Academic advising plays an important role in the education and retention of college students. Developmental advising is concerned with the development of the whole student throughout his or her academic career. As students develop and mature, it is expected that the topics they present to advisors will change. It is also expected that advisors will vary the topics they raise with different students as the students progress through their academic careers. This study was designed to determine if the advising topics that traditional-age undergraduate students present to advisors vary by academic level. Further, the study looked at whether these topics differ by gender or race. Topics raised by advisors were also examined to determine if the topics raised by advisors varied by academic level, gender, or race of the student. Examining the topics raised by advisors is one way to assess whether advisors are utilizing a prescriptive or developmental model of advising. Data were collected over a two-month period during the spring semester, 2000 at a research university in the Southeast. Eleven professional advisors agreed to participate in the study from six different departments. Students were asked if they would be willing to participate in the study when they came to see one of the participating advisors. Eighty undergraduate students agreed to participate in the study. Prior to meeting with the advisor, students were asked to provide demographic information and answer an interview question to determine the topics they planned to raise during the advising session. Advisors completed surveys following the advising sessions providing information on topics raised by the students and topics that the advisors themselves raised. No significant differences were found in the types of topics raised by students or advisors by academic level, gender, or race. The majority of the topics discussed dealt with academic issues such as academic progress, course selection, and major selection. On average, students raised 3.99 topics per session and advisors raised an additional 1.41 topics per session for a total of 5.50 topics per advising session. Most advising sessions were 15 to 20 minutes in length. Non-White students raised on average more topics than did White students. Because of the number of topics raised in a relatively short period of time, as well as the narrow range of topics covered, the results of this study indicate that a traditional, information giving model of advising is largely being utilized by advisors in the study. The results of this study suggest that advisors have little time in advising sessions to do little other than provide information on a limited range of topics. This study highlights the amount of time advisors spend answering routine academic questions during advising sessions. With this awareness, advisors can begin to provide some of this academic information using different means. This would provide more time in advising sessions to practice a developmental approach to advising that spans academic, career, and life issues. / Master of Arts

This study was designed to explore the advising styles that are currently perceived and preferred by African American and White students in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. The high attrition rate of African Americans in the engineering colleges both nationally and at Virginia Tech makes it critical to investigate what can be done to increase retention. The lack of awareness of academic advising preferences could be a major component in the high attrition of African American students in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. Moreover, increased awareness and understanding for advisors, faculty, administrators and even students will befall, and in turn strengthen retention. The purpose of this study was to determine; (a) the current advising African American and White students in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech are perceiving; prescriptive versus developmental; and (b) what the preferences are for advising African American and White students in engineering; prescriptive versus developmental. This study specifically examined the comparisons between race, gender, classification, grade point average (GPA), and major. The instrument that was administered via the Internet is called the Academic Advising Inventory (Winston & Sander, 1984). This four-part instrument measures the level of the developmental or prescriptive advising that occurs between students and advisors and student satisfaction with advising in the College of Engineering. The sample consisted of a total of 373 undergraduate engineering students, 265 (71%) males and 108 (29%) females. African Americans made up 35% (n = 132) of the sample and Whites 65% (n = 241). The sample consisted of 25% (n = 93) African American males, 10% (n = 39) African American females, 46% (n = 172) White males, and 19% (n = 69) White females. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-tests were conducted to analyze differences in advising style when categorized by race, gender, classification, GPA, and major. The results revealed a significant difference between the style of academic advising currently perceived by African American and White engineering students. The majority of the African Americans reported receiving prescriptive advising and the majority of the Whites reported receiving a developmental style of advising. The results also indicated that the majority of the African American males (55%) perceived receiving a prescriptive style of advising. When looking at African Americans when categorized by classifications, all reported receiving a prescriptive style of advising. The junior class of African Americans was the only group that is borderline prescriptive/developmental. The ANOVA test also indicated a significant interaction between race and GPA. Results showed that African Americans engineering students in the GPA categories of 1.0-1.9 and 2.0-2.9 reported receiving prescriptive advising, while the 3.0-3.9 category of African Americans reported receiving developmental advising. This data was not consistent with White students in the GPA category of 1.0-1.9. All White students regardless of GPA reported receiving a developmental style of advising. All engineering students regardless of race, gender, classification, GPA, or major preferred a developmental style of advising. African American females significantly preferred a more developmental style of advising than the other groups. A Chi square test of independence also indicated that a significantly large portion of African American students felt that their academic advisor did not understand them. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to examine the type of advising conducted (prescriptive v. developmental), the type of information sought, and the level of participant satisfaction gained through online academic advising. For purposes of this study, online academic advice was defined as advice or information provided by an academic department obtained via the Internet to improve the student's academic experience. The three types of online academic advice considered for this study included (a) email correspondence with an academic advisor, (b) instant messaging or chat based conversation between a participant and an academic advisor, (c) and obtaining academic information from a department supported web page. To obtain a sample for this study, academic deans were contacted by email and asked to distribute a link for an online survey to their respective undergraduate student populations. Data was collected by administering a version of Winston and Sandor's (1984) Academic Advising Inventory (AAI) modified specifically for this study. Participants were asked to complete the multiple-choice instrument online. The researcher conducted t-tests, ANOVAs, and Tukey post-hoc tests on the data in an effort to examine the mean scores between four groups: (a) gender, (b) type of residency, (c) race, and (d) academic college. The data revealed significant results pertaining to several key differences between groups including gender, race, and academic college. The findings shed light on needs and satisfaction of students who receive academic advice online. The results suggest ways to provide consistency among the online academic advising methods of different academic colleges and ways to better meet the needs of students in an effort to increase retention. / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study was to determine sophomore students' perceptions of academic advising at ETSU as reported in fall 2002 and trends in sophomore students' perceptions of academic advising at ETSU from 1994 to 2002. Four research questions and seven hypotheses were examined. The ACT Survey of Academic Advising was the instrument used in this study. This survey was administered to ETSU sophomores enrolled in 2000-level English literature classes during the fall semesters of 1994, 1998, and 2002. Data obtained from the survey regarding topics of discussion with advisors, satisfaction with assistance received, and impressions of advisors were analyzed to determine student perceptions and satisfaction. Variables of age, sex, college residence, type of advisor, and transfer status were examined in the 2002 data to determine any significant differences in these student subgroups. Comparative analysis was used to determine differences between ETSU sophomores surveyed in 2002 and sophomores included in a national normative study. Means scores obtained in 1994, 1998, and 2002 were tested to determine trends in students' perceptions since 1994. This study utilized a descriptive research design. All hypotheses were tested using an alpha level of .05. The results of this research indicated that continued improvements in academic advising services were needed at ETSU. The data in this study showed that ETSU students were satisfied with assistance received from their advisors in some areas. Students' impressions of their advisors were less than favorable. There were few statistical differences between ETSU student subgroups. There were few statistical differences between ETSU and students in the normative study in satisfaction with advisors' assistance. ETSU students had significantly less favorable impressions of their advisors than those in the normative study. Regarding trends in ETSU students' perceptions of academic advising at ETSU, students were significantly more satisfied and had significantly higher impressions of advisors in 1998 and 2002 than in 1994. There were no significant differences in responses of sophomores surveyed in 1998 and those surveyed in 2002 on any items.

Although many academically underprepared students are able to attend community colleges via open access policies, these students struggle with completing their degrees. At a rural community college in the southeastern United States, students who tested into developmental education courses have struggled more with persistence and completion than have their college-ready counterparts. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to evaluate the influence that student coaching had on student success in developmental math at this community college. Tinto's dropout theory and Astin's engagement theory provided the theoretical framework for a study of 62 developmental math students who were offered student coaching services during the course. Multiple one-way ANOVAs were performed to determine if student coaching had any influence on the dependent COMPASS test scores based on students' level of participation with the service. Students who participated in 0-2 coaching sessions (n = 32) had statistically significantly lower COMPASS test scores than students who participated in 3 or more coaching sessions (n = 30). None of the demographic characteristics had an effect on coaching participation. An evidence-based project designed to enhance coaching participation is offered to increase student persistence and completion. Implications for positive social change include increased success rates in developmental courses which should lead to increased persistence. Positive social change occurs when students are able to achieve incremental successes in their developmental courses, which could better leverage them to achieve subsequent higher education goals of degree completion and to pursue careers with better salaries associated with higher education completers.

A quantitative study was conducted to determine the preferences of undergraduate students for academic advisors as transformational leaders. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to undergraduate students enrolled in leadership classes at a major land grant university to determine importance ratings based on the variables including non-traditional and traditional students’ ages, classification, gender, number of times advised, number of visits to an academic advisor, membership in a collegiate military organization and athletics, and current leadership activities. Results indicated that undergraduate students preferred their academic advisors to use transformational leadership activities. There was no significant difference in the degree of preference of transformational leadership in their academic advisor based on gender, participation in athletics, traditional and non-traditional ages, classification, membership in a military organization and participation in a leadership position or number of times advised. However, inadequate representation of all groups within the number of times advised category prevented a comparative analysis. As a result of this study, a leadership education workshop was developed as a component for academic advisor training, academic advising activities were identified that corresponded to transformational leadership constructs and similarities were found between the developmental advising model and transformational leadership.