Post on 15-Apr-2018
• Provide an overview of how to develop and implement an effective professional development program
• Share results of assessment and evaluation of PD program delivered at QYU
• Analyze whether PLCC program has had a positive impact on main stakeholders involved in the process
• Encourage the participants to propose ideas used by their institutions towards the betterment of professional learning communities
Objectives
• QU Academic Advising Program Development
• QU Academic Advising System Overview
• Importance of Continuous Professional Development for Advisors
• Importance of Continuous Professional Development for Advisors
• Development, Implementation and Assessment of Professional Development Program at QU
• Planning Stage
• Implementation Stage
• Analyzing Results
• Challenges
• Recommendation
Presentation Outline
• Prior to the year 2009: An uneven delivery of advising services
• May 2009 ‐June 2012: Implementation of a decentralized model
• During the academic year 2011‐2012, the Central Advising Unit conducted a one year study and invited three consultants from the National Academic Advising Association.
• In June 2012, the study and the consultation with the NACADA led to the emergence of the new centralized academic advising model.
QU Advising Program Development
• Qatar University has centralized self contained model with branch offices in colleges
• All professional advisors report to the Director of the Center for Academic Advising
• Faculty do not provide advising to the students
QU Academic Advising System Overview
• Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS Standards)
1. Mission
2. Program
3. Organization and Leadership
4. Human Resources
5. Ethics
6. Legal Responsibilities
7. Diversity, Equity, and Access
8. Program and External Relations
9. Financial Resources
10. Technology
11. Facilities and Equipment
12. Assessment and Evaluation
Importance of Continuous Professional Development for Advisors
4.1 AAP is staffed adequately by individuals qualified to accomplish the mission and goals
4.2 AAP established procedures for staff selection, training and evaluation
4.5 Provides access o continuing and advance education and appropriate professional development opportunities to improve the leadership ability, competence and skills of all employees.
4. Human Resources
Developing the professional development program contributes to “nurturing and retaining talented advisors, providing excellent student services, conserving scarce resources, and realizing institutional goals such as improving student retention and graduation rates” (Bryant, Chagani, Endres, & Galvin, 2006).
Importance of Continuous Professional Development for Advisors
• Planning Stage
• Implementation Stage
• Analyzing Results
Development, Implementation and Assessment of Professional Development Program at QU
Process for Developing Advisor Professional Development ProgramStep 1
• Create Professional Learning Community Program Committee
Step 2
• Develop and implement Needs Assessment
Step3
• Develop goals of advisor training program based on analysis of Needs Assessment results
Step4
• Develop Advisor Learning Outcomes based on identified goals
Step5
• Develop the method for delivery of content
Step6
• Develop Assessment Plan for Advisor Learning Outcomes
Step7
• Market and communicate the program
Step8
• Develop plan for advisor training program evaluation
Step 9
• Implement the program
Step 10
• Analyze results and provide recommendations
• PLCC identified 16 Goals of the Program
• PLCC identified 91 Advisor Learning Outcomes (ALOs)• CAS Standards
• “continued professional development should include areas such as the following and how they relate to academic advising: theories of student development, student learning, career development, and other; relevant theories in education, social sciences, and humanities; academic policies and procedures, including institutional transfer policies and curricular changes; legal issues… technology and software training (e.g., degree audit, web registration); institutional resources (e.g., research opportunities, career services, internship opportunities, counseling and health services, tutorial services); ADA (disability‐related accommodations) compliance issues” (CAS Advising Standards , 2014).
• Needs Assessment • ALO Assessment Results from previous years• Professional Advisor Composition
Planning the Content of PLCC Program
PLCC Content
28%
33%
21%
9% 9%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Conceptual Informational Relational Technology Personal
Training Content for 2013/14
• Guided by the set Advisor Learning Outcomes (ALOs) for the complete academic year
• Guided by the current Needs Assessment Survey and the urgency of professional development for academic advisors
• Founding questions / ideas:• How are going to provide the various professional development sessions?
• Who would the facilitators be?
• Would they be internal or external?
• Why we chose the sessions in a specified format of delivery.
Implementation of the Program: Guidance Factor
• The composition of the advising community at Qatar University was unbalanced. • What does this mean? 60% of the advisors were new. The Center was developing and growing as we proceeded with implementing innovative ideas to shape our efforts as per CAS standards.
• Most of the professional development activities catered to the requirements of the new advisors. This caused a conflict of interest between the newly recruited advisors and the more experienced ones.
• It was practically challenging to recreate professional development sessions for the more experienced advisors.
• As the Center was new, the administration introduced a number of strategies, such as the introduction of new technologies – namely Appointment Manager, Referral System, etc. that required multiple hours of professional development sessions. This was unmanageable at the time because the academic advisors were constantly getting informed on new ideas and implementations.
• Buy‐in factor: Academic advisors were initially skeptical towards the idea of a comprehensive professional development community. The importance of the community hadn’t been established within their philosophy of academic advising at the time.
Challenges
• Expectations of advisors. The very foundation for this inconvenience was the perception and the attitude of academic advisors towards such PD opportunities. For example, the Needs Assessment survey was itself a challenge, since the advisors were themselves not too sure of their own expectations. Such instances caused a conflict of interest between the PLCC and the academic advisors.
• Balancing office hours with PLCC hours, i.e. how many hours would they be actually spending outside their routine office hours, and how many hours, for them, counted as NOT TOO MANY hours.
• Diversification of facilitators and involvement of faculty. Would the facilitators be internal or external? Would they only be from the 6 founding members of the PLCC? Would faculty be invited and proactively involved?
Challenges (Contd.)
The Professional learning program used three different ways to measure and evaluate the PLCC program.
Measures used are:
1. PLCC session evaluation (Quantitative data)
2. Advisors inventory (Qualitative data, Used for Benchmarking)
3. PLCC interviews (Questionnaires generated based on evaluation recommendations)
PLCC Evaluation
Advisor inventory consists of three major parts:
Part 1:
Consists of questions that provides overview of the Advisors experience and student load.
Part 2:
This part highlights the attitude of the Advisors towards his/her job as an Academic Advisor
Part 3:
This discusses the benefits of the Advisors from the Professional learning program and how is being reflected on the students outcome.
Part 4:
Focuses on how to improve the training material.
Advisor Inventory
This includes a set of questionnaire generated from Evaluations and advisor inventory. These interviews allows Academic Advisors to speak about their concerns towards the programs and provide inputs to increase the efficiency of the program.
PLCC Interviews
PLCC OUTCOMES
•Increase in advisor learning•A reported change in advisor efficiency •Increased number of referrals made by advisors to campus resources•Less requests of raising the ceiling in courses•Decrease in the number of courses that does not count towards graduation.
•Increase in advisor learning•A reported change in advisor efficiency •Increased number of referrals made by advisors to campus resources•Less requests of raising the ceiling in courses•Decrease in the number of courses that does not count towards graduation.
Advisor Outcomes
•Decrease in the number of courses that does not count towards graduation•Decrease in the number of visits during the add and drop week
•Decrease in the number of courses that does not count towards graduation•Decrease in the number of visits during the add and drop week
Process/Delivery Outcomes •Increase in the number of visits to
advising offices •Increase in the rate of student satisfaction•Increase in student knowledge with the study plan•Less students on probation•Increase in the number of students recovering from probation
•Increase in the number of visits to advising offices •Increase in the rate of student satisfaction•Increase in student knowledge with the study plan•Less students on probation•Increase in the number of students recovering from probation
Student Outcomes
PLCC Outcomes Related to Advisors 1. Increase in number of hours dedicated for professional development for advising community
23
16 16.5
33
23
14
6.5
25.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2010‐11 2011‐12 2012‐13 2013‐14
Increase in Number of Hours Dedicated for Professional Developemt
Fall Spring
PLCC Outcomes Related to Advisors 2. Increase in advisors’ learning
86%73%74%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Advisors know how to useGPA calculator
Advisor know how to createadvising syllabus using the
templates
2012‐13 2013‐14
68%79.97% 82% 86%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2010‐11 2011‐12 2012‐13 2013‐14
Know how to use CAPP, Degree Audit, Planning, What IfAnalysis, e‐mail, Advisor Group in myQU and other advisingtechnology
83%72% 71%
86% 83%88%
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%
Pull a list of studentswith low academic
standing from Banner
Know QU policies andprocedure with
regard to probation
Know QU policies andprocedure with
regards to transfer
2011‐12 2013‐14
74%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Advisors know when to whom and how to refer students
2010‐11 2013‐14
PLCC Outcomes Related to Advisors 3. Change in Advisor Efficiency
78% 74% 79%
12% 14%13%
10% 12% 8%
2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014
My advisor keeps his/her appointments with me
Always/Usually Sometimes Seldom/Never
76%71%
79%
15%16%
14%
10% 13%6%
2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014
My Advisor has provided me with accurate information
Always/Usually Sometimes Seldom/Never
PLCC Outcomes Related to Advisors 4. Increased number of referrals made by advisors to campus resources
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Student Learning Center
Student Counseling Center
Unspecified
Career Service Center
Student Activities Department
Student Information System
Student Service Department
Statistics of Referrals by Advising Offices to Other Centers
PLCC Outcomes Related to Students 1. Increased number of visits to advising offices
0
1097
3150
2043
1198
5527
1722
3431
4158
5754
2218
4263
6124
1433
4936
2825
35343802
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
September October November December January February March April May
Number of Visits to Academic Advising Offices
Academic Year 2012‐13 Academic Year 2013‐14
PLCC Outcomes Related to Students 2. Increase in the rate of student satisfaction
82% 82% 86%
18% 18% 14%
2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014
Overall, how satisfied are you with your advisor?
Very/Moderately satisfied Very/Moderately satisfied
84% 16%
Very/Moderately satisfied Very/Moderately dissatisfied
Overall, How satisfied are you with Academic Advising Services
2013/2014
PLCC Outcomes Related to Students 3. Increase in student knowledge with the study plan
79%
54%
82%
21%
46%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014
SLO #1: Student knows his/her preferred study plan
Competent Incompetent
PLCC Outcomes Related to Students 4. Less students on probation
40%44%
17%
0%
9%
75%
14%
1%0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Probation Vice President's List/Good Standing Academic Dismissal Appealed/Reinstated
Academic Standing ‐ Semester Analysis
Spring 2013
Spring 2014
Based on the challenges faced with PLCC program, below are the recommendations that were set to help improve delivery of the program:
1. PLCC designed and developed a program that offered both optional and mandatory trainings to accommodate the conflict of interest between newly hired advisors and experienced advisors.
2. PLCC diversified the facilitators to the sessions and involved members of the faculty and other departments within the University to help provide professional trainings to advisors.
3. Trainings were set in both English and Arabic to help accommodate two the needs of the Advisors.
4. Professional development program got advisors more involved in facilitating trainings to other newly hired advisors.
5. Professional Trainings were fixed throughout the year to two trainings per month on a fixed date and time to allow advisors to balance between professional development and office hours with students.
PLCC Recommendations
•An example of continuous improvement for non‐academic units throughout the student affairs programs.
•A model of cost‐effective human resource development
Why CAA Model for PD?