Academic Advising Software Features
Many academic advising software products contain some or all of the following features:
Appointment scheduling — Most advising software products contain an online scheduling tool that allows students to book appointments with their advisors. University staff members help set up appointments with students. Some tools sync these appointments to a student or advisor’s personal calendar.
Course planning — Students can build customized degree plans that align with their goals and schedule, with the assistance of their advisor. Administrators can define university requirements for each program within the software so students know if their plan leaves out any essential courses.
Schedule simulators — Students considering changing their major can use what if functions in academic advising tools to visualize the impacts of a potential change before making any final decisions.
Advisor dashboard — Academic advising software typically offers dynamic dashboards that show updated information about a student’s progress. Advisors using these online portals can see notes from students, academic progress reports, contacts the student has had with different departments, and other information on a single screen.
Note-taking — Collaborative note-taking tools allow advisors, faculty, tutors and other staff members to record notes about interactions with students or log concerns about a student’s progress and view notes that others have left.
Predictive analytics — Computer modeling built into some academic advising software can leverage data from different campus departments to identify at-risk students—both individuals and groups—so counselors know which students need additional support. This predictive modeling technology is often custom-built for each college or university, based on factors unique to each campus.
Automated alerts — Advisors can configure software tools to automatically notify them about concerning developments for students on their caseload, such as a student repeatedly missing classes or getting poor grades in a given academic term. These alerts can be sent to students directly, letting them know they’re off track and connecting them with resources for extra help.
Messaging — Both individual and group messaging functions allow advisors to reach out to students between meetings. Messaging features in mobile apps allow students to easily contact their counselors.
Assessments — Some advising tools have integrated tests for students to help them explore which major to pursue, which careers might be right for them, what their strengths are, or which colleges could be a good fit.
College matching — Advising tools for high school guidance counselors can combine multiple student data points such as GPA, test scores, college major preferences, and personal interests, to generate a list of schools for a student to consider.
Potential Issues with Academic Advising Software
Student profiling — While predictive modeling is a powerful tool, it also has the potential to have negative impacts on certain student demographic groups if not implemented carefully. A computer algorithm that takes demographic data into account might consider students from historically underrepresented groups to be more “at risk" than other students. Consequently, this system might discourage, for example, a student of color from pursuing a more challenging college major, or may be more sensitive if they are doing poorly in a class. Advisors must be cognizant of the potential for bias in predictive analytics and should use these tools thoughtfully to avoid unintentionally discouraging students and limiting their potential.
Data privacy — Colleges and universities must properly secure the sensitive data that academic advising software relies upon, such as students’ academic records and students’ demographic information. This becomes more important when institutions share this data with third-party software companies. Students should be well-informed about what data their school is collecting and how it is used. Handling student data improperly could put institutions at risk of violating federal student privacy laws.
Adequate staffing — Despite the potential of academic advising software to streamline advising operations, these tools are not a substitute for human advisors. Advisors are often responsible for hundreds of students. Educational institutions must prioritize staffing so advisors have the capacity to meet one-on-one with students and the bandwidth to respond promptly to student needs.
