Dec. 10-14

This week at DGS, I had my onsite evaluation with Keith. It sounds like he would like to keep me around next semester and that there are opportunities to get involved with the office in a different way, maybe through Pre-Law advising or through National and International Scholarships.

I also attended that IlliAAC Conference. IlliAAC is the organization on campus for academic advisors. I became a member and had the privilege to attend this brief conference. There were 3 sessions in which you could choose to attend different speakers. Dr. Wise was the keynote speaker. This was a great chance for me to network, show my face, and learn. I attended a discussion about Academic Advisors as lifesavers. They specifically talked about how to help students who were struggling. I also went to a talk by two people at The Career Center. They talked about their return rates for appointments and some of the strategies that they do to boost their return rates. Finally, I went to a session on study abroad to learn about programs that are offered. Overall, this was a really good experience for me. All of the sessions were important to me. Study Abroad is helpful because up to this point, all I have been able to tell students is "Go to the study abroad office. They will help you figure out what program is good for you because there are a lot." Now I can at least speak to the variety of programs and what those programs are about and some of the financial aspects involved as well.

I appreciated hearing from The Career Center (TCC) on student return rates because I always tell each of my students to come back in another time if they have more questions. However, I have never made it a set goals for a student to come back whereas the counselors at TCC set a percentage goal for return rates. Thus, they are more deliberate and strategize how to get students back into the Center. They don't want students to come back just to boost their numbers, but they grounded their efforts in a recent dissertation by someone in EPOL and her work on self-efficacy after returning back for a second appointment at  TCC.

Finally, I received some strategies on how to help failing students get by and to help them better succeed. Overall, I took away that communication with the student is key and that tough conversations are going to happen but they are necessary.

I spent 6 hours at the IlliAAC Conference, 1.5 hours reading and blogging, and 20 minutes with my internship evaluation. 

I read an article this week about advising in different spaces (Arms, Cabrera, & Brower, 2008). Undeclared students were the participants. The three locations of advising were at a traditional central advising office, a traditional residence hall, and at a living-learning community. No matter the location of advising, the students were equally engaged with their advisors but students in living learning communities with access to their advisors had the most enriching educational experiences. These are discouraging findings because DGS has advising at satellite locations including the undergrad library, a cultural center, and a living learning community. Like the article says, in theory, satellite locations for advising sounds like a great idea, but at these findings do not make it seem like it is worth the resources it might take to provide such advising. I am somewhat surprised by these findings. I am surprised because it seems more and more, students want service, and they want it now. With more technology, they want information and help promptly, and if advising is everywhere on campus, it is reasonable to hypothesize that students would be more engaged with advising because they would utilize those services for quick help. More research would be helpful in understanding why there is not stronger engagement between students and advising at locations outside of the central advising office.

Arms, J. H., Cabrera, A. F., & Brower, A. M. (2008). Moving into students' spaces: The impact of location of academic advising on student engagement among undecided students. NACADA Journal, 28(1), 8-18.