Dear Ms. Lea:
Working in higher education, we can get very comfortable and familiar with our terminology and procedures. This familiarity can cause us to become detached from the incoming student experience. Within my current role as an academic advisor, I find an excellent opportunity for us to reevaluate our processes to improve our students’ experience. I try to constantly review and improve processes, communication, and information accuracy. Through these efforts, I find that there is room for innovation.
For example, much of an advisor’s workday consists of answering many of the same questions as we assist students in navigating their program of choice. I propose to address this opportunity by improving the information students receive by creating a personally curated advisor’s tips website that will serve as a resource for students throughout their academic journey. Students can feel overwhelmed as they attempt to synthesize all of the information and requirements for their program and the university’s policies and procedures. We can improve students’ experience by consolidating material into one resource relevant to their specific path instead of expecting them to search all of these sources separately. Additionally, by framing this information through an advisor’s personally curated and hosted perspective, we can help students see the information as being provided as a close, supportive interaction, which can help build the advisor-advisee relationship and trust.
I want to pilot a web-based resource that would allow me to augment academic advising by curating an online resource. This page, written from a helpful academic advisor’s perspective, combines relevant departmental websites, university policies, and other important program information that students can use on a self-directed basis. By directing students to this advisor’s “tip’s page,” they can become self-directed learners with full ownership of their academic experience. Additionally, this personally curated website/resource will allow advisors to link students to specific information instead of repeating the same explanations or looking up links to policies/procedures on a case-by-case basis.
I want to pilot this with one of my assigned programs over the Spring 2022 semester with plans to expand to the other two programs I advise over the remaining 2022 year. Once implementation is underway, I propose to develop this resource for other programs within our advising unit. This resource would help streamline the flow of the workday for advisors, which provides additional time to spend building more substantial and meaningful relationships with advisees.
I have a passion for helping people, and I hold my role in each student’s educational journey as an absolute honor and privilege. I intend to make every effort to help dispel their stress levels by providing a resource that makes them feel connected with a caring member of the university to reassure them that they have guidance and assistance throughout their academic experience. The benefits of this solution will help improve the student experience and the overall satisfaction level of our programs.
I look forward to exploring this opportunity to help and guide students as they pursue their goals. I appreciate your consideration of my innovation proposal.
Sincerely,
Dawn Short
Advising Coordinator
The Advisor That Cares 