A Proposed Model for a Web-Based Academic Advising System

Computer and Information Science, 2014

Advising is a vital component of student academic success in college. This paper describes the design and creation of an electronic Student Academic Advising System (SAAS) to support conventional advising procedures. Use of this SAAS is intended to better guide students through educational process via the use of technology applications. In addition to evaluating the impact of academic e-advising on the student experience in higher education, this study also explores the two different types of advising (e-advising and traditional/in-person academic advising). The satisfaction levels of the students with both types of advising were also assessed. The findings offer some awareness into how effective academic e-advising might be used as an alternative/support to traditional, face-to-face advising methods.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, 2020

Aim/Purpose This study describes a conceptual model, based on the principles of concept algebra that can provide intelligent academic advice using adaptive, knowledge-based feedback. The proposed model advises students based on their traits and academic history. The system aims to deliver adaptive advice to students using historical data from previous and current students. This data-driven approach utilizes a cognitive knowledge-based (CKB) model to update the weights (values that indicate the strength of relationships between concepts) that exist between student’s performances and recommended courses. Background A research study conducted at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), a higher education institution in Kuwait, indicates that students’ have positive perceptions of the e-Advising system. Most students believe that PAAET’s e-Advising system is effective because it allows them to check their academic status, provides a clear vision of their academic...

The purpose of this paper is to explain design and implementation of the decision support system for student advisement. The advisement process plays an essential role in student's academic life. The goal of the decision support system is to help advisors as well as students to plan their degree programs. The system facilitates the process of advisement by providing quick and easy access to valuable information, and giving important feedback on several issues involved in student advisement, which otherwise could have taken considerable time. The student advisement system certainly simplifies the task of advisement, improves the quality of student advisement and gives a viable option to students. The system is invaluable tool for advisors and students.

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2014

Student advising is a vital activity in higher education institutes, yet it is a time consuming effort in academic life. Through experimental research, this article examines whether multiple sources of knowledge are helping academic advisors providing more effective decision to their students. Drawing on multiple knowledge sources, including the students' historical records, university's regulations, students' preferences, and career trends, the article explains why these knowledge sources are essential and discusses ways of constructing it. The article then presents the results of a study of recent developed prototype at University of Bahrain, compares data from the years 2009 through 2011, and discusses implications of the data. It concludes that the proposed model have made significant progress toward more effective decision making for students, but it also identifies a need for further improvement, which can be accomplished through advanced techniques on data mining and artificial intelligence.

The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal , 2004

In recent years, the administration of academic advisement has undergone radical transformation as technological developments have altered the processes by which information is collected, stored, and accessed; the systems by which communication is enabled; and the structures by which transactions are conducted. Each technological innovation has challenged advising administrators to contemplate and implement alternative forms of services to students and the many other groups supported by colleges and universities. The changing landscape created by this technological revolution has provoked new ways of thinking about the delivery of services typically found in a college's advising services portfolio. The challenge to manage and support students has taken on new meaning "in light of relational and networked databases, prolific and assertive e-mails ... Internet technology and other World Wide Web-based transactions, [as well as] information dissemination and on-line query servers" (Moneta, 1997, p. 5). The intersection of technology with shifting missions for student recruitment and retention professionals requires significant changes in the management of academic advisement. Senior enrollment services officers can no longer rely on traditional forms of advisement, service delivery, or retention. Historical practices within advising services have little place in a technologically driven, customer service-oriented environment in which face-to-face services may be replaced with computer screens and voice mail. The contemporary delivery of academic advisement will be increasingly in the form of distant and virtual contacts, less restrained by office hours and staff availability. Technological and consumer-influenced changes call for modification in both the forms and functions of academic advisement delivery. According to Moneta (1997), these shifts "further necessitate changes in management principles and methodologies that guide student affairs, and further require that student affairs administrators understand the factors underlying these challenges as well as the implications of applying technological developments to student affairs and its functions" (p. 6). Technological changes are both the result of, and stimulus for, alternative management practices. Several factors will determine the role that technology will play in the management of advising services. For example, the submission of a paper transcript to a college or university will soon be a relic of past practices, as online applications and electronic submission processes become the norm. Scanning devices will prescreen and categorize the applications, according to predefined institutional criteria. In the near future, the first time a human being looks at an academic degree audit may be after an initial batch of "red flags" have been identified. Likewise, electronic submission of college transcripts will enable direct entry of student information into the campus records system, without need for data-entry personnel. In theory, the outcome will be fewer staff, quicker response, lower cost, diminished errors, and instant access to academic information. Throughout advising services, as with many other administrative units on postsecondary campuses, managers are expected to do more with less, and technological solutions have emerged as the perceived answer for concerns about productivity and cost. However, the benefits of replacing advising and advising-support personnel with technology to enhance productivity and reduce overall costs have not yet materialized. In a human-resource environment like academic advisement, the qualities associated with human assistance make it difficult to determine gains and losses when technological applications serve in lieu of personal contact. Campuses are also engaged in an accelerated adaptation of various technologies, with particular focus on installation and use of networked and Internet-based services, state-of-the-art telephone applications, and in-house video broadcast capability. World Wide Web access methods now allow for user-directed applications and interventions. Students, for example, can now review their transcripts, degree audits, and billing status, all from the comfort of their rooms, as students do at the University at Buffalo. Advising services staff are faced with these evolving challenges. Often, these situations are prompted by institution-wide initiatives that leave advising units "little choice to adapt, regardless of cost, competency, and convenience" (Moneta, 1997, p. 7). In fact, conversion to uses of technology will inevitably increase efficiency and enhance user satisfaction, but the challenge will be to coordinate the pace and scope of technology in the human resources that compose the core of advising services. Technological innovations have created an abundance of opportunities for new practices and enhanced services "frequently characterized as 'real-time,' 'student-centered,' and 'any time, any place'" (Moneta, 1997, p. 7). For example, instead of seeking extended hours for academic advising, students can submit e-mail inquires that are answered by peer, paraprofessional, or professional advisers, depending on the nature of the question and the level of expertise required. This electronic triage system was recently installed at the University at Buffalo with the creation of the Student Response Center. The UB Student Response Center-which comprises the customer service staffs from the former offices of Academic Advisement, Records and Registration, Student Financial Aid, Student Accounts, and Undergraduate Admissions-ensures that staffs are deployed where needed. Likewise, current student-institution administrative transactions require innovative approaches and alternatives. Today's students are twenty-four-hour, seven-day-a-week customers who reject the disadvantages of traditional nine-to-five administrative practices. Technology provides extended access to information, interaction, and client-centered applications. Electronically, the campus has becomes a twenty-four-hour operation. Students, encumbered by classes, work, research, and other daytime obligations, are increasingly seeking access to academic support services at times most convenient to them. For undergraduates, in particular, the most convenient time is frequently well after midnight. At nonresidential institutions, such as Youngstown State University in Ohio, students seek remote access from home and work. They have become increasingly resistant to on-campus visits for seemingly trivial interaction with advising personnel and clerical service providers. Students have come to expect, and prefer, that inconvenient trips to the downtown YSU campus for student orientation, academic advisement, course registration, bill paying, and even library services be reduced. The technological environments on many campuses are evolving rapidly and comprise numerous elements: information dissemination, transactional interaction, communications applications, and educational technologies. Technology in Higher Education Academic Advisement View of Technology in Higher Education Academic Advisement | The M.