Assessment Report: Engagement of

Undergraduate Students with

Academic Advising Services at the
College of Health and Human
Julio Diaz

CHHS Office of Student Affairs

 Executive Summary
The College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) provides advising services to students enrolled in four distinct
undergraduate programs: Community Health, BS; Health Administration, BS; Nursing, BSN; and Social Work, BSW. All CHHS
undergraduate advisors form part of the office of Student Affairs (OSA), and they are led by Brian Gillette, Associate Director of
Student Success. OSA has four advisors as of May 2021.
This purpose of this assessment report is to review the engagement of undergraduate students with academic advising
services at CHHS during the fall 2020 semester. The review of the data shows the number of students who seek advising at
CHHS and the topics discussed during advising sessions. Stakeholders may use this data to improve their student outreach
and delivery of service.
By extracting quantitative and qualitative data from Navigate Mason and enrollment quantitative data from the office of
institutional effectiveness and planning website, I analyzed the data using a mixed method process that synthesized and
focused quantitate data. I analyzed a random sample of advising qualitative data in the form of advising notes and organized it
into topics of discussion.
The findings of this report revealed that there was a ratio of approximately 383 per advisor and that 35% of enrolled students in
a CHHS program did not meet with an advisor in the Fall 2020 semester. The analysis of the quantitative data revealed that the
greatest number of undergraduate appointments happened Mondays and Thursdays, 11am – 12pm in October and November
during the Fall 2020 semester. Also, the extracted quantitative data showed that more appointments were labeled Nursing or
Pre-Nursing, and the least number of appointments were labeled success coaching. Regarding the qualitative data, the
analysis of the sample indicated that the most discussed topic during advising sessions was degree planning but there were
multiple other topics that were discussed during advising sessions such as career planning, referrals to student services
offices, and difficulties with classes or professors.
Finally, I listed recommendations to focus the advising work by creating a mission and goals for the OSA, and using
assessment tools in the form of surveys to collect self-reported data from CHHS students about the effectiveness of advising.

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Purpose of Report
The purpose of this assessment is
• To review the level of engagement of undergraduate students
enrolled in a CHHS program with the academic advising services
provided by the CHHS Office of Student Affairs during the Fall
2020 semester.
• By reviewing this data and reading this report, CHHS advisors
and leaders can help focus outreach programs that can benefit
their students, create programs that address the common topics
students discuss during advising sessions, and implement
assessment tools to help gather more data that can help improve
advising practices at CHHS.

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 Data
• CHHS Undergraduate student data extracted
from Mason’s advising database (Navigate
Mason) and the Office of Institutional
Effectiveness and Planning (OIEP).
• All data analyzed on this assessment report
comes from the Fall 2020 semester.
• Data narrowed down to undergraduate students’
advising appointments that occurred from August
3rd to December 18th, 2020 (Fall 2020 semester)
• During this timeframe, all advising appointments
were conducted online due to the COVID-19
pandemic
• Extracted quantitative (number of advising
appointments) and qualitative data (summary of
advising appointment notes) from Navigate
Mason.
• Enrollment data extracted from the office
institutional effectiveness and planning (OIEP)
website.

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 Analysis
• There was a total of 1,627 undergraduate
advising appointments for the CHHS in the Fall
2020 semester (Navigate Mason)
• 1,178 appointments were scheduled in advance
while 124 were labeled as drop-in appointments
(Navigate Mason)
• Analyzed advising appointments using a sample
of 100 out of 1,119 appointment notes available
for Fall 2020 (Navigate Mason)
• Organized data using a random sample of the
four classification types of undergraduate
student advisees: Freshman, Sophomore,
Junior, and Senior. Percentages remained the
same (Navigate Mason)
• Separated data into documented topics that
were discussed during each advising
appointment.

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 Findings
Advising numbers in Relation to Enrollment

Enrollment numbers extracted from the office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning website.
Advising numbers extracted from Navigate Mason.

• 1,913 students were enrolled in a CHHS undergraduate program in the Fall 2020 semester which
divided by five advisors (excluding the director of student success) made the ratio of students per
each advisor approximately 383.

• 1,250 (65%) undergraduate students met with an advisor in the Fall 2020 semester.

• 663 (35%) of all students enrolled in a CHHS program did not meet with an advisor in the Fall 2020
semester.
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 Findings
Advising Appointments Numbers
• CHHS Advisors conducted 1,627 appointments in the Fall
2020 semester (August 3rd – December 18th).

• 1,178 of those appointments were scheduled beforehand

while 124 of them were drop-in appointments.

• In 94 of those appointments, the students did not show up

to their appointments and a total of 235 appointments were
canceled or rescheduled.

• Greatest number of appointments happened on Thursdays

(389) and Mondays (346).

• most students made appointments regarding the Nursing

program.

• Most students made appointments from 11am – 12pm in

the months of October (493) and November (445). The
least number of appointments happened in September
(186).
Data extracted from Navigate Mason. 7 | George Mason University
Findings
Advising Appointments Numbers
Fall 2020: Advising Appointments per
Though the ratio of advisor per Advisor
student was 383, the distribution of 600

students per advisor in the Fall 2020 500 482

was uneven with Maria Perez having 400 351 336

the greatest number of student 321
300 255 263 268
appointments and Emily Johnson
189
having the fewest. This could be in 200
133114
part of Perez’ function as a success 100
85 80
coach which might have resulted in
0
more students making multiple Gillette, Brian Green, Raven Johnson, Kargbo, Perez, Maria Williams,
Emily Ibrahim Christopher
appointments with Perez’ during the
Appointments Distinct Students
Fall 2020.
Data extracted from Navigate Mason.

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 Findings
Advising numbers per Academic Program and Student Classification

In the Fall 2020

semester, advisors
conducted more
appointments regarding
Nursing major advising
and Community Health
advising. The lowest
number of appointments
discussed the topic of
success coaching.

Data extracted from Navigate Mason. 9 | George Mason University

 Findings
Advising in relation to Student Level (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior

• The greatest percentage of advising appointments in Fall 2020 were with Juniors (31%) and the least amount
were with Freshman (19%).

• The greatest number of students enrolled in a CHHS program in the Fall 2020 semester were sophomores .

FALL 2020: COMPARISON OF

STUDENTS ENROLLED IN A CHHS
PROGRAM AND ADVISING
APPOINTMENTS
% of advising appointments % of students enrolled in a CHHS Program

40.0% 37.0%
31.6% 29.0%
30.0% 24.7% 24.8%
18.9% 18.5%
20.0% 15.5%
10.0%

0.0%
Freshman Junior Senior Sophomore

Enrollment numbers extracted from the office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning website.
Advising numbers extracted from Navigate Mason.
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 Findings
Topics discussed in Advising sessions (A Qualitative Analysis)

The greatest number of

appointments were about
degree planning.
However, there were
other topics discussed
during advising sessions
such as career
exploration, and referrals
to student services
offices.

Data extracted from Navigate Mason.

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 Discrepancies in the Data
• Students selected the type of appointments they wanted to get.
Sometimes students selected other majors or concentrations different
that their own when scheduling their advising appointments. For that
reason, the data may present some inaccuracies.
• Students who were seeking academic advising for Pre-Nursing often
selected Nursing Advising from the drop-down menu in Navigate
Mason. For that reason, it was difficult to find out how many students
were seeking Pre-Nursing advising and how many were seeking
advising after they were accepted in the Nursing Program.
• In the Fall 2020, all advising sessions were conducted online and there
were no same day appointments conducted at the Office of Student
Affairs. However, 124 of advising appointments were labeled Drop-In
during the Fall 2020 semester. It is unclear whether the advisor or
student selected the type of appointment in Navigate.

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Suggestions for future
assessment projects

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 Focus the advising work
• Focus the advising work by creating a mission for the office of
undergraduate affairs at CHHS.
• Restructure the website by presenting a clear mission and goals for
the program.
• With a defined mission and goals, advisors can focus their work to
the goal of the department, and it would make it easier for future
assessment since there would be a measure that can be
evaluated.
• The mission and goals should line up partly on the mission of the
CHHS which states: “to engage our diverse student body and
faculty in transdisciplinary academics, research, and
interprofessional practice to promote the health of populations
while eliminating disparities.”
Future assessment Practices
• Plan using a satisfaction assessment tool for
future assessment projects.
• Assessment tools can be in the form of surveys
sent to students at the CHHS asking to self-
report about advising services at the CHHS.
• These surveys can ask students who have not
attended advising sessions to disclose the
reason for not using this service. They can be
anonymous, and a staff member should
analyze the data regularly to report findings to
both the director of student success and the
Associate Dean of student affairs.
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 George Mason University
College of Health and Human Services
Office of Student Affairs
100 Peterson Hall
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
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