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April 4, 2016
Washington State University Carson College of Business Advising Board
Marisa Leenders, Washington State University Undergraduate
Kaitlyn Smith, Washington State University Undergraduate
Annie Christie, Washington State University Undergraduate
Blake Eide, Washington State University Undergraduate
Recommendation Report for Group Academic Advising Study

Attached is the report for our project on helping Washington State University students in
business majors receive information regarding graduation requirements. Our project is titled
Washington State University Group Academic Advising Help. We completed our tasks noted in
the proposal of February 21, 2016 by researching which majors pertained to group advising and
the likeableness of this group advising from students views. We emailed the various colleges at
Washington State University regarding questions about group advising. We also completed an
online survey to determine which students have group advising and their opinions on the
subject.
To carry out these specific tasks, we performed secondary and primary research. We contacted
the advising boards directly and found information from an online source regarding national
averages of student to advisor ratios. After research, we collected the necessary information
and analyzed our results to come up with this written report.
Our main findings were that WSU students did not like having group advising appointments.
They were found to be unhelpful, so we decided to create a blog to help students understand
their graduation requirements. Due to our time crunch we chose a few majors in the Carson
College of Business to focus on. This way we can put in more effort into a few majors and really
help those students who have group advising appointments.
We recommend one of two options: create a large database for students who need extra help
with group advising through our blog we created, or the other option is to communicate with the
advising board further on eliminating group academic advising completely.
If you need any more information regarding this report, please let us know. We appreciate you
inviting us to research and discuss options regarding group advising. Our contact information is
Marisa Leenders, at marisa.leenders@wsu.edu, Kaitlyn Smith at kaitlyn.smith@wsu.edu, Annie
Christie at annie.christie@wsu.edu, or Blake Eide at blake.eide@wsu.edu. We look forward to
hearing back from you.

Washington State University

Group Academic Advising Help:
A Recommendation Report
Prepared for: Washington State University
Academic Advising Board
Prepared by: Marisa Leenders, Washington State University Undergraduate
Kaitlyn Smith, Washington State University Undergraduate
Annie Christie, Washington State University Undergraduate
Blake Eide, Washington State University Undergraduate

April 4, 2016

Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Page 1

Introduction
Page 2

Research Methods
Page 2

Results
Page 3

Conclusion
Page 4

Recommendation
Page 4

References
Page 5

Appendix
Page 5

Executive Summary

Washington State University is experiencing an issue with a lack of advisors for the number of
students enrolled in undergraduate problems. Because of this issue many colleges within the
university have turned to group advising in order to serve all of their students. However,
students who have experienced group advising report many issues associated with this strategy
for advising. These issues include lack of attention from advisors and miscommunication about
required courses.
A recent survey by our group found that business and communication majors
were the main group affected by group advising.
The survey also reinforced the idea that group advising is often confusing and
ineffective for undergraduate students.
In creating this blog/discussion forum, we researched online web spaces that students could
easily be able to locate and navigate through. After this research we lauched our blog, WSU
Business Group Advising Help, on the Weebly.com platform. In addition, our group researched
the qualifications required for each major to graduate. For the purposes of this course, we found
it was more helpful to focus on one, more popular major to research for the initial launch of the
blog in order to provide the most complete information for students to utilize.
From this decision we focused our research on the five majors within the WSU
Carson College of business.
These majors are: accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality business
management, and marketing
On the basis of our research and through the creation of our repurposed product, we
recommend that WSU launches a similar style website or interface to help guide students
through the confusing process of group advising.

Introduction
The purpose of this research study is to show the findings of our research and inform interested
parties about the status of our group project. This document will let readers know how work on
our research is progressing, and how we plan to solve problem. Washington State University is
experiencing an issue with a lack of advisors for the number of students enrolled in
undergraduate problems. Many colleges within the university have turned to group advising in
order to serve all of their students. However, students who have experienced group advising
report many issues associated with this strategy for advising. Our group believes a blog and
discussion forum focusing on students will ease the hectic process of advising. In creating the
blog/discussion forum we will first acquire basic understanding of why advisors are switching to
group advising, then determine favorableness of group advising according to students, and
finally determine an effective method to reach students to help with group advising issues. This
outlet will allow students to discuss and talk about advising problems and issues. The internet is
a major part of today's society, so we feel it is important to utilize it effectively. We believe this
research will help provide Washington State University with another resource to make adding
classes to keep students on pace to graduate.
Research Methods
For the purposes of this project, we collected research directly from Washington State University
students and advising departments in each college at WSU. We wanted to focus on receiving
information about which majors incorporate group advising. This method allowed us to
understand the scale of the student body being affected by this problem. From there, we could
understand which colleges conduct group advising and find out the main reasons for using this
method.
To perform the basic research we separated the students and advisors views into two separate
tasks:
1. Acquire basic understanding of why advisors are switching to group advising
2. Determine favorableness of group advising according to students
Task 1: Acquire basic understanding of why advisors are switching to group advising
The first research task was to email all the advisory boards of each college within Washington
State University. We asked the following questions via email:

Does your college conduct group scheduling sessions?

If not all, which majors participate in group scheduling sessions?
If applicable, what are the top three reasons for conducting group sessions?
What percent of tuition, if any goes towards academic advising?
Is this college understaffed in the advising department, and if so, why?

On February 27, we emailed the following colleges: College of Veterinary Medicine, Voiland
College of Engineering and Architecture, The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication,

College of Education, Carson College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, and the
College of Agriculture Human and Natural Resource Sciences.
Task 2: Determine favorableness of group advising according to students
On February 22nd, we created a survey using SurveyMonkey to understand students opinions
on group academic advising appointments. The survey was open February 23-26. The link to
the survey was posted on a Facebook group with over 200 members. The members all attend
Washington State University and have had at least one advising appointment.
Initially we wanted to have a ten question survey, but decided on just six questions. This
strategy allowed for more students to respond because they knew it would be quick to complete.
The link to the full survey can be found in the appendix of the document.
Task 3: Determine an effective method to reach students to help with group advising
issues:
As a group we explored several options for methods to reach and assist students with the
issues that they face in group advising for the creation of a repurposed project. For this project
we also needed to evaluate which majors to focus on considering the time constraints placed on
the project.
Results
In this section, we present the results of our research. For the two tasks we developed, we
discuss the most important information we collected.
Task 1: Acquire basic understanding of why advisors are switching to group advising
On February 27th we sent an email with the five questions listed in the research methods section
to the colleges within Washington State University. The seven colleges are as follows; College
of Veterinary Medicine, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, The Edward R. Murrow
College of Communication, College of Education, Carson College of Business, College of Arts
and Sciences, and the College of Agriculture Human and Natural Resource Sciences. As of April
4th, I have received replies from four of the seven colleges. We will discuss the results by
college.

Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture: The Director of Advising and Enrollment
Management polled their advisors to get input. None of the majors conduct group advising
appointments. In their college, they have about 3,500 undergraduate students and 10 full time
staff for advising. The average is about 350 students per advisor but it changes due to majors
with more popularity. According to NACADA this is exceeding the limit (NACADA, 2015). The
reason due to this in the Voiland college, is because of budget constraints that limit their ideal
plans.

College of Education: The Director of Undergraduate Students for this specific college
explained how only their teacher education program conducts group advising. Their courses are
very specific to their major and group advising works because of the students same
requirements during the advising process. The college conducted a survey, which indicated their

students overall happiness with their academic advising. The director also noted they have a
sufficient amount of advisors.

Carson College of Business: The Director of Student Success for this college explained
that all majors participate in group advising, but at different times based on certification status
and major. Currently this college have had four advisors leave so they are struggling to
accommodate meeting with more than 3,000 students individually. They are hoping to have
seven academic advisors and one Associate Director by this upcoming April.

College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences: The Clerical Assistant,
Rose Bertram, explained that this specific college only conducts individual advising. She also
said with the increasing number of students, their advisors are adapting by starting the advising
season even earlier than in the past academic semesters. This allows shorter waiting times to
see an advisor during the semester.
From the help of advisors from Washington State University, the results show that the main
reason for group advising is lack of staff necessary to accommodate to the increasing student
enrollment. I also found out mainly the business majors, and the teacher education program are
affected by group advising.
Task 2: Determine likeableness of group advising according to students
At the end of the survey period, 16 students completed the survey. We feel the information
received is valuable because of the simplicity of the survey. The link to the survey can be found
in the appendix section of this report. The questions and answers are also available in the
appendix section as well. From these results we learned that the students were unfavorable
towards group advising. We also learned which majors, from the ones in the survey, were
partaking in group advising. The majors affected by group advising were business and
communication majors.
Task 3: Determine an effective method to reach students to help with group advising
issues:
Overall our findings show that students do need more help with scheduling future classes. We
decided to create a blog to help smooth this process. The link to our blog can be found in the
appendix. This blog has information regarding requirements for a few majors within the Carson
College of Business at Washington State University. The included majors are accounting,
entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality business management and marketing. The graduation
requirements include all the Carson College of Business basic requirements and the specific
major courses (Majors, 2016).
Conclusion
In this section, we present our conclusions based on the research.
Group advising is unliked by most students but its understandable
Out of the sixteen students that participated in our survey we concluded that the switch to group
advising was disliked by all. With the switch to group advising being majority in the Carson

College of Business here at WSU, we needed to focus on what was causing the switch. We
concluded that there has been a lack of academic advisors in the college of business so they
are having a difficult time adhering to the change and are doing their best to accommodate the
many undergraduate students trying to complete any business major.
The actions that can be taken to help get individual help to students
While trying to help these students get the individual attention and focus they need. We believe
having a blog where undergraduates can go to get their basic understanding of what they need
to do to complete their degree is a great place to start. While the chance of eliminating the
switch to group advising right now is out of reach, having this blog can help students organize
and understand what all they need to do.
Recommendation
With all the information we have gathered, we would recommend two options.
Option 1: Utilizing the blog we have created can be used to improve students understanding of
their graduation requirements. If any students have questions regarding their requirements they
have the option to leave comments anonymously. This way they feel as if they get individual
attention on their own personal needs. This option will also help ease the flow of questions the
advisor receives during the group advising session.
Option 2: Seeing as how the reason for the Carson College of Business is switching to group
advising because of the lack of advisors, we simply suggest hiring more staff members to better
accommodate the students here at WSU.
Our repurposed product for this project if used accurately can be very successful and become a
great asset for the the college of business during its time of transition.

References
Majors & Minors | Carson College of Business | Washington State University. (2016). Retrieved
April 05, 2016, from https://business.wsu.edu/undergraduate/majors-minors/
NACADA Home. (2015, July 1). Retrieved March 04, 2016, from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/
Survey Software Tool for Free Professional Research | SurveyMonkey. (2016). Retrieved
February 19, 2016, from
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/take-a-tour/?ut_source=header
SurveyMonkey Link to Academic Advising Appointments. (2016).
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YNS8Q2N
WSU Business Group Advising Help. (2016, April 2). Retrieved April 05, 2016, from
http://wsubusinessgroupadvisinghelp.weebly.com/

Appendix:
SurveyMonkey WSU Student Survey
The following questions and responses are from the survey and the numbers represent how
many students answered for each part:
1. What year are you at Washington State University? (Freshman- 0, Sophomore-5, Junior- 6,
Senior- 5)
2. What is your major? (Sport Management-1, Communications-5, Nursing- 2, Kinesiology-1,
Education-2, Finance-3, Sports Science-1, Management Operations-1)
3. Have you previously attended a group advising appointment? ( Yes- 37.5%, No- 62.5%)
4. Do you have a group advising appointment this current semester? (Yes- 12.5%, No- 81.25%,
I do not know- 6.25%)
5. Overall do you like group advising appointments? (Yes- 0%, No- 56.25%, Does not apply43.75%)
6. If applicable, please explain why you like or dislike group advising appointments. (For this
question I had 6 responses and all were unfavorable of group advising)
Here is the link to the survey for further reference: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YNS8Q2N
WSU Academic Advising Help for Some Business Majors
Here is the link to our blog we created to help WSU students understand their graduation
requirements for future semesters:
Final Repurposed Product: http://wsubusinessgroupadvisinghelp.weebly.com/