How will advising be restructured?

Students will meet with an academic advising specialist prior to or early in their first semester. They will work together on goal setting and verification of program placement. The "advising specialist" is a new position and will be introduced to each campus.

Students will be assigned to a faculty academic advisor during their first semester. Faculty advisors will take a proactive approach to advising, connecting with students early and often.

Counselors will focus on their specialties, such as career counseling, transfer services, disability services, and veterans’ affairs. In addition, they will provide academic advising to general studies students, non-curricular students, and those on academic probation or warning.

Tools and resources are being developed to aid students, faculty and staff in teaching and learning through academic advising.

How to create a new advising world

Your friendly QEP Development Committee is hard at work on projects to improve advising and enhance students' academic planning skills. Here are some of the projects we're working on:

Assessment of personal development general education goal
Restructuring of assignment of advisees to advisor
Establishment of director of academic advising and advising specialist positions
Development of advising training modules
Development of program of study exploration tools
Redesign of student and faculty advising websites
Investigation of CRM software for tracking advising
Creation of annual award for academic advising
Creation of student video contest to demonstrate importance of advising

You'll notice that a lot of these projects involve more than the QEP Development Commmittee. We're working closely with other college units and committees to ensure that we're all heading down the same road.

What are your FAQs?

What are the questions regarding advising that you need answers to? Are there common concerns from students that you are frequently asked? Do you have questions and have trouble finding the answer (or someone who would know the answer)? What kind of training would you like to see available for faculty advising? How would you like to see the training delivered? Comments please.

GPS for Success: Teaching and Learning through Academic Advising

How do you advise?

Advising is much more than helping a student select the courses for the upcoming semester. Advising is a developmental process. It includes the following:

discussion of life, career, and academic goals
examination of programs in line with goals
reflection on past academic performance
course selection
class scheduling

What kind of resources do you need to be a better faculty advisor?

Official title!

The new title for the QEP is "GPS for Success: Teaching and Learning through Academic Advising."

The QEP Development Committee feels that this title speaks to the collaborative, developmental process of advising and the need for planning for academic success.

Updated draft of academic advising mission statement

We've had lots of great comments on the draft of the academic advising mission statement from various college units. Here is a revision:

The purpose of academic advising is to help students identify the educational paths to develop and accomplish their personal, academic, and career goals. Through academic advising, NOVA students will build the on-going relationships with faculty, counselors, and staff necessary to forge those paths.

What is Academic Advising?

The QEP Development Committee is working on a draft of an advising philosophy statement for NOVA:

The purpose of Academic Advising is to provide NOVA students with diverse services which will foster the building of on-going relationships between students, faculty and counselors through assorted and engaging activities including guided discussions, the use of analytical and evaluative tools, workshops and student development courses (SDV) to ultimately help students identify and/or develop stated personal, academic and career goals. Furthermore, the purpose of advising is to help students identify their educational paths and needs in response to their academic/personal goals.

Does this fit your concept of academic advising?