IU Bloomington

Using NSSE to Enhance Advising Practice at Indiana University Bloomington

Quality advising appointments engage students in meaningful conversation about their academic interests, course selections, academic performance, and personal goals.

One source of information about advising quality is a multi-year collection of NSSE results. Specifically, results about quality of interaction with academic advisors demonstrate that IUB first-year students’ and seniors’ ratings were consistently good, and significantly higher than peer comparison groups. Advisors also reviewed results from the Academic Advising Topical Module to identify what might help augment the advising experience and sharpen the focus on advising practices.

Indiana University Bloomington

The University Division at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) routinely examines the advising experience to enhance the quality of appointments and ensure the implementation of best practices.

Guided by NSSE 2019 Annual Results showing that the quality of academic advising is far more important than the number of advising visits, IUB advising leaders explored the effect of longer appointment times as a way to encourage more meaningful discussions. Advisors found that slightly longer appointment times – by as little as 15 minutes – had positive outcomes. For example, they:

Contributed to the establishment of deeper interpersonal connections.
Encouraged a greater likelihood of addressing topics beyond transactional exchanges (e.g., "How do I drop a class?") to students’ goals and explorations into the IU programs and opportunities that will help them achieve their goals.
Helped advisors implement more best practices, including aspects from coaching models and appreciative advising.

Notably...the focus on a longer advising appointment enhanced the critical relationship dimension of advising quality.

Notably, advisors reported that the focus on a longer advising appointment enhanced the critical relationship dimension of advising quality, including engendering students’ trust in the advisor’s ability to help, demonstrating how much advisors care about students as individuals, encouraging students to broach topics they think may not be related to advising, but that affect their educational experience, and promoting greater receptivity to any advising outreach.

The investment in advising resources needed to facilitate longer appointment times has a two-fold payoff in that both students and advisors appreciate the depth of resulting interactions. Finally, the test of the differences made by varying appointment lengths to improve overall quality helped create an environment in which students feel that their academic success matters and that the institution has a vested interest in their progress.