Work in Progress: An Integrative Learning-Centered Advising Experience for First Year Students

Shelly Gulati; Carla Strickland-Hughes; Emily Brienza-Larsen; Edith Sparks

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 12: Work-in-Progress Postcard Session #1
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41350
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41350
Download Count: 271

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Paper Authors

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Shelly Gulati University of the Pacific

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Dr. Shelly Gulati is Associate Professor and Chair of Bioengineering. She is also serving as the Faculty Fellow, Academic Advising. She has been at Pacific since 2010. She received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley. She also spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in London at Imperial College. Dr. Gulati’s research expertise is biomicrofluidics. More recently, her interests have emphasized engineering education to promote persistence and success in engineering.

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Carla Strickland-Hughes University of the Pacific

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Dr. Strickland-Hughes is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Faculty Fellow of Assessment at the University of the Pacific. Her research expertise includes metacognition and adult memory and learning.

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Emily Brienza-Larsen University of the Pacific

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Emily Brienza-Larsen began teaching composition and research courses in 2003. She was hired at The University of the Pacific to create and provide a new role on campus as the Collegiate Learning Instructor, in which she assessed student learning and supported student retention efforts. She is acting as the lead instructor in the developmental writing program at Pacific and is developing new methods of evaluating and placing student writers. Her personal research focuses on equity and inclusion in the classroom.

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Edith Sparks University of the Pacific

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Abstract

Motivation and Background This work in progress paper describes a new first-year advising program at a school of engineering and computer science at a medium-sized private Western university. This faculty advising program utilizes a learner-centered approach that emphasizes advising as a teaching and learning process.

While advising is considered a component of teaching as a part of the promotion and tenure process at our institution, historically the quality of advising as a student learning experience is not evaluated and an advising philosophy is not expected. This is likely a consequence of the fact that the effort spent on advising is not recognized in the faculty member’s overall workload. As such advisors are unintentionally incentivized to employ transactional advising, focusing on course selection, schedule formation, and curricular planning, to streamline the work of advising.

However, highly engaged and supportive developmental advising during a student’s first year is a best practice for promoting student success, persistence, and ultimately graduation rate. The interactive teaching process of developmental advising supports students to explore their purpose, clarify their academic and life goals, and develop a personalized educational and career exploration plan to achieve those goals. These advising interactions encourage students to practice self-assessment, problem-solving, and decision-making and offer opportunities for help-seeking. First-year students often need considerable support to cultivate these skills. In addition, first year engineering and computer science students frequently struggle with adjusting to the rigor and structure of a college learning environment and thus may need to build their metacognition and self-efficacy skills. Fostering student development in these areas requires a strong commitment from students and sensitivity, encouragement, personalization, and care from the faculty advisors.

This first-year advising program recognizes the significant time investment of these efforts as a part of the faculty advisor’s workload and allocates significantly more support for first-year students. The advising curriculum focuses on developmental advising via achievement of advising student learning outcomes (SLOs). The advising SLOs were developed by a faculty committee charged by our primary faculty governance body, and cover academic and career outcomes across the entire curriculum. The first year advising SLOs span curricular planning, developing metacognition and self-efficacy skills, and creating a resume.

Methods The year-long program integrates three components: (i) one-on-one faculty advising meetings, (ii) learning modules in our first-year seminar course, and (iii) dedicated career advising programing in the spring semester. In the summer, a one-on-one meeting is conducted to get to know the student and affirm fall classes. During welcome week before fall classes, each advisor holds a group advising meeting to build community and share about the major program. The fall semester intentionally intersperses three individual advisor meetings and three electronic learning modules in the seminar course covering SLOs on metacognition and self-efficacy: (1) effective learning strategies, (2) learning beliefs and goals, and (3) assessing and adapting. In addition, students work with their advisor on the SLO to craft a curriculum plan through their first year. In the spring semester, three additional individual advisor meetings cover the SLOs on metacognition and self-efficacy and an SLO where students express how their major aligns with their skills, abilities, and interests. Additionally, a career services program supports achievement of the SLO for students to develop a resume.

Six first-year faculty advisors were selected to advise approximately 100 first-year students across our 8 major programs. These advisors are experienced with demonstrated commitment to developmental advising and an interest to specialize in advising first-year students. Each advisor completed a professional development workshop on self-efficacy and metacognition topics that was developed and delivered by on-campus experts.

Assessment and Anticipated Results Faculty advisor feedback will be solicited throughout this first year of implementation and will inform adjustments for future iterations of the program. That will be shared in this work in progress paper.

Planned assessment of the program includes student feedback from surveys and focus groups, degree of participation, student achievement of the SLOs, as well as comparisons of first-year GPA, persistence, and graduate rate with past first year cohorts. We anticipate that academic performance and persistence will be improved in the first year due to the emphasis on metacognition and self-efficacy skill-building and would like to see if that pattern continues as they progress in their major programs. We plan to share that once the program has been in place 3-4 years as the first cohort progresses through their major programs.

Citation
Format

Gulati, S., & Strickland-Hughes, C., & Brienza-Larsen, E., & Sparks, E. (2022, August), Work in Progress: An Integrative Learning-Centered Advising Experience for First Year Students Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41350

TY - CPAPER
AB - Motivation and Background This work in progress paper describes a new first-year advising program at a school of engineering and computer science at a medium-sized private Western university. This faculty advising program utilizes a learner-centered approach that emphasizes advising as a teaching and learning process.

While advising is considered a component of teaching as a part of the promotion and tenure process at our institution, historically the quality of advising as a student learning experience is not evaluated and an advising philosophy is not expected. This is likely a consequence of the fact that the effort spent on advising is not recognized in the faculty member’s overall workload. As such advisors are unintentionally incentivized to employ transactional advising, focusing on course selection, schedule formation, and curricular planning, to streamline the work of advising.

However, highly engaged and supportive developmental advising during a student’s first year is a best practice for promoting student success, persistence, and ultimately graduation rate. The interactive teaching process of developmental advising supports students to explore their purpose, clarify their academic and life goals, and develop a personalized educational and career exploration plan to achieve those goals. These advising interactions encourage students to practice self-assessment, problem-solving, and decision-making and offer opportunities for help-seeking. First-year students often need considerable support to cultivate these skills. In addition, first year engineering and computer science students frequently struggle with adjusting to the rigor and structure of a college learning environment and thus may need to build their metacognition and self-efficacy skills. Fostering student development in these areas requires a strong commitment from students and sensitivity, encouragement, personalization, and care from the faculty advisors.

This first-year advising program recognizes the significant time investment of these efforts as a part of the faculty advisor’s workload and allocates significantly more support for first-year students. The advising curriculum focuses on developmental advising via achievement of advising student learning outcomes (SLOs). The advising SLOs were developed by a faculty committee charged by our primary faculty governance body, and cover academic and career outcomes across the entire curriculum. The first year advising SLOs span curricular planning, developing metacognition and self-efficacy skills, and creating a resume.

Methods The year-long program integrates three components: (i) one-on-one faculty advising meetings, (ii) learning modules in our first-year seminar course, and (iii) dedicated career advising programing in the spring semester. In the summer, a one-on-one meeting is conducted to get to know the student and affirm fall classes. During welcome week before fall classes, each advisor holds a group advising meeting to build community and share about the major program. The fall semester intentionally intersperses three individual advisor meetings and three electronic learning modules in the seminar course covering SLOs on metacognition and self-efficacy: (1) effective learning strategies, (2) learning beliefs and goals, and (3) assessing and adapting. In addition, students work with their advisor on the SLO to craft a curriculum plan through their first year. In the spring semester, three additional individual advisor meetings cover the SLOs on metacognition and self-efficacy and an SLO where students express how their major aligns with their skills, abilities, and interests. Additionally, a career services program supports achievement of the SLO for students to develop a resume.

Six first-year faculty advisors were selected to advise approximately 100 first-year students across our 8 major programs. These advisors are experienced with demonstrated commitment to developmental advising and an interest to specialize in advising first-year students. Each advisor completed a professional development workshop on self-efficacy and metacognition topics that was developed and delivered by on-campus experts.

Assessment and Anticipated Results Faculty advisor feedback will be solicited throughout this first year of implementation and will inform adjustments for future iterations of the program. That will be shared in this work in progress paper.

Planned assessment of the program includes student feedback from surveys and focus groups, degree of participation, student achievement of the SLOs, as well as comparisons of first-year GPA, persistence, and graduate rate with past first year cohorts. We anticipate that academic performance and persistence will be improved in the first year due to the emphasis on metacognition and self-efficacy skill-building and would like to see if that pattern continues as they progress in their major programs. We plan to share that once the program has been in place 3-4 years as the first cohort progresses through their major programs.
AU - Shelly Gulati
AU - Carla Strickland-Hughes
AU - Emily Brienza-Larsen
AU - Edith Sparks
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: An Integrative Learning-Centered Advising Experience for First Year Students
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41350
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41350
ER -