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The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal An Advising Syllabus: A Tool to Increase Advising Effectiveness Jessica N. McKamey, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
Many of us see students who come to our offices for an advising appointment having no real understanding of why they are there. This is really the extent of their knowledge of advising—they have nothing prepared for the meeting, but why would they? They do not know that they have any responsibility, and they may not understand the importance of their role in the advising relationship. The answer to this is to give our advisees a tool and a resource—an advising syllabus. There has been quite a bit written about the need for and use of an advising syllabus. Trabant (2006) described an advising syllabus as a tool to outline the experience and relationship of advising for advisees as well as a way to bridge the gap between curricular and co-curricular activities that act as support for the student in their educational pursuit. From the articles and examples of syllabi I have examined, however, none have really bridged that gap between curricular and co-curricular to the extent of creating a true syllabus that students would recognize as such. The sample syllabus at the end of this article and the information I am providing are attempts to develop an advising syllabus that more closely mirrors other course syllabi. Syllabi are a staple among college courses. One would be hard-pressed to find a course that did not use some type of a syllabus; they are used in courses in the liberal arts, science, math, and languages, so why not in the advising process? An advising syllabus would help standardize advising to that of the classroom experience. An advising syllabus would in itself assist in students' initial transition to college. Additionally, its content would help students understand what to expect from advising, from their first day through the rest of their college career and graduation. Not all syllabi need to go that far, but can you imagine the power of students knowing in their first semester that someone will be looking for them and waiting for them down the road a year or two later and knowing ahead of time what to look forward to? They could know, for example, that in their first semester they do not have to ask questions about internships or careers—unless they really want to—because they will have plenty of time to do that later. The syllabus would tell them the appropriate time to talk about internships with an adviser, as well as when to get an audit of completed classes or plan for letters of recommendation. Most students think advising is just the process of receiving a list of classes to take for the following semester that, as Appleby (2001) said, “will satisfy requirements and amass credit hours.” The advising syllabus is a good way to assist students in overcoming this view and participating in their education. They will not be able to act as full participants in the advising process if we have not prepared them to do so. By giving students a syllabus, we are preparing them, as well as inviting them, to join us in the process of their education and the decisions that go along with it. According to Appleby (2001), “An adviser is the only person in the position to help students gain a coherent overview of their curriculum, rather than seeing it as just a series of courses that can be listed on their transcripts.” There are several components that an advising syllabus should include in order to be fully effective and more closely match course syllabi:
Another way to help students navigate advising-related activities is to expand upon these ideas and develop an institutional advising syllabus. A common advising syllabus would bring a level of standardization to advising across a campus. Many campuses have advising systems that vary from one academic unit to another, and many times students do not see the same adviser every time they have an advising meeting. With this in mind, an institutional advising syllabus would keep everyone on the same page. If an institution had an advising syllabus, then an adviser from any unit would know, regardless of where the student was seen last, what the student should have been exposed to in advising in his or her previous appointment. An adviser would know, for example, that John Q. Student is in his third semester and that, if he has been following the syllabus and has seen an adviser at last once a semester, he has already been through orientation, a first-year seminar, and summer courses and should now be ready to further discuss a summer internship. This knowledge would also be transferable: if the student decided to transfer to a new academic unit, besides the fact that the student would be prepared, he would be able to go into a new adviser's office and continue on his advising “track” to get the most out of his education, even in a new academic unit. In my experience, I have found that while many of our students do not know what to expect from advising, once they are given some guidelines, they flourish. This can be seen in many areas of a student's education. This tool that I am suggesting (and implementing myself) will help our students gain a clearer understanding of the advising process and their role in it, help bridge the gap between the classroom and co-curricular behavior, and hopefully give our students an understanding of the important role advising plays in their educational career. Sample Academic Advising Syllabus References Trabant, T. M. (2006). Advising syllabus 101. Retrieved September 6, 2006, from http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/syllabus101.htm Appleby, D. C. (2001, February 5). The teaching-advising connection: Part I. The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, 3(1). Retrieved October 11, 2006, from http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ McKamey, J. N., Lukenbill, K. L., Mandabach, D. R., Rewerts, J. R., & Sellers, T. M. (2006). [Assessment of the nineteen resources available from or associated with the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis psychology department advising office]. Unpublished data. About the Author Jessica N. McKamey is an academic advisor and graduate student at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. She can be reached at jnmckame@iupui.edu. Published in The Mentor on March 21, 2007, by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |