Literary Review

OMDE 670 Research Paper

Emerging Issues in Student Advising at a Distance
Stephanie Martin
9/20/2010
Anderson, T. (2004). Student services in a networked world. In J. E. Brindley, C. Walti, & O.

Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Learner support in open, distance and online learning

environments (pp. 95-108). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem

der Universität Oldenburg.

In the new information age student support it becoming automated and Anderson feels

that for institutions to succeed in the information age they must follow the trend and

automate their services. Many tutors and academia believe that this takes away from the

personal touch of student support such as advising. Anderson argues that the automation

can take place and still keep it personal by using avatars that use real voices or animation

in IM environments. Many institutions have already automated some advisor functions

such as degree plans that students can access online through their student portal, applying

for graduation, and viewing their transcripts. But what happens when students become

confused and need to speak with someone about the direction their academic life is taking

or maybe their confused about their course selections; this type of service still needs to

come from a human or at least the automated portion needs to have the insight of an

advisor when developed.

Many of these automated services are developed by IT professionals who do not interact

with students and do not know there dispositions concerning academic life. This type of

insight needs to be taken into account when developing automated services for student

needs. I am sure in our own institutions we have all seen the roll out of a new automated

service only to be revamp several types in the upcoming months because little human

touches were left out of the initial program.

Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

With many of these services going automated advisors must be proactive and initiate

student support to coincide with the automated services. Advisor may need to work

through the automation taking notes on particular areas they may find confusing to

students and then develop support documents that can be sent out to students when the

problem arises. Much of advising is being proactive with the students but sometimes

they may need to use this proactive approach when it comes to the tools that the student

will need to use and be successful.

Another concept that Anderson introduces is the use of more online collaborated student

areas. Not where students can collaborate on homework assignment but rather they can

collaborate on their academic lives. Student chat forums have become a popular place for

distance education students to meet and discuss their feelings about their learning

experience or maybe just find support from students that have the same experiences as

they do. Many institutions have developed clubs that distance learners can joined; some

are grouped by study area, by demographic areas or by gender or ethnic background.

Advisors should be proactive in linking their students with support group such as these by

introducing their students to the availability of such groups. As much of the research as

told us students may not seek out the services they need but will use them if introduced to

them by a trusted advisor.

Brindley, J. E. (1995). Learner services: Theory and practice, Distansutbildning i itveckling,

Rapport nr. 11 (pp. 23-34). Umea, Sweden: University of Umea.

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 Jane Brindley, a course author of distance education courses at the University of

Oldenburg, has put much research into the retention of students in ODL programs. In

this paper she feels that the focus of the research should not just be on the specifically

retention but rather on all parts of the strategies to retain the students, like the

teaching/learning process. This article covers the theory of her and others research and

the key components to look at when it comes to ODL support as it pertains to the

retention of students.

Brindley, J.E., Walti, C., & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2004). The current context of learner support in

open, distance and online learning: An introduction. In J. E. Brindley, C. Walti, & O.

Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Learner support in open, distance and online learning

environments (pp. 9-27). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem

der Universität Oldenburg.

The authors of this chapter include not only their expert opinion on the field of learner

support but also outline the expert opinions of many others who have been included

throughout this textbook. Each expert that is brought in gives his or her expert opinion in

a different area of student support. While this chapter is a summary of the textbook, it

does give the reader a foundation on terms that are used in distance learning as it pertains

to learner support and also how the terms have evolved from what they once were. The

chapter lays the foundation for what student support is in distance learning and how it

should be developed in order to assist these types of learners. This chapter is written not

only for someone who is new to the field but also to the veterans because it tries to
Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

centralize many of the terms that are used interchangeably but should not be.

Dunn, S. T. M. (2005). A place of transition: directors’ experiences of providing counseling and

advising to distance students. Journal of Distance Education, 20(2), 40-57.

Grant MacEwan College of Canada in Edmonton did a study of their faculty on advising

and counseling due to their increase in distance offerings and the amount of the students

taking advantage of them. They realize that student advising was one of the most

important services to students but felt that students felt this way because they didn’t know

about other services that were available to them. While they wanted to introduce the

additional services to their students they also realized that student advising would become

an issue since their student body was spreading further from their main campus

counseling center.

While most advisors and students are comfortable with interacting through email not all

correspondence can be securely sent this way. Also, some students don’t feel

comfortable typing their personal issues about their academics in a public setting if

forced to use public computer access. Some institutions believe advising should take

place in the same form as the classroom offer types; i.e. online, telephone, or print.

Some institutions fear that advisors don’t have the writing etiquette needed to converse

with students about delicate matters through email. It is harder for advisors to pick up on

queues or feelings of disconnect over technology conversations. Telephone advising is a

challenge due to work schedules, cost to the student or institution, and time zone

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 differences. While students like to hear a person speaking because it makes them feel

more connected, this isn’t always available because of barriers described previously.

A large concern is also keeping website data up to date and has interactive material

available where students can explore options on their own before contacting an advisor.

The problem that can arise from this is if the interactive material isn’t up to date and the

student accesses the wrong information, once they contact the advisor they will receive

contradicting information from the advisor; this can cause the student to become

frustrated with the process.

While some institutions admit that a change to student services may be needed to

accommodate the distance learner they still have not chosen to make the transition to

advising at a distance as of yet. They believe because distance education students are

more independent mature adults and more driven then younger students right out of high

school they will seek the necessary services they desire without the institution taking

them to the student.

Granger, D., & Benke, M. (1998). Supporting learners at a distance from inquiry through

completion. In C. C. Gibson (Ed.), Distance learners in higher education (pp. 127-137).

Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

With many years experience in the field of global and online learning these two authors

came together to share their expertise in the field of using technology at a distance.

Institutions have new ideas daily on technology, course offerings, and new services but

some don’t think about how this will affect their students. Institutions must consider who
Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

their students are and where they are located. Consideration must be given to barriers

that separate students like culture and experience. The same consideration must be given

to professors who may need to support students but need support themselves. This article

is part of a certificate that is offered through the University of Wisconsin.

LaPadula, M. (2003). A comprehensive look at online student support services. American

Journal of Distance Education, 17(2), 119-128.

LaPaula is involved in behavioral science studies so it is fitting that she would research

such an important science of student support. This articles looks at the findings of the

Beyond the Administrative Core research project that was funded to explore student

services and how they affect the distant learner. LaPaula feels that the lack of these types

of services has created an even greater isolation for distance learners then they might

already be feeling from being away from other learners outside the classroom. In this

research it was found that most institutions are only offering the basic administration

tools to their distance learners and lacking in the important support part of the student

support equation; these services include access to the library, counseling and academic

advisors. Paper provides extensive reference information to many different institutions

student support information to be used in comparison reviews.

Luna, G. & Medina, C. (2007). Promising practices and Challenges: E-advising special

education rural graduate students. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 26(4), 20-26.

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A survey conducted by two professionals from Northern Arizona University was

presented to students enrolled in a master level education program and were located

throughout the state in rural areas anywhere from 50 – 560 miles away from the campus.

When students enroll in the program they are assigned an e-advisor due to the distance

education nature of the program. The advisors were still available for traditional office

visits and telephone conversations but most interaction would take place via email.

Students reported that they were happy with the accessibility of their e-advisor.

Questions asked pertained to gender, distance, and assignment but the important

questions pertained to topics discussed with advisor, type of experience they had with

advisors, and recommendations for improvements.

Students in this poll were satisfied with these services because they met their needs in

several ways. Even though they were assigned e-advisors they were left with the options

to call or visit the advisor when they needed personal interaction rather than a technical

non-personal interaction.

This type of advisor setup seems a feasible alternative for on campus advising but the

costs have not been assessed or addressed in this survey. In a personal opinion this type

of advising seems cost effective in a sense but would be in relation as to how many are

already employed and if additional advisors would be needed to implement this process.

Like any other student service in an institution cost is the driving factor as to how many

and what types of services will be offered by the institution. It seems that these services

are not perceived as a necessity by administrators in most institutions and so often are the

first area that are cut during budget restraints.

Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

Maples, G., Harris, B., & Greco, A. M. (2010). Using a 360-degree appraisal approach to re-

design advising programs. Contemporary Issues In Education Research, 3(1), 1-7.

Even with the change in nature of education, advising is still a difficult area for

institutions. The change in education has changed everything from the mission, delivery,

student demographics and faculty approach. This change has affected the advisors

position because it is increasingly harder to read students needs at a distance. Students

have a much different demographic background than 10 years ago and this has presented

new obstacles for advisors to help their students overcome.

Using the 360-degree approach to feedback advisors can receive feedback from several

critical persons that play a part in their advising styles; supervisors, peers, students and

subordinates. Changes can then be made not based on a model of set criteria like in the

past but rather the ever changing environment of learning in this century.

The institution can use the student survey portion as feedback and see the areas that need

improvement so that changes can be made to advising patterns to adapt to the changing

environment of distance education.

This type of tool can develop advisors further to assist students in being successful in

their program, satisfaction in the services offered and retention with the institution.

Nalewaja Van Voorhis, S., & Falkner, T.M.R. (2004). Transformation of student services: The

process and challenge of change. In J. E. Brindley, C. Walti, & O. Zawacki-Richter

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 (Eds.), Learner support in open, distance and online learning environments (pp. 231-

240). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.

Many times when advisors embark on a new project they will need the assistance of other

divisions in the organization to make the project successful for students; these include the

IT, BA, HR and Financial departments in many cases.

A good starting point for a project proposal is for analysis on students needs and how

they were addressed; this can take place through statistical data. Statistics can range from

the number of emails and phone calls received to the nature of what was discussed in

each month. This information can then be turned into tutorials and fact and question

sheets with the help of the above groups. These statistics can also be helpful in showing

administration the need for additional information or services for the students.

Because students demand a qualified, competent, decision maker to assist them in their

academic goals and needs training must reflect this. These statistics can also be used to

revamp old training programs to better service the students and develop advisors to better

handle distance education students needs. In my research I have not come across many

training programs that are geared to develop student support personnel to serve their

distance education students so this is sometimes a venture that the advisor must make on

their own.

Rekkedal, T. (2004). Internet based e-learning, pedagogy and support systems. In J. E. Brindley,

C. Walti, & O. Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Learner support in open, distance and online

learning environments (pp. 71-93). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der

Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

Universität Oldenburg.

Rekkedal a director of research and development in Oslo has developed this study and

presented it at the EDEN conference on Internet E-Learning. The presentation starts out

with an overview of terms in E-learning, including this term, and gives past definitions

and current ones. The use of terms in the E-learning environment has evolved over time

and sometimes the terms have become fussy and crossed over into areas that maybe they

should not have, this can cause confusion as to the definition. By giving the background

of the terms and then defining how they are used today it helps to give a more clear

presentation as to what he is speaking about when using such terms. Rekkedal then goes

into the pedogical aspects of E-learning and how the types of teaching and learning can

affect the student support system. Out of all the authors that I have reviewed for the

student support subject Rekkedal is the first who tries to outline student support as it

relates to retention. He gives diagrams as to each path a student may take based on their

type of support or even their chosen support system. He then builds on these diagrams

and follows up with ways that facilitators and institutions can use these types of

information to build their student support system. I found most fascinating the definition

that he gives for “what student support means” (p. 86). Most authors try to define what

student support is and what it encompasses but not what it actually means.

Rumble, G. (2000). Student support in distance education in the 21st century: learning from

service management. Distance Education, 21(2), 216-235.

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Rumble has found in his research that many institutions when developing their distance

programs have put much thought into the student support that centers on enrollment,

delivery and finances but not much around the advising aspect. He has found that

students want their distance education to run somewhat like fast food; where they want it

when they want it and how they want it. So where does this leave advising? Most

institutions are graveling with retention issues but most are not looking toward advising,

even though most research I come across leads right back to that. Institutions need to

make decisions based on cost and can’t see the value in adding this extra cost to their

already high overhead in some instances.

The OUUK is a fine example of how advising has worked to make them successful at

sustaining the test of time for their Open University program. When entering the

university a student is assigned an advisor that will stay with them throughout their

course of student with the university; this allows the student and the advisor to create a

bond that will allow the student to feel that they have a connection with the university.

Once the advisor is assigned their students they would make initial contact so the student

knew that they were available to them.

In recent years the OUUK has felt that maybe they need to cut this service out and make

the student support a call center due to budget cut backs. Research was completed to

argue the continuity of the old program based on the findings that support is most needed

when students enter the university, learners with support are likely delay completing their

program or drop out, and students with support have higher course completion numbers.

Still this wasn’t enough in this economic down turn to keep such a great program in
Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

place.

Changes like this in good programs have caused academic advisor to change the way we

do our jobs. Advisors must step outside of the box to help students on most occasions

since the traditional foundations of advising are no longer in place. Advisors must use

what the institutions has available through other programs, like automated enrollment

systems to get to know their students and seek them out. Many advisors won’t develop

these types of services on their own so incentives must be developed to initiate this type

of progress. Institutions can setup incentive programs for advisors who develop new

innovative ways to reach students that don’t cost institutions money but rather uses their

already in place data base to reach out to students.

Shea, P., & Armitage, S. (2003). Beyond the administrative core: Creating web-based student

services for online learners. Resources. Guidelines. WCET - the Western Cooperative for

Educational Telecommunications. Retrieved from

http://www.wcet.info/ services/studentservices/beyond/index.asp

This resource outlines the project that was conducted on Kansas State University,

Kapi’olani Community College and Regis University and their development of web-

based student services and the implementation of these services.

This is a guideline for how these schools went about developing their student services

online, the training involved and the implementation that was involved. This serves as

collaboration between these three institutions to develop best practices that can be then

passed on to other universities/institutions so that they too can develop web-based student

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 support systems. This project allows other institutions to view what took place during

this three year time frame so that they can make their own timeframe and develop a plan

of action for implementing their own project. I believe the most important part of the

study that will help other institutions in implementing their services is the “key lessons

learned” section. This allows the institutions to view the bumps and bruises that these

three institutions went through during their implementation and will allow them to

possibly divert from having the same bumps and bruises. As much of the literature that I

have read on student support implementation, their needs to be a consensus on the

importance of developing such services; if the leaders are not behind the project it will be

hard to form a team feeling so that everyone is on board and to keep them motivated to

see the benefits of the project.

An overview of this project can be found by accessing; LaPadula, M. (2003). A

comprehensive look at online student support services. American Journal of Distance

Education, 17(2), 119-128.

Simpson, O. (2004). Retention and course choice in distance learning. In U. Bernath & A. Szücs

(Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd EDEN Research Workshop Oldenburg, March 4-6, 2004,

(pp. 381-387). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität

Oldenburg.

Simpson specializes in student support and retention in distance education so he has

research course choice as it pertains to retention in distance education. Simpson feels

that students who are left to pick their own classes may get discourage when the course
Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

does not work out for them or find it does not fit into their degree plan. He also finds that

students will not always seek out assistant even if it is available or even follow the path if

it is. An advisor must know their students in order to effectively counsel them on the

right path for their personality or career choice and this costs extra money that

universities are not willing to sink into support systems. Academic advising is difficult at

a distance not only because of the demographic but also because of the cost involved to

do so. Time is needed to get to know each student and this isn’t always an option when

budgets are being cut in the area of support. Simpson outlines some cost effective ways

that other students through surveys and reviews of classes could possibly support

students.

Student course selection can have an extreme affection on their decision to continue

studying with an institution or drop out because they because frustrated with the outcome

of the course. Students may choose classes that they do not need to complete their

degrees and this has caused frustration in institutions as well. Since Simpson feels that

student will likely not seek out guidance in this matter or if they do receive guidance they

may ignore it because they feel that they know better than the advisor in class choice.

For this reason advisors have to come up with new innovative ways to reach students to

ensure they are making the right choices. In the UKOU they felt that students may listen

to students more than they would the advisor so they have had their advisors do surveys

on courses to receive feedback information on courses that can be used to assist students

with class selection. The feedback will give more information than the course description

does in the catalog and will reflect a more personal approach rather than a standard one.

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 The advisors can then use this material to match courses more closely with their students

but once again the advisor must know their students. Advisor must do the research

needed so that they can assist students using this type of information by knowing their

students background and their goals.

Steele, G. (2006). Five possible future work profiles for full-time academic advisors. NACADA

Journal, 26(2), 48-64.

Technology has not touched advising as of yet in the masses. While a large majority of

institutions across the US have reported that students can at least apply to become

students and enroll in classes online, there is not a majority of institutions that have an

asynchronous advising available. Advisors have to find their students on their own rather

than wait for their students to find them because they may not know they have access to

such services. Many students are taking advantage of distance learning opportunity and

quite often never visit the campus.

With the use of automated services by the institutions for registration advisors can use

this information to assist students with class choices and whether students should take a

full load and other important information that they may not have the opportunity to know

about the student due to know have a direct connection with the student. These

automated systems, while not developed for student support, can be used to assist the

advisors to better acquaint themselves with student needs.

There are many new technologies out there being developed that could assist advisors

with student support, like course response systems (CRS) and collaborative learning
Stephanie Martin
OMDE 670
Section: 9040
9-20-2010
Literary Review

environments (CLE) that can track students responses in courses allowing advisors to see

what type of participation they put into particular classes.

Academic advising can be a visiting professor to a distance education classroom just as

the writing center and librarian have been in many courses. Many don’t perceive

advising as being the same type of support serve for students as these two items but they

really are.

Some students may feel a disconnect when advising is at a distance so again advisors

must adapt and seek an appropriate technology to reach these students; like using Skype

with video rather than an email or IM.

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