November 1996 — Features

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Cyber Adviser: High-Tech, High-Touch Advising

STANLEY J. LIEBERMAN, Analyst-Programmer Valencia Community College Orlando, Fla. This article describes an easy-to-use (honest!) Windows computer program that makes course planning almost a fun activity. This program, Cyber Adviser, has dazzled and amazed hundreds of participants at several presentations. When advising staff at Valencia Community College became aware of Cyber Adviser’s existence, there was concern it would displace them. These fears were unfounded. After having the program demonstrated, they became strong supporters. The mere ability to click a mouse button to instantly access information that usually required thumbing through hundreds of pages was a big selling feature. The program also provides consistent information, eliminating a typical problem in which different advisers give (slightly?) different information about the same topic. The total end result of the program’s features means that the quality of advising improves to a level beyond merely telling a student which courses to take. The student’s life goals can be discussed instead of wasting time looking up course requirements. Background Valencia is the first community college to receive a Title III grant for curriculum and advising. As a part of this grant, faculty and staff participate in professional development projects in which the concept of "developmental advising" is studied. Developmental advising fills two very important needs: Need for an academic advisement process that supports greater student success among those who have historically not done well at Valencia; and Need for accessible individual student educational plans.
The developmental approach to student advisement is founded in developmental learning theory and is structured to help the student become progressively more autonomous, goal directed, and thus academically successful. As part of these projects, participants receive training on Valencia’s online educational planning system, Cyber Adviser. Valencia is the first community college to receive a Title III grant for curriculum and advising. Developmental advising is an important new emphasis for Valencia’s work with students on both their academic and co-curricular activities. This approach helps to foster a student culture that supports student success in academic pursuits within the overall structure of Valencia’s open-door, part-time, commuter-student campus. As a result of the activities for this part of the grant, faculty and student services staff will be able to advise students in the construction of individual student educational plans, and students will begin to learn to use such plans as effective learning tools.

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