Advice on Advising

The CTL held the second of two "Advising Tools: Web 4 and CAPP" workshops on Thursday, 25 October. Faculty participants reviewed both online and offline tools, as well as best practices. Sean and one of this year's Faculty Mentors, Paul Weizer, guided several faculty members through a mock advising session with a student.

Several things to think about:

First, prior to the advising session, you might want to encourage your students to review the course listings for the upcoming term as well as their progress in a given degree plan; students might even print out a Curriculum Advising and Program Planning (CAPP) sheet to bring along to the session.

Second, you should have received a packet from your department Chair and/or secretary that will contain the following materials to assist in your advising:

- A blank registration form
- A blank schedule worksheet
- The four-year suggested plan of study
- (For licensure tracks) a candidate disposition form
- Student PIN information (which includes the "alternate" pin information)

Third, you might want to take advantage of "Web 4 resources" at the Registrar's office, which offers "self-help" documentation at http://www.fsc.edu/registrar/web4.html.

Fourth, when doing the actual advising you will want to bring up "Web 4" itself (http://web4.fsc.edu/), as well as the "available seats list (http://www.fsc.edu/registrar/seatslist.html). These seats lists provide you with the CRN, section information, LAS course codes, and the scheduled days and times of the various courses. When you go over students' forthcoming schedule, you should walk them through their program or degree requirements, credit hours completed, current GPA, etc. Note: Subtract out the "in progress" credits for an accurate accounting of completed hours.

Special considerations for this academic year:
"Learning community" options are available for freshman this coming spring semester. Moreover, you will want to advise your students of the coming changes in the new LA & S curriculum (AY08/09). Last, registration overrides are now available online but only for your current students or advisees.

Questions from the session:
Faculty question: How much advising do you offer on charting their college learning path?
Mentor answer: When first advising students, ask them what careers they are interested in. Also, some students may prove especially talented, and you may want to advise them on double majors or perhaps even thinking about graduate programs.

Questions from our IM session:
Are advising forms published in the Faculty Advising Handbook available online?
CTL Staff Answer: We will research the advising forms question with various offices and post an answer to Blogthecenter.

Clair