UC San Diego’s Virtual Advising System
Submitter’s Information
Jonathan WhitmanDirector of Technology,
Provost IT Services Group
UC San Diego
858-534-6946
/
Project Team Members
Council of Provosts, Project SponsorAssociate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education, Project Sponsor
Jonathan Whitman, Program Manager
Ryan Rose, Project Team Member
Patty Marin, Project Team Member
Virtual Advising Steering Committee,
Project Team Member
Summary
The Provost IT Services Group (PITSG) is responsible for supporting the administrative technology infrastructure for the Six Undergraduate Colleges at UC San Diego. Support includes server operations, helpdesk support, and applications development for approximately 70 applications in support of administration and student business operations. PITSG’s flagship application is UC San Diego’s Virtual Advising System. The Virtual Advising System is a multi-faceted holistic tool serving academic advising needs across the campus. Created to secure, record, and streamline advising records and transactional advising processes, the system is the culmination of 11 years of development and enhancement. This state of the art system allows UC San Diego’s 23,000 undergraduate students to interact with academic counselors through the Virtual Advising Center (commonly referred to as “The VAC” around campus) and provides counselors with all of the student information they need to provide accurate and holistic academic advising.
Project Description
Background
In 2003 UC San Diego’s academic advising record keeping was a conglomeration of paper files kept in separate offices across the campus in both the academic departments and the undergraduate colleges. These student files contained printed emails, advisors’ notes of advising sessions, student academic petitions, confidentiality agreements, and many other items relevant to students’ academic records. The files were created and maintained for every student at UC San Diego. Recognizing that e-mail was neither a secure nor preferred method when communicating confidential and FERPA-protected information with students, UC San Diego’s Undergraduate Colleges set out to create a system of record that would contain every contact a student had with campus academic advising offices. These contact records would start from the time a student entered UCSD with first quarter enrollment advising and follow them throughout their academic career until graduation.
Current Usage
In its current iteration, the system provides counselors with a single application where they can find all academic information related to a student. Students can also view their own contact record to review notes of an advising session and ask questions through the system to advisors. Since the system is secured by campus authentication systems there is surety that information is protected and private, and that communication is maintained only between authorized staff and the student.
The Virtual Advising System is made up of a suite of applications including:
· Virtual Advising Center – The student interface into the system where students can get general advising information, ask a question to an academic counselor, see their academic notices (for academic probation/disqualification), file for graduation, and manage their communications preferences (e.g. students can set up text notifications when their contact record is updated). Instant chat allows a student to real-time chat
· Contact System – the staff interface into the system where advising staff can view all contacts that a student has had with any advising office on campus (sharing of contact notes can be restricted by the advisor entering them), view special flags attached to a student (e.g., Students of Concern, Athletes, Veterans, etc.), view all academic information (e.g., grades, courses, GPA, phone, address, etc.), and other information such as admission, graduation, academic probation/dismissal, enrollment times, class schedule, degree audit. Scanned paper documents can be uploaded into the system and made viewable to the student (e.g., student petitions, confidentiality forms, degree checks, etc.). Counselors can verify students have read their responses by checking the date/time stamp feature in the system.
· Appointment System – This system allows an intake advisor to schedule appointments between students and academic advisors. Using enterprise calendaring through Outlook the intake advisor can view available appointment times and schedule the appointment. SMS Text Messaging is used to help remind the student of the appointment and the system tracks how many times a student has missed an appointment (without proper cancellation).
· Sign-in System – In advising office lobbies there is a kiosk computer that will allow a student to sign-in notifying a counselor (who may be sitting down the hall in their office) that students are waiting to be seen. The counselor accesses the staff-side of the application seeing who and how many students are waiting. Special codes are denoted on the staff side of the sign-in list indicating graduating students, students of concern, international students, and students on academic probations. By noting these attributes, specialists within the advising office can see the student they are best suited to serve and better prepare for the advising session. The sign-in system is tied in with the appointment system and will know when a student with an appointment for a specific counselor has signed in and note the appointment on the sign-in list. There is an option to note when a student left (e.g. after waiting for walk-in advising) without being seen. Tracking students leaving after signing-in assists with resource management during peak advising periods.
· Canned Responses – each college and department has the ability to create custom messages that can be selected from a pull-down menu to answer those questions which are commonly asked by various students and require the same answer. The advisor has the ability to add a personalized note to the canned response allowing them to customize each response to an individual student. Having instant answers to commonly asked questions saves counselors time and provides for a more accurate and consistent response to students.
· Satisfaction Survey – Students are randomly asked (no more than once every six months) to take a survey regarding their satisfaction with their advising experience. Survey results are provided to advising deans for outcomes assessment.
· Reporting System – Contacts are tracked through the database and reports can be generated to assist with resource management, resource justification, and monitor student service levels.
Campus Participants
The following organizations are actively using the UCSD Virtual Advising System:
· Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education
· The Six Undergraduate Colleges at UCSD (Provost Office, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs)
o Revelle College
o John Muir College
o Thurgood Marshall College
o Earl Warren College
o Eleanor Roosevelt College
o Sixth College
· Major academic departments
o Anthropology
o Bioengineering
o Biology
o Colleges Business Office
o Chemical Engineering Program
o Critical Gender Studies Program
o Chemistry and Biochemistry
o Cognitive Science
o Communication
o Computer Science & Engineering
o Electrical & Computer Engineering
o Economics
o Environmental Systems Program
o Ethnic Studies
o Family and Preventive Medicine
o Human Development Program
o History
o International Studies Program
o Japanese Studies Program
o Latin American Studies Program
o Linguistics
o Literature
o Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
o Mathematics
o Music
o Nano-Engineering
o Philosophy
o Physics
o Political Science
o Psychology
o Program for the Study of Religion
o Rady School of Management (Graduate and Undergraduate Programs)
o Structural Engineering
o Scripps Institution of Oceanography
o Sociology
o Teacher Education Program
o Theatre and Dance
o Third World Studies Program
o Urban Studies & Planning Program
o Visual Arts
· Athletics
· Programs Abroad Office
· Office for Students with Disabilities
· Registrar’s Office
Technologies and Processes Used
The following are key technologies and processes upon which the Virtual Advising System is built:
· Redhat Enterprise Linux (LAMP stack configuration)
· PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor
· MySQL
· Apache
· SOAP/WSDL (used for real-time data calls to Student Information System)
· DB2 (used to populate shadow student data system)
· Shibboleth (Campus Authentication/SSO System)
Success Factors
Success FactorsStudent Advising Contacts available to all sectors of campus with proper access authority regardless of major department or college affiliation. /
Electronic document filing removing the need for paper filing system in advising offices supporting green initiative. /
Best practices for advising developed, documented, and implemented with campus-wide collaboration. /
The Six Undergraduate Colleges developed the Virtual Advising System for internal use but due to its success it was adopted campus-wide. /
Maintains record and continuity of student contact notes limiting liability of the university when student claims they were misadvised. Contact record has been used as part of legal proceedings between students and the university. /
Provides counselors with ONE system containing all necessary student information to provide holistic advising services. /
29,000 contacts created in first year of release in 2003. More than 200,000 contacts created in 2013. /
Institutional Value
With over 1.5 million contact records since its inception the Virtual Advising System represents a secure and verifiable method of communication with students and other organizations across the campus. The ability to scan and upload the various paper documents that the university relies upon to conduct business has meant that there is no longer any need to keep rooms full of paper files which cost the university in time and resources. Counselors are able to advise more students in less time using the Virtual Advising System. This then gives counselors more time to spend face to face with the students who really need it. Since the system uses campus authentication and records when students view their messages there is no longer the need to worry about messages being caught in “spam” or the student saying the message was never received. Before the Virtual Advising system, multiple applications and screens had to be accessed by an advisor in order to find bits and pieces of academic information on an individual student, slowing down the advising session and creating a disjointed view of the student for the counselor. Providing all of a student’s information in one place allows counselors to concentrate on the advising session rather than looking up information in multiple places.
The system allows students to connect with advisors in a way that is recordable, retrievable, and accountable on both sides. These records have saved the university from law suits by showing counselors did inform students of academic policies and regulations when students have claimed otherwise. The system has also given students the ability to interact in the digital medium in which they feel most comfortable. In the instances where meaningful face to face contact is wanted, counselors now have an avenue to invite students in to come and see them with instructions on how to prepare and make the most out of their advising session.
The system has been used to demonstrate and collaborate with other UC Campuses including UC Davis and UC Riverside providing opportunities to share feature sets and implementation processes.
The greatest value of the system is in the collaboration that now occurs across the campus advising infrastructure. Advisors no longer work in silos and can instead share information with each other about what and how they advise students. Best practices for advising can be approached from a common perspective and advisors can learn from each other in ways that were not possible in isolated organizational and paper systems. The student in turn receives holistic advising that takes into account all of the information an advisor needs in one place. The system allows for assessment surveys which continually refine the art of advising students. This system and all who use it contribute to UCSD’s vision of being a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public university.Customer Satisfaction Responses
“ / · I find VAC advising a very convenient way of contacting with my college adviser. I will definitely recommend it to other students.
· The VAC is an excellent resource that I have used multiple times, and the response I get is always helpful.
· The VAC is a really great tool. They always got back to me quickly and it saved me a trip to the advising offices for a quick question that normally just required a yes or no answer.
· I love the VAC option. It helps save me a lot of time since I usually ask questions that only need a quick response. Definitely keep that! The advisers who responded to my needs have been fantastic! Thanks!
· VAC is awesome for us lazy folks. / ”
- UCSD Students
“ / The Virtual Advising Center has allowed our staff to continue to serve a much larger population of students without increases in our staffing. Students are able to ask quick questions and receive a response usually within 48 business hours. It has meant students rely on staff for appropriate answers rather than asking friends late at night. They submit a question and know they will receive a timely response. We have far less students coming in having made a mistake in taking the wrong class or dropping etc because “my friend told me”.It has been enormously helpful in working with our brand new students as they enroll remotely. We are able to work with them to answer their questions as they are enrolling and have that information maintained as a part of the student record. I cannot imagine how we could do this process without our Virtual Advising Center.
Having just returned from the UC Academic Advising Conference, I was shocked that other campuses have not built such a system, especially where it is shared across departments. This allows students to have a more seamless experience regardless of whether they are talking with their college or their major department. Information can be delivered in a more “one stop shop” with the ability for all to have a trail of their record. It has allowed academic departments and colleges to collaborate in assisting a student throughout their time at UC San Diego.
- Dean of Advising – Eleanor Roosevelt College / ”
“ / I LOVE the VAC. How can I count the ways?
VAC allows counselors
· to respond to questions with confidential information in a secure and timely manner.
· to ask students to come in and have an in person advising session
· to send students a message, as soon as I find the need
· to send batch messages
· to see a snapshot of the student record, with some in depth windows
· to partner with departments, seeing their VAC notices and allowing for referrals in both directions
VAC allows students
· to pose their questions when they are most active and when most advisors are deep in much needed sleep.
· To see their own VAC history from orientation to graduation
VAC provides
· a way to answer repetitive questions in a uniform manner, while allowing personalization
· an easy record keeping system for all VAC correspondence and documents that we choose to scan and attach
VAC reduces
· long waiting lines on ‘Walk In’ Advising for many quick questions.
· the need for paper files and huge file rooms / ”
- Assistant Dean of Advising – Earl Warren College