is then mirrored by the educational plans that students themselves develop. As opposed to simply having a filled-in plan provided to them, students are expected to meet with academic advisors to proactively construct their own educational plans based on their academic (including transfer) and career goals.
In Fall 2016, students began using planning templates available via a degree planning software platform, in conjunction with a degree audit tool. These templates give students and advisors the opportunity to look ahead at course sequencing and tailor it to the needs of the student, semester by semester. Such educational plans provide students with a view of their long-term goals, such as earning a credential, and illustrates the path for how they can reach that goal without taking excess credits. The educational planning tool is available via the single log-in portal introduced in 2016-17 and the College’s app; both increase the ease with which students can access this information.
The College has set in place multiple means to support students in developing their educational plans. Since Fall 2016, students in the largest areas of study at the College have assigned advisors. As part of the new advising model instituted as part of Guided Pathways, these students meet with their assigned advisor to develop their individual educational plan. The full-time advisors are then able to monitor a student’s progress through their plan and follow-up with that student when needed. Students who are not in programs with assigned advisors are strongly encouraged to meet with counselors or faculty within their program to build their own educational plans. Additionally, new incoming students in Liberal Arts, Allied Health, and Business programs are required to enroll in a first-year experience course within their first twelve credits; these programs have included their first-year experience course in the first semester of the curriculum map. As part of these courses, students develop or refine their educational, career, and financial plans. Full-time advisors also provide support for this part of the courses.
The College is to finalizing the input of educational plans into an educational planning platform. The coming academic year will see the implementation of the student educational planner tool at scale, thus impacting a majority of the College’s students.
Career Planning:
A main focus of Guided Pathways is having students proactively and mindfully consider their goals from not just the beginning of their studies, but even when applying to the College. Taking that a step further, students are then encouraged (and sometimes required) to develop career, academic, and financial plans to help guide them during their studies. Community College of Philadelphia requires incoming students in three of the largest areas of study (Allied Health, Liberal Arts, and Business/Accounting) to complete a first-year orientation course within their first twelve credits; some additional programs, such as Crimiial Justice, are also including one of those first-year experience courses in their curricula. Career planning is an important component of these courses. All three courses have a course student learning outcome (SLO) that addresses this; for example, FYE 101 for Liberal Arts has the following SLO: Develop an academic plan, a financial plan and a career/transfer plan based on the student’s individual academic and career goals. To help students achieve this SLO, assignments about career planning are woven into the courses. Readings may include such texts as “Real Jobs for Real Majors; What Can I Do With a Major In…” and “Job Growth and Educational Requirements Through 2020.” As part of developing their career/transfer plans, students are encouraged to meet with a full-time academic advisor or counselor to discuss exploring their career and transfer options. Courses may also include a career/transfer exploration plan workshop. Completing a Career and Transfer Exploration Plan constitutes a significant part of the final course grade.
In addition to career planning required for first-year experience courses, career exploration is encouraged as students consider the College for their studies. When applying, students are given information about online career assessments to help them discover their skills and interests: Focus 2 and Choices. Students should then meet with a counselor to begin their career exploration in general or discuss their assessment results. This should then lead to the development of a career plan.
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General Information:
The College already provides advising resources to students; however, a successful Guided Pathways model necessitates that all advising systems have a greater impact than what is currently happening at many community colleges. Many schools are utilizing an “intrusive advising” model, some components of which the College has already incorporated into its efforts: first-year experience courses (Wake Technical Community College), assigned advisors (Sinclair College) and continued advising after the first year (Central Piedmont Community College).
Implementing Guided Pathways and Technology-Mediated Advising: Lessons from the Field
Getting to Results with Technology-Mediated Advising: Lessons from iPASS