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Exhibit G-7
Improvements In Advising

   In the 1997 NCATE review two areas of weakness, both related to advising and clearly focused on the advising of candidates for the initial teacher preparation program, were reported.  Annual progress reports related to these weaknesses may be found in Exhibit G-6 .  Advising is a topic that has attracted much attention and additional resources in recent years, not only within the College of Education and for professional education candidates, but campus-wide as well.

   Since 1997, the College of Education has acquired an Assistant Dean, whose sole responsibility is "advising" (broadly defined), and a college advising office, staffed as noted below.  While we have vastly improved advising services in a number of ways in recent years, there is clearly much more to do.  In the process of defining the agenda and establishing priorities, internal research has been undertaken to try to "pinpoint" the areas of candidate  concern with advising.  The following report of activities of recent months, prepared by COE Assistant Dean Shawn Quilter, demonstrates both our activities related to advising and the assessment of the outcomes of these activities.

Report on Academic Advising of Initial Teacher Certification Students at EMU
by Shawn Quilter, Assistant Dean/Advising

Assessment of Advising

   In order to formally evaluate the academic advising services provided to initial teacher certification students at Eastern Michigan University, the college has used two different surveys. The first survey is a proprietary survey from EBI Benchmarking. The EBI Benchmarking survey is given to all students who are completing their student teaching in the Fall and Winter semesters. This survey asks students how satisfied they are with various aspects of the initial teacher preparation program. Two questions are used to address academic advising. Students use a Likert-type scale to respond to the questions. The second survey was created by the College of Education Advising Center. Its first administration was during the Fall 2002 semester. This survey was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, from students currently taking professional education courses, which could be used to improve academic advising.

EBI Benchmarking Survey

   This survey is typically administered to 1200-1300 students per year. The two questions on the EBI survey are as follows.

   Data from this survey have been collected over the last three years. Response rates have been around 62%. The following tables summarize the results from this survey.

Table 1: Responses to Question 1

Table 2: Responses to Question 2

   A little over one-third of the respondents indicated they were not satisfied with academic advising by faculty advisers. Almost 20% indicated no opinion, which is supposed to indicate that they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with academic advising. It is somewhat difficult to interpret the results of the second question because they could be rating general academic advisers, community college advisers, departmental secretaries, or any number of other support personnel who answer questions. Again, there is a relatively large percentage of students who indicated no opinion (23-27%). These quantitative results don’t tell us why students feel the way they do. However, clearly there is some dissatisfaction with academic advising.

College of Education Advising Center Survey

   We collected 788 usable surveys from a population of 1209 students that were in professional education courses during Fall 2002. The response rate was 65%. The demographics of the sample were similar enough to the population of students in the professional education courses that the results would be useful for determining general trends.

   Because of the results from the EBI Benchmarking surveys, we wanted to know how students felt about the information provided to them through advising channels. Responses are grouped by major or program area since advising responsibilities are divided up by major and program area.

   Students were asked to rate their academic advising experiences on a Likert-type scale that went from strongly agree to strongly disagree. There was an option to respond with “no opinion”, however, this response was not placed between strongly agree and strongly disagree. In other words, “no opinion” was not part of the scale.  Following is the first statement.

1. Secretaries and staff help me find advising information and appropriate advisers for my program.

Table 3: Perceptions of Helpfulness of Support Staff with Advising Information

   All of the percentages listed in Table 3 have a margin of error of 2% or less. The percentages in parentheses are based on calculations were “no opinion” responses were removed. “No opinion” responses on this survey are probably coming from students who either self-advise or have no basis for evaluation b/c they have not sought individual advising yet.

   A majority of students (average = 73%) perceive secretaries and other staff as helpful in finding advising information and advisers. This is especially true when students without an opinion are removed from the calculations  (average = 86%). Despite these positive results, there is room to improvement.

   Students were also asked to rate the quality of information provided by academic advisers. Using the same Likert-type scale, students evaluated the following statement.

2. Advisers provide me with accurate information.

Table 4: Perceptions of Information Accuracy from Advisers

   All of the percentages listed in Table 3 have a margin of error of 2% or less. The percentages in parentheses are based on calculations were “no opinion” responses were removed. “No opinion” responses on this survey are probably coming from students who either self-advise or have no basis for evaluation b/c they have not sought individual advising yet.

   A majority of students (average = 63%) perceive secretaries and other staff as helpful in finding advising information and advisers. This is especially true when students without an opinion are removed from the calculations  (average = 73%). Despite these positive results, there is room to improvement.

   In order to better understand the results from the rating scales, we analyzed the data from the qualitative portion of the survey. Students were asked to write about the strengths and weaknesses of academic advising in initial teacher certification programs. There were 1202 written responses with regard to advising strengths and weaknesses. Of those responses 513 (43%) mentioned strengths and 689 (57%) mentioned weaknesses. Approximately 50% of the students mentioned both strengths and weaknesses on their survey.

   The results from the qualitative analysis are presented in Table 5. Several themes developed when analyzing the data. Only the five most common themes are presented in Table 5. The most common positive comments were about the general helpfulness of advisers. There were also positive comments about availability, secretaries, advising materials, and group advising. Perceived weaknesses included: adviser availability, proactive advising, clarity of program requirements, advertising advising services/information, and consistency of information provided within/between departments that advise students in initial teacher certification programs.

   In an effort to better understand the concerns of students who made relatively negative comments about academic advising, we selected these responses and analyzed them separately. The three most common concerns, in order of most to least common were: 1) incomplete/incorrect/inconsistent advising, 2) the need for more adviser availability, and 3) the ability of advisers to spend quality time with advisees.

Table 5: Themes From the Questions about Advising Strengths and Weaknesses

Improvements in the Advising System

   Since 1997 there have been several major improvements to the advising system for initial teacher certification students. Three of these improvements are particularly noteworthy because they are responsible for much of the positive feedback we are now receiving about academic advising services.

            Access to Advisers and Services

   During the 2000-2001 academic year advising centers were opened in all of the colleges that have initial teacher certification students. The College of Education Advising Center is open five days a week with evening hours available on Tuesday evenings or by special appointment. Currently, the center is staffed by three full-time academic advisers, one part-time career adviser, one graduate assistant, and one person in a secretarial position.   The center is open every weekday and has at least doubled the number of advising hours available to students since 1997. In addition to providing services directly to students, staff from the College of Education Advising Center have been visiting and sharing information with EMU’s four largest feeder community colleges on a regular basis. This collaboration helps students make a smooth transition from community colleges to EMU’s initial teacher preparation programs. As part of its mission, the College of Education Advising Center staff spends several hours during the fall and winter semesters updating and training faculty advisers and staff. Training sessions help to insure that all academic advisers have an opportunity remain current with advising information and procedures. The Advising Center has also made it possible to offer some walk-in advising services to students. Though limited in nature, many students have been able to receive advising services without making an appointment, especially in emergent situations.

   Following are some statistics from the College of Education Advising Center. Over the past year and one half, the Center has been averaging 5 individual student appointments per day with regular undergraduate initial teacher certification students. Over the past two years, the Center has been averaging 1.4 new programs of study written for post-baccalaureate initial certification students. In addition to the numerous individual appointments, outreach activities, and faculty training, the Center’s staff has provided group advising services during the past year to over 2,000 students in initial teacher certification programs. Group advising is an integral part to the advising model for all students who seek elementary or secondary initial certification through Eastern Michigan University. Students seeking initial certification in Special Education, Physical Education, and other K-12 programs are assigned to individual advisers as per departmental policy.

            Sharing Information

   Given the dynamic and progressive nature of the initial teacher certification programs at Eastern Michigan University, it is necessary to keep everyone abreast of changes to programs, policies, and procedures. This is no easy task, especially when many of the students in initial teacher certification programs at Eastern Michigan University are working adults who lead busy lives. As a means of sharing important information with all initial teacher certification students and advisers, three major initiatives have begun over the past two academic years. The first initiative was to update the general advising Web site for initial teacher certification students at EMU. The updated Web site includes program information, advising information, resources for students and faculty, as well as a section for frequently asked questions (see http://www.emich.edu/coe/advising and http://www.emich.edu/coe/newhome/page012.html). Information that previously was only available by visiting the campus is now readily available on the Internet. The second initiative was the creation of advising Listservs. Two advising Listservs were initiated to keep initial teacher certification students up-to-date with program changes and various news items. The Listservs are located at http://list.emich.edu/mailman/listinfo/coeadvising for regular undergraduates and http://list.emich.edu/mailman/listinfo/postbac for post-baccalaureate students. Once a month, students receive advising updates and news by e-mail. They can use this information to navigate successfully through initial teacher certification programs at Eastern Michigan University. The third initiative is the creation of two newsletters. The first newsletter is for all advisers of initial teacher certification students. This monthly newsletter is titled Heads Up, and is circulated to 60-70 advisers across campus. The second newsletter is for post-baccalaureate students. This newsletter is titled The Post, and is circulated to post-baccalaureate initial teacher certification students three times per year.

            Systematic Assessment of Advising Services

   Since 1997, there has been a concerted effort to assess and evaluate the advising services provided to initial teacher certification students at EMU. Two tools have been used to collect data. The first tool is the EBI Benchmarking survey, which provides very basic information about students’ perceptions of academic advising. This tool is mentioned above in some detail. The second tool is the advising survey sponsored by the College of Education. This survey is mentioned above and was first administered in Fall 2002. These surveys, which are administered annually to student at the beginning, middle, and end of their initial teacher certification program, provide the basis for systematic evaluation of advising services. Because the surveys are done each year, there is consistency built into the process. That is, since 1997, the assessment of advising services and consequent improvements have become systematic within initial teacher preparation programs at Eastern Michigan University. Before 1997, there was no mechanism to systematically evaluate and improve academic advising services.

   Based on an analysis of students who had some concerns with academic advising (i.e. students who “Disagreed” in Table 3 above), we were able to determine what their most common concerns were. The most common concern (53%) was with getting consistent and correct advising. The second most common concern (19%) was adviser availability. The third most common concern (16%) was the feeling that advisers were rushing them through appointments. The fourth most common concern (12%) was access to advising information.

   Given these results, the College of Education Advising Center is implementing an action plan to address these perceptions over the next year. To address the first concern, The College of Education Advising Center will provide adviser training to all initial teacher certification advisers, on a group or individual basis, during the Fall 2003 semester. This will be accomplished through training sessions and individual appointments, as necessary, until each adviser has been updated on program requirements. This way, there will be more consistency and correctness in the advising process. To address the second concern, the College of Education Advising Center offer more direct contact hours and better advertise its extended hours on Tuesday evenings, so that students can connect with an adviser. To address the third concern, advisers in the College of Education Advising Center will offer 40-60 minute advising sessions. This information will be shared with various other departments in case they want to increase the time, or change the way, they do advising appointments. To address the fourth concern, the College of Education Advising Center will conduct an advertising campaign in the Fall of 2003 to let students know about all of the Internet resources and individual advising hours available. In the past, these services have not been well advertised.

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