Baseline Data for Assessment of Academic Advising Initiative

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Baseline Data for Assessment of Academic Advising
Initiative

• Janine M. Allen, Ph.D.
• Professor of Education
• Portland State University
• Cathleen L. Smith, Ph.D.
• Professor of Psychology
• Portland State University

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Overview of Presentation

• Method
• Sample Characteristics
• Results
• Where Students Receive Advising
• Overall Satisfaction with Advising
• Predictors of Retention
• Advising Functions Importance and Satisfaction
  Ratings
• Advising Attitudes
• How Student Characteristics Impact Responses

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Method

• We devised a survey that asked students to rate
  the importance of, and their satisfaction with,
  12 advising functions
• Survey also included items that measured where
  students receive their advising, advising
  attitudes, and predictors of retention including
• Goal commitment
• Institutional Commitment
• Significant Relationship
• Satisfaction with advising and PSU

4
Method

• Survey was web-based and administered during
  on-line registration for spring term 2003
• 2,193 undergraduates responded to the survey, and
  of those, 1,834 completed both parts of the
  survey
• Survey responses were merged with data from the
  Student Information System

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Sample Characteristics

• Population 11,979 students
• Sample 2,193 students (18.3)

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Sample Characteristics
7
Sample Characteristics
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Sample Characteristics

• Average age
• population 26.5 years
• sample 26.5 years

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Where Students Get Primary Advising
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Where Students Get Primary Advising (cont.)
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Where Students Get Major Advising
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Where Students Get Major Advising (cont.)
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Where Students Get University Studies/Gen Ed
Advising
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Where Students Get University Studies/Gen Ed
Advising(cont.)
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Where Students Get Advising for Type of Degree -
BA/BS
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Where Students Get Advising for Type of Degree -
BA/BS (cont.)
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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Integration (Holistic Advising)
• Advising that helps students connect their
  academic, career, and life goals (overall
  connect)
• Advising that helps students choose among courses
  in the major that connect their academic, career,
  and life goals (major connect).
• Advising that assists students in choosing among
  the various general education options that
  connect their academic, career, and life goals
  (gen ed connect)

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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Integration (Holistic Advising) (contd.)
• Advising that assists students with deciding what
  kind of degree to pursue in order to connect
  their academic, career, and life goals (degree
  connect)
• Advising that assists students with choosing
  out-of-class activities that connect their
  academic, career, and life goals (out-of-class
  connect)

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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Referral
• When students need it, referral to campus
  resources that address academic problems
  (referral academic)
• When students need it, referral to campus
  resources that address non-academic problems
  (referral non-academic)

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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Information
• Assisting students with understanding how things
  work at PSU (how things work)
• Ability to give students accurate information
  about degree requirements (accurate information)

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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Individuation
• Taking into account students skills, abilities,
  and interests in helping them choose courses
  (skills, abilities, interests)
• Knowing the student as an individual (know as
  individual)

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Advising FunctionsHow important is this
advising function to you?

• Shared Responsibility
• Encouraging students to assume responsibility for
  their education by helping them develop planning,
  problem-solving, and decision-making skills
  (shared responsibility)

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Measures of Advising Functions

• Six point Likert-type Scales
• How important is this advising function to you?
• 1 Not Important
• 6 Very Important
• How satisfied are you with the advising you
  receive on this function?
• 1 Not Satisfied
• 6 Very Satisfied

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Advising FunctionsRank Order of Importance
Ratings(Satisfaction Rating in parentheses)

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Advising Attitudes

• It is important to develop an adviser/advisee
  relationship with someone on campus (advising
  relationship)
• There should be mandatory academic advising for
  students (mandatory)

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Advising AttitudesStrongly Disagree 1
Strongly Agree 6
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Predictors of Retention

• Goal Commitment
• Its important for me to graduate from college
  (Graduate College)
• I have a plan to achieve my educational goals
  (Educational Plan)
• Institutional Commitment
• I plan to graduate from PSU (Graduate PSU)
• I am confident that I made the right decision in
  choosing to attend PSU (Right Decision)

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Predictors of Retention

• Significant Relationship
• I have had at least one relationship with a
  faculty or staff member at PSU that has had a
  significant and positive influence on me
  (Significant Relationship)
• Satisfaction
• Overall Overall, I am satisfied with my
  educational experience at PSU (Overall
  Satisfaction)
• Advising Overall, I am satisfied with the
  academic advising I receive at PSU (Advising
  Satisfaction)

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Predictors of Retention in Total SampleStrongly
Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6
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I Believe I Have Been Accurately Advised
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Consequencesfor students who answered no
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Content Analysis of ARC Petitions

• Petitions where the student claimed advising
  error

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How Student Characteristics Impact Responses

• Gender
• Class Level (lower-division vs. upper division)
• Enrollment Status (new vs. continuing)
• Age/Cohort
• Educational Source
• Ethnicity

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Advising FunctionsImportance Ratings By Gender

• Women rated importance of all advising functions
  significantly higher than men,
• With one exception shared responsibility
• The greatest mean difference observed for the two
  referral function

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Advising FunctionsSatisfaction Ratings By Gender

• Satisfaction ratings were not significantly
  affected by gender

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Advising FunctionsImportance Ratings By Class
Level

• Lower division students differed significantly
  from upper division students on the importance
  ratings for 2 of the 12 functions

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Advising FunctionsImportance Ratings By Class
Level

• Lower Division Rated Higher
• Referral Academic
• Upper Division Rated Higher
• Accurate Information

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Advising FunctionsSatisfaction Ratings By Class
Level

• Satisfaction ratings were not significantly
  affected by Class Level

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Advising Functions Importance Ratingsby
Enrollment Status (New vs. Continuing student)

• Two advising functions rated by new students as
  significantly more important
• gen ed connect
• skills, interests, abilities

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Advising Functions Satisfaction Ratingsby
Enrollment Status (New vs. Continuing Student)

• New students significantly more satisfied than
  continuing students on 8 of the 12 advising
  functions

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Advising FunctionsImportance Ratings by
Age/Cohort

• Older rated 6 of the 12 functions as more
  important
• Four of 5 integration functions
• Both information functions

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Advising FunctionsSatisfaction Ratings by
Age/Cohort

• Older students significantly more satisfied on 10
  of the 12 advising functions

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Advising Functionsby Educational Source

• When transfer students, whether new or
  continuing, were compared to native students,
  whether new or continuing, we found virtually no
  differences in either importance or satisfaction
  ratings

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Advising FunctionsImportance Ratingsby Ethnicity

• We found major differences here
• Significant ethnic differences found on 7
  functions
• Where there was significance, Asian-American and
  African-American students (and sometimes
  Multi-Ethnic students) rated the advising
  functions as more important than White students

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(No Transcript)
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Advising FunctionsSatisfaction Ratingsby
Ethnicity

• Satisfaction ratings were not significantly
  affected by ethnicity

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Advising Attitudes

• It is important to develop an adviser/advisee
  relationship with someone on campus (advising
  relationship)
• There should be mandatory academic advising for
  students (mandatory)

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Advising Attitudes By Gender

• Women rated the importance of advising
  relationship and mandatory, significantly
  higher than men

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Advising Attitudes By Class Level Enrollment
Status

• Significant differences found on one of the two
  items (advising relationship)
• Lower division students were more likely than
  upper division students, and new students more
  likely than continuing students, to agree that it
  is important to establish an advising
  relationship

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Not Receiving Advice
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Advising Attitudes By Age/Cohort, Educational
Source, and Ethnicity

• No significant differences

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Predictors of Retention By GenderStrongly
Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6plt .05 plt.01
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Predictors of Retention by Class LevelStrongly
Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6plt .05
plt.01 plt .001
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Predictors of Retention by Enrollment
StatusStrongly Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6
plt .05 plt.01 plt .001
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Predictors of Retention by Educational
SourceStrongly Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6
plt .05 plt.01 plt .001
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Predictors of Retention by Age/CohortStrongly
Disagree 1 Strongly Agree 6 plt .05
plt.01 plt .001
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Predictors of Retention by Ethnicity

• Native American students have lower Advising
  Satisfaction, significantly lower than
  African-American, Hispanic, and Multi-Ethnic
  students
• Multi-Ethnic Students have higher Advising
  Satisfaction, significantly higher than Asian
  American, Native American, and White students

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Predictors of Retention by Ethnicity

• Asian American students are less confident they
  made the right decision to attend PSU,
  significantly lower than Hispanic, White, and
  Multiple Ethnicity students
• Asian American students are less likely to have a
  significant relationship with a faculty or staff
  member at PSU (significantly lower than all other
  ethnic groups)

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Further Questions

• What are the independent effects of student
  characteristics on importance and satisfaction
  ratings when these characteristics are considered
  simultaneously?
• What is the model that best describes the
  interrelationships among these variables, e.g.,
  how do importance and satisfaction ratings of
  advising functions influence retention
  predictors?
• What are the long-term effects of these variables
  on student outcomes, particularly retention?

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Next Steps

• Integrate retention data into database
• Examine qualitative data to better understand the
  meaning of these quantitative data
• Add indicators of socioeconomic status
• Administer survey again, and do follow-up
  analysis of ARC petitions, to examine effects of
  Advising Initiative

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Implications for Practice

• Students care about these advising functions
  even the lowest ranked function (out-of-class
  connect) was rated on the important end of the
  scale
• Information is paramount two of three top-rated
  items in overall sample (accurate information
  how things work) involve an information function
  that should be the focus of research on and
  practice of academic advising
• Academic aspects of the educational experience
  are preeminent functions rated least important
  by overall sample involved co-curricular services
  and activities

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Implications for Practice

• Increase advisors awareness of the need to
  tailor their advising strategies to the
  characteristics of students along a number of
  important dimensions
• Provide advising programs that specifically
  target and support members of ethnic minority
  groups
• Provide professional development opportunities
  and incentives to assist advisors, particularly
  faculty, in integrating the various advising
  functions in their practice