Validation of student academic advising and counseling evaluation tool among undergraduate nursing students.

BACKGROUND: Academic advising and counseling services support students in achieving their educational outcomes. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research on academic advising and student-support systems among nursing students. Therefore, the current study aims to develop a student academic advising and counseling survey (SAACS) and measure its validity and reliability. METHODS: Cross-sectional design was used to collect online self-administered data from undergraduate nursing students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The SAACS is developed based on relevant literature and tested for content and construct validity. RESULTS: A total of 1,134 students from both sites completed the questionnaire. Students' mean age was 20.3 ± 1.4, and the majority of them were female (81.9%), single (95.6%), and unemployed (92.3%). The content validity index (CVI) of SAACS overall score (S-CVI) is 0.989, and S-CVI/UA (universal agreement) is 0.944, which indicates excellent content validity. The overall SAACS reliability showed an excellent internal consistency with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.966 - 0.972). CONCLUSIONS: The SAACS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing students' experience with academic advising and counseling services and can be utilized to improve those services in nursing school settings.

International Doctoral Students Negotiating Support from Interpersonal Relationships and Institutional Resources during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected international students around the world. Chinese international students are challenged in their daily life and study due to the travel restrictions, disruption of research, closure of labs, and the rise of anti-Asian racism. This study investigates the challenges, especially psychological ones, faced by international doctoral students from China studying in the United States. and explores how their social networks and support systems help them navigate their life and study during the pandemic. In light of social networks and support theory, we interviewed 20 Chinese international doctoral students studying in the U.S. and found that falling in between intimate relationships and student-institution relationships, academic departments and advisors are able to provide all types of support, namely, instrumental, informational, and emotional. Their ability to provide emotional support was heavily overlooked, especially during a global crisis. Concerted efforts must urgently be put together to deal with the mental health of international doctoral students on campus and rebuild a supportive and hospitable U.S. higher education system. This study can contribute to the scholarship of international higher education by capturing international doctoral student experiences and perceptions in this crucial time and assessing higher education institutions' capability to support international students.

Exploring Scholarly Productivity, Supports, and Challenges of Multinational Women Graduate Students during a Global Pandemic

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to shifts in higher education globally. This study reports the tensions multinational women graduate students experienced due to the change in delivery methods caused by the pandemic. Additionally, they examined how the students felt about their changing roles and lived experiences. This study highlights areas that institutions should address along with the type and level of support provided to their graduate student population. The authors recommend that institutions focus on providing equitable resources for graduate students, help to develop a support network, both in-person and online, provide resources to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and provide outlets to reduce the stress involved in graduate study.

Academic Advising during Pandemic: How did it change?

Academic Advising is a structured program existing in almost every US College or university to help students navigate through the undergraduate or graduate curriculum. Effective academic advising is considered a core requirement for student success in engineering programs. It may occasionally involve mentoring students in areas and activities related to their professional success such as advising on internships, co-ops, and industry-institute collaborated curricular programs. Several strategies have been developed over the years to streamline the process and make it less taxing for both faculty and students. Among them are degree planning software, database management, online resources portal, office of undergraduate advisor, on campus student support services, student wellness, and experiential learning opportunities, to name a few. With the recent COVID crisis, as the schools and colleges shifted to online learning, so did academic advising. While the positive impact with in-person advising is well documented and accepted, many advisors found it challenging to translate their successes from in-person advising to the remote context. At the same time, students who typically could ask their instructors or advisors during class for advise now had to proactively and deliberately approach their advisors. The advising needs of the students was also impacted during the pandemic. This compounded the challenges to advising as colleges had to rapidly adapt to remote advising. In the present paper we attempt to study the changes to the students' advising needs prior to the COVID (2019) with those during the COVID (2020) at Rowan University in NJ. Data on student advising was collected via email inquiries over these four semesters specifically for the Mechanical Engineering department. Themes were identified into queries related to course enrollment, course grades, majors and minors, certificate programs, retention/attrition, course add-drop, attendance, hardships experienced, transition to newer learning platform and technical difficulties associated with it, graduation requirements/criteria, career/internships, Professional Societies, personal issues, health/mental issues, and Waivers. By studying the above data, the authors hope to identify how advising changed pre-Covid and during Covid phases. The motivation was to provide insights into which areas to focus and strengthen if faced with similar circumstances in future. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

To stay or go? A qualitative investigation of the motivational factors influencing the career ascension of academic advisors in higher education institutions

Prior research confirms academic advising has a significant and positive impact on student retention and persistence to graduation (Astin, 1993;Habley, 1994;Klepfer & Hull, 2012;McGillin, 2000;Noel, 1978;Tinto, 1987;Wyckoff, 1999). The purpose of this research was to explore the motivational factors of full-time, professional, female academic advisors at four-year public institutions in Ohio on their career decisions to remain in the field of advising, leave their positions or attempt to ascend in academic advising. Thirteen full-time, professional, female academic advisors employed at five different four-year public institutions in Ohio served as the participants in this phenomenological study. All interviews were conducted via phone due to severe travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.The results of this study were analyzed using Creswell's (2012) streamlined version of the Moustakas' Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen modification. Three overarching concepts emerged from the findings. First, while no singular motivation was offered as a motivation to leave the profession, compensation or salary was the area of frustration mentioned most frequently. Second, career ascension was pursued by academic advisors predominately motivated by a desire to have a greater impact or make a difference for an increased number of students. Third, the motivation to remain in their current positions originated from their desire to help others. Novel themes emerging from the current study not present in existing literature include the impact of furloughs, the tendency of the supervisors of academic advisors to remain in their position for prolonged periods of time, and the need to seek advancement by leaving the institution or field of academic advising. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

First-generation rural community college students' lived experiences of academic advising: A phenomenological study

Retaining underserved students through completion is a key priority in American higher education. Academic advising is regarded as an important student support service that can positively influence student persistence and reduce attrition. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore student experiences of academic advising as an aid to college student persistence and success for first-generation rural community college students. The literature review offered a historical synopsis of American higher education and the role of community colleges, provided a discussion of factors hindering student retention for underserved students, and reviewed potential opportunities to support first-generation students. Additionally, functions of academic advising as an aid to retention are explored, the unique needs of rural community college students are examined, and COVID-19's impact on higher education is provided. This dissertation sought to answer these research questions: What are the lived experiences and perceptions of first-generation rural community college students concerning academic advising, and according to first-generation rural community college students, how, if at all, does academic advising contribute to persistence and success? This study utilized an item pool and interviews to understand the perspectives of 12 first-generation rural community college students. Four primary themes emerged: advisor helpfulness, advisors challenging participants, advisors serving as personal counselors, and frustrating advising experiences. Additionally, concerned faculty members, student determination, and advisors serving as institutional agents were found to contribute to persistence for study participants. Academic advisors are uniquely positioned to observe the personal, academic, and institutional barriers that can hamper student progression from matriculation to graduation. Institutions would be well served to utilize them as valuable partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A serverless academic adviser chatbot

Academic advising plays a vital role in students' academic success;however, it is time consuming and difficult to maintain. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the sudden shift of education to the cyberspace, it has become even more challenging and time consuming for advisors to handle the drastically increasing numbers of queries received through online communication channels. To advise an enormous number of newly admitted students, the need arises for solutions that can handle the demands of a large number of students effectively without affecting student's academic success. This paper proposes an efficient, fast, scalable, and cost-effective solution using a serverless chatbot. The proposed Academic Advising chatbot, which can be integrated with Microsoft Teams, implements advanced semantic analysis techniques from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and analyzes the context of the student's queries, and responds accordingly. © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery.

Transitioning from Face-Face to Online Learning: Creating Safe Spaces for Academic Advisement in the Face of a Global Pandemic

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced many institutes of higher learning across the globe to consider alternative modes of providing quality learning for students. However, developing and implementing safe spaces for academic advisement in online platforms that allow college students to explore their environment in an open and curious manner is challenging. The view that unsafe spaces put college students at risk for departure if they experience disengagement and a lack of support led this paper to explore how college students make sense of safe and unsafe advisement spaces, and how this understanding affects the ways they achieve academic success. Utilizing the PALEO framework, this paper contributes to existing knowledge on academic advisement by theorizing and offering practical ways to create tools that extend the capacity to solve problems during a global pandemic. The implications for re-imagining and coping with this new normal is discussed.

Engaging Students for Success during a Pandemic: The Impact of Academic Advisement upon Course of Study Completion Rates amongst Business & Computer Studies and Industrial Technology Students at the University of Technology, Jamaica

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted education provision and access across the globe. One key aspect affected is academic advisement, vital to a student's university experience for enhancing success and engagement. While recognizing disparities between academic advisement and student progression at the University of Technology, Jamaica, the study explored the robustness and effectiveness of institutional academic advisement processes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic toward successful student engagement and subsequent course completion. A mixed method approach, utilizing surveys, enabled the description of the advisor/advisee experience so that understanding of the role, function, and benefit of academic advisement and its practices could be reviewed. The research was informed through data collected from 108 students and 15 lecturers attached to a Bachelors of Education qualification. The findings revealed that 80% of students sought their advisors on matters related to their course of study. Whilst students valued the advisor's experience and approach, they also recognized weaknesses in administrative functions attached to the process, specifically in student support system capabilities and follow-up. Recommendations include the strategic institutionalization of a mandatory advisement function, enhanced through a dedicated unit with the purpose of successfully enriching the advisee/advisor experience for both student and institutional success in higher education.

Implementing Social Justice Practices Online: Lessons Learned from Teaching and Advising Dissertations in Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This essay documents the lessons learned from the transition to teaching research methods courses and advising EdD doctoral students online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This discussion is set against the backdrop of developing a new fully online EdD Program in educational leadership for social justice at the institution, wherein the online transition due to COVID-19 offered an opportunity to assess effective pedagogy, student community and engagement, and workload expectations. In our analysis of the transition to teaching online, we applied Hammond's (2020) framework, which highlights design elements that promote agency for independent learning. We overlay the realities of teaching and advising adult students who are working full-time and managing home-life responsibilities in addition to pursuing their EdD degree. Unresolved questions and future directions for the culturally responsive and socially just online Education Doctorate are explored.