2008 Research Grants (awarded in 2008)

Anne J. Herron, Associate Dean

Academic Affairs

Le Moyne College

Research Project -- Embedding Advising in the First-Year Seminar: Perceptions of Millennial Students and Advisors

Academic advising and first-year seminars are commonly accepted strategies used in the transition of students to college but have led parallel existences on many campuses. The Sixth National Survey on First-Year Seminars found that while over 80% of institutions reported that they offer first-year seminars, only 30% of institutions offer seminars taught by students’ academic advisors (Tobolowsky, 2005). Advocates of situating advising within first-year seminars argue that it supports the theory of advising as learning, enabling the instructor/advisor to utilize an integrated method in supporting the transitional needs of students (Hunter, Henscheid, & Mouton, 2007). This qualitative study will explore the perceptions that traditional-age students and first-year academic advisors hold about academic advising embedded within first-year seminars (extended orientation type) at two small, private Comprehensive I colleges. Building on action research that enables students to design their own advising seminar, I will conduct individual and focus group interviews and document analysis. Individual and cross-case analyses will be used to identify distinctive case patterns and themes shared by cases. This research could provide insights and support for creating learning contexts that have a significant impact on the transitional needs of first-year students.

Ute Knoch

School of Languages and Linguistics

University of Melbourne

Research Project -- Advising students of diagnostic writing assessment outcomes: A comparison of two models

Recently, renewed interest has surfaced in diagnostic assessment, however very little work has focused on the optimal way of advising students of their diagnostic assessment outcomes (except Knoch, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c). It could however be argued that the feedback profiles and the way these are presented to test takers are a crucial aspect of the diagnostic assessment cycle (e.g. Alderson, 2005).
The aim of this study therefore is to establish what types of diagnostic feedback on academic English writing performance are considered feasible and useful by advising staff, students and raters at a large university with a high proportion of international students with English as an additional language (EAL).
Academic advising staff from a variety of departments and faculties across the university will be sourced to participate in interviews. Thirty students, also from a variety of faculties will be asked to produce a piece of writing based on a current DELA (Diagnostic English Language Assessment) writing task, which is part of a university-wide diagnostic assessment administered to undergraduate students new to the university to identify their academic English support needs. Then, in interviews, students will be presented with different types of diagnostic feedback (with varying levels of detail) to their writing and invited to comment on which type of feedback they consider to be the most useful to them. Finally, DELA raters will be interviewed to elicit their opinions on the level of detail that could go into the diagnostic feedback whilst keeping the rating process manageable and practical.

Lisa R. Merriweather Hunn

Educational Studies

Ball State University

Research Project -- Othermothering: Is this the missing ingredient in the recipe for successful African American doctoral student mentoring?

In spite of legal victories over 40 years ago, African Americans remain underrepresented among the ranks of doctoral degree holders. Finding ways to increase their representation should be a chief concern among administrators, faculty, and the students. Previous research established that students attribute good advising to successful persistence. One function of faculty advising relative to African American doctoral students is mentoring. This study expands our understanding of faculty advising mentorship through the eyes of the students. Patricia Hill Collins’ (1990) theoretical construct of “Othermothering” will be interrogated as a culturally relevant response to effective faculty advising mentorship. The Womanist perspective in tandem with a Critical Race Theory lens will be advanced as philosophical frameworks for this study. A qualitative research design will be employed. The method will involve in depth qualitative focus group interviews with 5 to 7 African American graduate student associations and/or sets of individual students. Inductive thematic analysis will follow the data collection process. A richer understanding of the nuances involved in mentoring African American doctoral students will be gained. This information will be useful to faculty advisors who mentor African American doctoral students and have a positive impact on the learning experiences of those students.

Lisa S. Steinberg

Higher Education Administration Program

The George Washington University

Research Project -- Faculty Role in Managing the Acutely Distressed College Student

The acutely distressed student poses considerable challenges to today’s higher education institutions (McKinley & Dworkin, 1989; Amanda, 1994; The Jed Foundation, 2006). The purpose of this study is to explore ways that a four-year, private research institution may be better able to empower faculty to participate in institutional mental health promotion and suicide prevention strategies. Using Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework, the study will be a qualitative, interpretivist exploration of the factors that influence the intentions of faculty to manage the acutely distressed college student, for which interviews will be conducted with 20 purposefully-chosen faculty at a single institution. Interviews will be transcribed and analyzed for themes within and among participants. There has been very limited research regarding faculty’s attitudes towards their role in managing the acutely distressed student, and the salient factors that may impact their intentions to assume this role remain unknown. Ultimately, with the knowledge of these factors at hand, campus-wide campaigns to encourage faculty to participate in such strategies can be designed to address their specific needs, improving overall institutional effectiveness in managing the acutely distressed student through mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

2007 Research Grants (awarded in 2007)

John H. Gerdes, Jr., Associate Professor

Retail – Technology Support & Training Management Program

University of South Carolina

Research Project -- Improving Student Advisement by Considering Student and Course Profiles

The focus of this research is to assess a new means of characterizing learning and instructional methods for improving the student advisement process. Course profiles will be developed based on student surveys. These profiles incorporate elements prior research has shown impacts learning: method of content delivery, students’ preferred learning methods, course workload characteristics, and students’ preferred workload characteristics. Student profiles will then be inferred by integrating student’s prior academic performance including grades earned in previous courses with the course profile for each course taken. Subsequent testing will determine the extent to which these profiles predict future student performance.

It is hoped that this profile information will provide a refined predictor of performance (i.e., moving from a single, historical class average to multiple historical scores based on course and student profiles). Developing these profiles is straightforward and can be obtained using traditional student course evaluation surveys. Both student and course profile information will be integrated into the advising process to more accurately provide advisement that meets students’ needs. The study involves a diverse population involving students in over six majors and programs. All students in all courses offered in a College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management will be asked to participate in the study. Therefore, the results will be broadly generalizable to our student population.

Kathryn C. King, Life Skills Assistant & Novice Rowing Academic Coordinator – Graduate Assistant

Student-Athlete Support Services

Michigan State University

Research Project -- Academic Advising and the Underprepared Student: Understanding the Role of Academic Self-Concept and Sense of Belonging in Persistence

Underprepared students may enter the college environment with lower levels of interest and ability in the areas that are central to their environment than do students whose interests and abilities are considered prepared for the college environment. Perceptions of ability are assumed to affect behavior and learning and have practical educational importance. Previous studies found that student attitudes are significantly related to college persistence, and programs designed to identify students with low academic self-concept or expectancies and provide experiences and counseling to improve those attitudes may benefit college persistence. This study seeks to understand what if any, connection there is between a students’ academic self-concept and their sense of belonging in college and how these measures relate to academic advising. Prior experience with academics is important to understand because these experiences can impact the ways in which students respond and cope with academic challenges in the community college setting. Understanding how students perceive their academic ability in the college setting and may assist the ways in which academic advisors can assist students’ in their persistence. In addition, further evidence as to the role of the sense of belonging and academic self-concept could lead to a stronger understanding of academic advising for promoting underprepared student persistence.

Samuel D. Museus, Doctoral Student/Research Assistant

Education Policy Studies

The Pennsylvania State University

Research Project -- The Role of Academic Advising in Fostering Racial/Ethnic Minority Student Persistence: A Collective-Cross Case Study of High-Performing Institutions  

Racial/ethnic minority college student persistence and degree attainment continues to be a concern of paramount importance for higher education administrators. Less than half of all Black and Latino students who begin their higher education at a four-year college depart before they earn a bachelor's degree, resulting in a wide range of devastating costs for individuals, higher education institutions, and society. Nevertheless, literature explaining how academic advisors can and do foster organizational environments and practices conducive to minority student success is limited. The aim of the proposed collective-case study, therefore, is to examine institutions that exhibit considerably high and equitable six-year graduation rates across all racial/ethnic student subpopulations to identify and delineate how academic advising helps foster success among minority students on those campuses. Specifically, this study is focused on understanding how academic advisors at high-performing institutions create environmental conditions and implement specific educational practices that facilitate adjustment and persistence among racial/ethnic minority students. Document analyses, individual interviews with administrators, and focus group interviews with racial/ethnic minority students will be conducted at each of the three high-performing colleges. Within- and Cross-case analyses will illuminate how academic advisors contribute to minority student success.

2006 Research Grants (awarded in 2006)

Robert Abelman, Distinguished Professor of Communication   

Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio

Research Project- Charting the Verbiage of Vision: Student Outcome and Advising Guidelines in Vision and Mission Statements

A university/college's conception of the kinds of educated human beings it is attempting to cultivate can be found in its vision statement.  Whether, how and to what extent that vision can be transformed by advising supervisors into action that is used to guide an institution's general approach to students, facilitate desired student outcomes, and advocate the adoption of one type of advising structure, approach or delivery system over another is the focus of this research.  Findings from a computer-generated content analysis of a nation-wide sample of vision statements from NACADA-membership institutions will be reported.  The analysis will concentrate on content/language attributes identified in Communication literature as the most salient and powerful predictors of how innovative/pioneering ideas are widely diffused, generally accepted and readily adopted.  These include clarity (concrete guidance in making educational decisions), compelling (enthusiasm and optimism), complexity (word count/word length) and relative advantage (desired benefits/costs).   These attributes, which constitute the making of an effective vision statement, will be isolated and compared across different sizes, modes of operation (public/private), missions (degrees granted) and orientations (secular/nonsecular) of universities/colleges.  Ways in which this information can be used by advising supervisors to assess and access their institution's vision will be presented.

Shaun R. Harper,  Assistant Professor and Research Associate

Center for the Study of Higher Education

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Research Project- Advising African American Male Undergraduates: A Cross-Institutional-Type Study of High Achievers

More than 67% of all African American men who start college never finish, which is worst among both sexes and all racial/ethnic groups in higher education. Thus, it appears that academic advisors, faculty, and administrators need positive examples of good practice in engaging and retaining African American male collegians. The 2004 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Dissertation of the Year is a study of high-achieving African American male undergraduates at six larger predominately White public research universities. Instead of employing the popular deficit approach to examining African American men, the study magnifies the experiences of and lessons learned from students who maximized their college experiences, despite the racism and challenges endured on their campuses. A $5,000 grant is sought to help finance the extension of this study to include African American male achievers from 12 historically Black colleges and universities, seven highly-selective private research universities, and ten small private liberal arts colleges. The exact same framework and methodological approach from the original high-achievers study will be replicated. This cross-institution-type extension study will result in a compendium of good practices and innovative approaches that advisors on a variety of campuses can use to help African American male students make the most of college, achieve desired outcomes, and persist through degree completion.

Sarah M. Naylor, Academic and Administrative Advisor

School of Social Work

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Research Project- Understanding Graduate Student Constructs for Finding Meaning in the Advising Experience: A Qualitative Case Study of Incoming Master's of Social Work Students

Master's degree programs are a large and rapidly growing segment of higher education, yet little research specifically addresses advising expectations of master's degree students. This case study will explore the mental constructs typical master's of social work (MSW) students bring to the academic advising process and how these constructs impact their understanding of the advising experience. Incoming MSW students at UNC-Chapel Hill will participate in the collection of qualitative and quantitative data. Fifteen incoming students will be asked to participate in in-depth, semi-structured interviews to elicit student perspectives of MSW advising constructs. Simultaneously, a survey evaluating advising preferences will be distributed to approximately 70 incoming students. Thematic analysis will be used to analyze the interview data, and descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the survey data. After analyzing and comparing data collected from the interviews and the survey, a second interview will be conducted with each of the original interview participants for participant peer review and qualification of the findings. Outcomes will include a rich collection of data regarding MSW students' expectations for the advising experience and will contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for advising master's level students.

Julie A. Traxler,  Doctoral Student/Assistant Dean

Educational Theory, Policy and Administration - Graduate School of Education

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Research Project- Major Choosing Among South Asian American Women: Toward a New Theory of Advising

This study utilizes a grounded theory approach and in-depth qualitative interviewing to explore the barriers that South Asian American women experience in the journey to major choosing. I am interested both in understanding the experiences of this specific student population toward identifying effective advising procedures and in using this understanding to offer a new theoretical model of undecided/exploratory students as they approach the task of major choosing. Data collection methods include individual and focus group interviewing, electronic journaling, and document collection. The study offers a two-part design, with one set of research participants who are undecided first year students and a second set of participants who are upper-level students/graduates. Engaging the perspectives of two groups at different ends of the major choosing continuum offers rich insights into the academic journey of these students. By focusing on an under-researched group as they engage in a crucial, but similarly under-researched academic process, this project seeks a greater understanding of student undecidedness, not as a seemingly pathological situation, but as a normal, developmental stage. This research is meant to inform advising practice by providing practitioners with a new model of student undecidedness and suggestions for advising interventions.

2005 Research Grants (awarded in 2005)

Peter J. Collier, Associate Professor, Sociology, Portland State University, Portland, OR.

Research Project—Improving First-Generation Low Income Student Retention in Higher Education: Examining the persistence of Role-Mastery based Advising and Telementoring Intervention Effects

This study will examine the effect-persistence of a FIPSE-funded intervention-Students First (SFP) designed to improve first-generation, low-income student retention. These students face additional college adjustment issues associated with lack of knowledgeable family support. SFP complements regular advising, emphasizing "learning to be a college student" and effectively utilizing campus resources. Collier's Differentiated Model of Role Acquisition, SFP 's theoretical foundation, extends Tinto's Model of Student Persistence, proposing that "academic integration," a key retention-predicting variable, is better understood as "how appropriately" freshmen enact the student role. Incoming freshman will interact weekly with trained "mentor-advisors", participate in group discussions with first-generation students, and utilize a unique telementoring site that includes videos of first-generation students discussing successful role mastery strategies. Building on the SFP experimental design (three randomly-assigned groups) and evaluation data (grades, credits, retention, resource usage and program satisfaction), this study will utilize in-depth interviews with a representative sample of SFP students to examine the persistence of academic, resource usage and satisfaction effects during the two years post-SFP. The probable outcome is that the positive effects of SFP will persist over time. This study holds promise to advance advising knowledge about first-generation students applicable to a broader range of advising practices.

Victoria McGillin, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX.

Research Project— Risk and Resilience: A Seven Year Follow-Up in the Role of Supportive Others, Self-Esteem and Self Efficacy in Student Academic Success

Resilience, or success despite risk factors, recently entered the higher education literature (McGillin, 2000). Studies of students at risk have compared them against successful students; an invalid comparison as success strategies for students with no risk are rarely meaningful for students admitted with known risk factors. The present research is the final phase of a seven-year long study of resilience. Male and female students, admitted with biological, psychological, cultural, cognitive and academic risks were tracked through their first semester, to determine resilient (GPA > 3.00) versus vulnerable (GPA < 2.00) outcomes. A control group of male and female students, matched on major demographic characteristics, who met the success or failure criteria were also identified and recruited. Participants completed a one-hour interview concerning stress, coping and support systems, as well as inventories of depression, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Initial findings identified the critical role of advisors/faculty to resilience. This study will re-interview all subjects on these factors, and reassess them on the inventories. Results should both clarify the trajectories for success or failure of the students at risk across four years and past graduation, as well as identify the mechanisms by which supportive "others" prove successful.

Matthew M. Morano, Assistant Director of the Academic Center for Exploratory Students, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

Research Project— How Students Choose a Major: Does emotion play a part in the decision making process.

A great amount of information exists surrounding the factors involved in a college student's choice of major. With few exceptions, most studies have included the cognitive aspect of the decision. While some recent research has been done on how emotion is involved with decision-making, some of those researchers also believe that a decision that has been made using both cognitive input as well as emotional input will be better decisions. However, few studies have been done regarding the effect of emotion on the college student's decision-making process for choosing a major. From the research, the closest construct to emotion in the decision-making process for choosing a major that has been studied is "anxiety". The findings suggest that students have a level of anxiety over making a choice of major. So, could an intervention that provides a cognitive approach to deciding upon a major aid a college student in reducing his/her level of anxiety?

The study utilizes a quasi-experimental approach. The intervention offers sophomore level college students a cognitive approach to deciding upon a major, while measuring the level of anxiety exhibited by the student as he/she experiences the intervention. A comparison group will also be measured for their level of anxiety. The data will be analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

2004 Research Grants (awarded in 2004)

John E. "Ned" Donnelly, Associate Director, Office of Educational Services

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

Research Project—Advising from the Podium: Can Curriculum Infusion Enhance Academic Advising?

Curriculum Infusion (CI), a process in which academic advising-related information is incorporated into the standard curriculum, is studied as a way to improve the effectiveness of academic advising.  An "Advising Guide for the Classroom" including academic advising information (e.g. deadlines, advising referral resources, frequently asked questions) and classroom approaches to advising (e.g. topics for classroom discussion, lecture, assigned reading, research assignments) will be distributed to faculty participating in the study. An example of a guide is located at www.esit.uc.edu/Advising/guide/index.htm. The Academic Advising Inventory (AAI) Parts III and IV and the University of Cincinnati Student Satisfaction Survey-Academic Advising will be adapted for use as a pre- and post assessment.  It is anticipated that faculty recruited for the study will view CI as a novel pedagogical approach, leading to improved student learning, and will therefore be interested in participating.  Student participants will be offered a small monetary incentive.  Institutional Review Boards from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College have approved the study.

2004 Research Grants (awarded in 2003)

Theresa K. Musser, Sr. Undergraduate Studies Adviser

Penn State University, University Park, PA

Research Project—A Case Study: Examining an Academic Advising System at a Large Institution Using Systems Theory Constructs

The purpose of this research is to examine and describe an academic advising system at a large institution using the constructs of systems theory. The West Virginia University 's advising system will be the subject for this study. Systems theory will inform the research by providing a framework for viewing how one system is nested within many systems in the university and how these systems interact with and depend upon each other. The result of this research will be a rich description and model of how an advising system relates to and depends upon other systems within the context of a university. This research is potentially beneficial to the entire advising community as a way to improve evaluation of advising programs and as a tool for making decisions about new advising initiatives. This study will be a case study and will utilize interview and observation research methods, as well as focus group interviews and the nominal group process, to gather data. The principal investigator will spend two days, every other week for one academic school year, at West Virginia University to interview and observe representatives of all stakeholders associated with academic advising. Interviews will be audio taped and transcribed for review. The final analysis will include a summary of the common themes and ideas that represent all stakeholder populations as well as a systems diagram or picture of the complex set of sub-systems within the supra-system known as West Virginia University (WVU).

2003 Research Grants (awarded in 2002)

Gloria Gammell, Director, Office of Student Services, College of Nursing
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
Research Project—The Transition to College Experience for Appalachian First-Time Freshmen

The focus of this research is to explore what it means for first-time freshmen Appalachian college students to transition to college and generate a theory of transition to college through a grounded theory approach. Research on other non-majority students (African-American, American Indian, Latino) indicates there are both common and unique experiences for the students. Therefore, by extension, it is not unreasonable to think Appalachian students may have college experiences that are both common to and different from those of other non-majority college students. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with first-time Appalachian college students were conducted twice—during the beginning of the fall and spring terms. Students were encouraged to tell their own stories and describe their own experiences. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for data analysis. Thematic analysis will be used to analyze the data. Concepts and themes common to the participants' stories and experiences will be identified. A team of researchers will verify my analysis of the data to best ensure internal reliability. I anticipate the stories will yield rich descriptive data that will allow me to develop a grounded theory of transition for this particular non-majority student population. Based on the findings, more appropriate advisement strategies, techniques, and interventions will be developed.

Karen Mottarella, Director of Psychology Undergraduate Program/Psychology Instructor
Barbara Fritzsche, Assistant Professor, Psychology Department
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Research Project—The Nature of the Academic Advising Relationship: Core Relational Elements Produce Student Satisfaction

This study investigates whether there are certain core elements in the interpersonal aspect of the advising relationship between the advisor and advisee that produce student satisfaction. Research has consistently found that in the area of psychological counseling, the nature of the therapeutic relationship itself rather than any specific model or technique leads to client satisfaction. In the area of academic advising, further research is needed to unbundle and examine which relational variables subsumed in our current advising models are important to students. This study investigates empirically if, similar to psychotherapy, there are certain core advising-relational elements that, when present, lead to advising satisfaction. It may be that once these variables are put in place and maintained within the advising relationship, then the advisor can adopt more of an integrated approach using many of the other elements and tasks associated with our current models including the prescriptive, developmental and intrusive approaches. This study also investigates whether the type of advisor (peer, professional, or faculty member) and advisor gender have a hidden influence on student satisfaction.

2002 Research Grants (awarded in 2001)

Carla E. Warner, Director, Adult and Commuting Student Service Center

Ramona Milhorn Williams, Director of Undergraduate Student Advisement

East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

Research Project—An Analysis of Pre-Enrollment Advisement on the Retention of Community College Transfer Students

Students transferring from community colleges to a four-year institution are the focus of this research. Thirty-three percent (ETSU, 2000) of East Tennessee State University 's undergraduate population transferred to ETSU from another institution. Based on practical experience, a significant determiner of the successful assimilation and retention of transfer students has been found to be their ability to have the nonacademic (i.e. housing, child-care, etc.) as well as the academic pieces of the transfer process in place.

The advising issue to be addressed is the impact of early advisement (prior to their leaving their community college campus) on the retention, at the senior institution, of community college transfer students. The treatment and control groups will be selected from the population of transfer students accepted to ETSU, from the top three feeder community colleges within a 100-mile radius of the ETSU campus. Random sampling will be used to assign students to the treatment group. The control group will be comprised of "all other" transfers from that institution. Those students assigned to the treatment group will receive pre-enrollment advisement (which will include academic advisement and follow-up throughout their first two semesters) including the early provision of their student service needs (i.e. child-care, off-campus housing, etc.). Those students assigned to the control group will not receive early advisement and follow-up but will be advised and acquainted with student services at the time of new student orientation as per our "normal practice".

2001 Research Grants (awarded in 2000)

Carmen Loften, Director, Student Academic Services

Regis University, Denver, CO

Research Project: Designing Advising Services for Diverse Populations

"Designing Advising Services for Diverse Populations" is a study of advising services for both adult students enrolled in nontraditional programs and traditional students enrolled in traditional programs. The study will examine levels of persistence, academic success, and self-reported experiences at Regis University . The purpose of examining this data is to inform the thinking of educators as they strive to develop effective support structures, especially academic advising.