Title
Rationalizing Academic Advising'- Removing Redundancies to foster Pedagogical Resilience
Theme
Educational Environments
Background
“I feel like an alien on a foreign planet” (First year student)
“I cried all night, I don’t know how I’m going to tell my parents, I only got an average of 68%” (First year student)
Academic advising is a two-way process
Students & staff engage in a special relationship
Summary of Work
The Vision of Academic Advising Unit
at College of Medicine - PNU
The Five Year Strategic Plan
The Strategic Five Year Academic Advising Unit Plan was developed and implementation begun
According to the Plan besides advising, the advisors play a role of a mentor, councilor for the students. They have begun training in:
- Academic facilitation
- Mentoring
- Communication Skills
- Prescriptive and Developmental Advising
TEAAM
‘Towards Excellence in Academic Advising and Mentoring’ Program for all Advisors .
- Competency Certificate Awards for All Advisors
- Yahoo Groups for advisors to share and interact
Fig -1
Hierarchy of the Academic Advising Unit
Methodology
- Focus group methodology was used
- Recorded data from the minutes of the students’ biweekly meetings about academic issues
- Recorded data from the Advisors bimonthly meetings focusing on student academic progress and behaviours
- A Performa was used for the feedback of the Academic Advisors about the working procedures.
Summary of Results
Issues Raised by Students
Issues raised by students |
Percentage |
Resolution |
An overload of lectures of various subjects in the Foundation Block made it difficult for students to manage their learning. |
60% |
In consultation with The Head of Basic Sciences it was decided:
|
Faculty communication about certain topics/subtopics as ‘important’ confused the students for exam preparation. |
70% |
The faculty was given workshops on presentations skills in the classroom. |
Some topics were difficult to understand. |
75% |
A tutorial was added in the ongoing block. For the next year the topic will be dealt in two lectures and a different faculty member will conduct the lectures. |
Better to have the midterm of a block less than six weeks |
65% |
It was clarified that according to the changed Exam policy there will be no midterms for Blocks less than six weeks.
|
Some topics could be merged into one session e.g. smell and taste to give more time to other topics. |
70% |
The topics were merged consultation with the Head of Basic Sciences, so one session was free be allocated to another important topic. |
Having multiple tutors through the day would improve concentration. |
80% |
The matter was discussed in the Basic Sciences (DBS) meeting and the concerned faculty agreed to revise her schedule for next year. |