Golden Eagle Flight Plan Online: A Web-Based Advisement Tool to Facilitate Developmental Advising

Chengyu Sun; Deborah Won; Emily L. Allen; Harsh Gadhia

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Conference: 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication Date: June 26, 2016
Start Date: June 26, 2016
End Date: June 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-68565-5
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Student Success I: Interventions and Programs
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/p.25411
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/25411
Download Count: 535

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Deborah Won is an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles. Her specialization is in Biomedical Engineering and her scientific research area focuses on neuro-rehabilitative technology. Her educational research interests include use of Tablet PCs and technology to better engage students in the classroom as well as pedagogical and advisement approaches to closing the achievement gap for historically under-represented minority groups.

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biography

Emily L. Allen California State University, Los Angeles

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Dr. Emily Allen is Dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles.

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biography

Harsh Gadhia California State University, Los Angeles

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Graduate Student
Department of Computer Science,
California State University, Los Angeles.

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Abstract

This evidence-based paper describes design and implementation of an online advisement tool which promotes developmental advising and assessment of its utilization and effectiveness in as an advisement tool with 33 students who are part of a pilot first-year experience program.

Motivation Academic advisement, when carried out effectively, can help students to discover and build their professional identity, to perceive their college environment as one that is caring and welcoming, and to feel better connected to the University [1, 2]. Ultimately, good academic advisement improves student’s chances of persisting in college [3, 4]. Here, at the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) at California State University, Los Angeles, advisors are being encouraged to adopt a developmental advising approach, and the Golden Eagle Flight Plan is being developed to facilitate this holistic, developmental advisement approach. This work in progress describes the design of the online tool that was developed, and shows the current implementation of the system.

GEFP Basics The Golden Eagle Flight Plan - Online is a web-based developmental advisement tool designed to promote a more holistic view of students’ education and better encourage students to develop their own professional identity. As developmental advisement lies on the opposite end of the spectrum from prescriptive advisement, the GEFP encourages students to also take greater responsibility over their own advisement, rather than solely relying on the advisor to prescribe steps to a successful college career. The online tool enables students and advisors to keep track of the students’ educational goals, or milestones, and progress toward reaching those milestones. Each milestone was classified both by the level at which advisors in our College believe students should aim to complete it and by the dimension of the student’s college education under which that milestone falls. Thus the flight plan forms a matrix divided into stages of their career (i.e., from pre-frosh through senior level) and into “runways”, which we categorized as 1) academic performance; 2) career preparation; and 3) leadership & community engagement.

GEFP Online Implementation and Features The GEFP Online software system was designed to meet numerous objectives, including those listed below: 1) Students view their own flight plans by logging into an online dashboard system using the same account information as their campus web login ID and password (Fig. 1) 2) Likewise, advisors are also able to login to their own account, but they are able to view any student’s plan using a search function. 3) Advisors can also be given administrator access. Users with an administrator role can create and modify the flight plan template for any major. (Fig. 2) 4) Each student inherits a major-specific template (Fig. 3) 5) Students can keep track of milestones they have accomplished (Fig. 4) 6) Advisors can keep track of milestones their advisees have accomplished 7) Students and advisors can communicate to each other through comments that can be saved for each milestone as well as for the overall plan for each student (Fig. 5) 8) GEFP Online also serves as an informational resource, as most milestones have hypertext links to a webpage that either provides more information about the milestone or actually assists the student in carrying out the milestone (e.g., a registration link for an event, a link to make an appointment, etc). (Fig. 6)

Results GEFP Online is being pilot tested on 33 students in the inaugural year of the First-Year Experience at XXXX (XXXXXXXX). Surveys and focus groups will be conducted, and responses analyzed for an assessment of how well various functions of the GEFP Online were utilized; how frequently students referred to their GEFP during the academic year; and how conversations with advisors changed as a result of the GEFP online.

Citation
Format

Sun, C., & Won, D., & Allen, E. L., & Gadhia, H. (2016, June), Golden Eagle Flight Plan Online: A Web-Based Advisement Tool to Facilitate Developmental Advising Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25411

TY - CPAPER
AB - This evidence-based paper describes design and implementation of an online advisement tool which promotes developmental advising and assessment of its utilization and effectiveness in as an advisement tool with 33 students who are part of a pilot first-year experience program.

Motivation
Academic advisement, when carried out effectively, can help students to discover and build their professional identity, to perceive their college environment as one that is caring and welcoming, and to feel better connected to the University [1, 2]. Ultimately, good academic advisement improves student’s chances of persisting in college [3, 4]. Here, at the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) at California State University, Los Angeles, advisors are being encouraged to adopt a developmental advising approach, and the Golden Eagle Flight Plan is being developed to facilitate this holistic, developmental advisement approach. This work in progress describes the design of the online tool that was developed, and shows the current implementation of the system.

GEFP Basics
The Golden Eagle Flight Plan - Online is a web-based developmental advisement tool designed to promote a more holistic view of students’ education and better encourage students to develop their own professional identity. As developmental advisement lies on the opposite end of the spectrum from prescriptive advisement, the GEFP encourages students to also take greater responsibility over their own advisement, rather than solely relying on the advisor to prescribe steps to a successful college career. The online tool enables students and advisors to keep track of the students’ educational goals, or milestones, and progress toward reaching those milestones. Each milestone was classified both by the level at which advisors in our College believe students should aim to complete it and by the dimension of the student’s college education under which that milestone falls. Thus the flight plan forms a matrix divided into stages of their career (i.e., from pre-frosh through senior level) and into “runways”, which we categorized as 1) academic performance; 2) career preparation; and 3) leadership &amp; community engagement.

GEFP Online Implementation and Features
The GEFP Online software system was designed to meet numerous objectives, including those listed below:
1) Students view their own flight plans by logging into an online dashboard system using the same account information as their campus web login ID and password (Fig. 1)
2) Likewise, advisors are also able to login to their own account, but they are able to view any student’s plan using a search function.
3) Advisors can also be given administrator access. Users with an administrator role can create and modify the flight plan template for any major. (Fig. 2)
4) Each student inherits a major-specific template (Fig. 3)
5) Students can keep track of milestones they have accomplished (Fig. 4)
6) Advisors can keep track of milestones their advisees have accomplished
7) Students and advisors can communicate to each other through comments that can be saved for each milestone as well as for the overall plan for each student (Fig. 5)
8) GEFP Online also serves as an informational resource, as most milestones have hypertext links to a webpage that either provides more information about the milestone or actually assists the student in carrying out the milestone (e.g., a registration link for an event, a link to make an appointment, etc). (Fig. 6)

Results
GEFP Online is being pilot tested on 33 students in the inaugural year of the First-Year Experience at XXXX (XXXXXXXX). Surveys and focus groups will be conducted, and responses analyzed for an assessment of how well various functions of the GEFP Online were utilized; how frequently students referred to their GEFP during the academic year; and how conversations with advisors changed as a result of the GEFP online.
AU - Chengyu Sun
AU - Deborah Won
AU - Emily L. Allen
AU - Harsh Gadhia
CY - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA - 2016/06/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Golden Eagle Flight Plan Online: A Web-Based Advisement Tool to Facilitate Developmental Advising
UR - https://peer.asee.org/25411
DO - 10.18260/p.25411
ER -