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An analysis of the effects of a faculty advisor training program and certain other variables upon student satisfaction

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to design, implement, and evaluate a program for training faculty advisors, and to analyze in conjunction with the training program whether certain variables were having any impact upon the subject institution's advising system.;An Advisor Training Program was developed and given to a randomly selected group of faculty advisors. The effects of the program were measured by objective post-tests given to both experimental and control group of advisors. The participants also completed a free-response questionnaire on the program. The effects of the program along with those of the other independent variables of advisee's curriculum group, status (full- or part-time), attendance (day or night), length of advising sessions, and advisor load were measured by administering the Advising Satisfaction Questionnaire to advisees. The effects that the variables of curriculum group and attendance were having upon advisees' visiting patterns to assigned advisors were also examined.;The research led to the following findings: the Advisor Training Program increased the knowledge of the trainees, and was rated successful by them; however, advisees of these trained advisors were subsequently no more satisfied with their advisement than were students advised by the untrained advisors; the longer the advising sessions were, the more satisfied the students; advisee satisfaction was affected by the varying patterns of teacher-student contact characteristic of different curricula; full-time and part-timea students were equally satisfied with their advisement; combined, the variables examined accounted for only 16% of the variance in the scores measuring student satisfaction; the variables of both time of attendance and curriculum affected the patterns in which advisees visited their assigned advisors; students advised by a counselor or administrator were less satisfied than were those advised by the faculty.;It was concluded that the Advisor Training Program should be repeated as necessary and be evaluated by not only surveying student satisfaction but also by using other dependent measures such as grade-point averages and retention rates, that there appears to be a problem in certain curricula with both the quality of advising and the availability of advisors, and that there is also a problem with having students advised by counselors or administrators rather than by their assigned faculty advisors.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:wm.edu/oai:scholarworks.wm.edu:etd-1622
Date01 January 1981
CreatorsReichard, Donald Leroy.
PublisherW&M ScholarWorks
Source SetsWilliam and Mary
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceDissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Rights© The Author

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