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Using Technology to Reform Advising: Insights From Colleges

By Melinda Mechur Karp & Jeffrey Fletcher
Increasingly, colleges are using new technologies to address challenges created by high student-to-advisor ratios and by student unfamiliarity in navigating college. Sometimes referred to as Integrated Planning and Advising Services (IPAS), these technologies provide an array of student support-focused functions, including course management, degree planning, and early alerts. Yet colleges and college personnel often approach IPAS as a technology deployment rather than as a mediator of reform. Ideally, IPAS motivates a college to rethink and reform its advising system. This guide summarizes findings from a study in which we examined how six colleges planned for and began IPAS implementation and associated reform, and how they addressed the surprises and challenges they encountered. The guide and the Questions-to-Ask supplement aim to help college practitioners embarking on advising reform anticipate and plan for the kinds of challenges that peer institutions have faced, so they can improve their chances for successful implementation and end-user adoption. The authors identify three key lessons:
  1. Implementation is about more than technology.
  2. Good project management is essential.
  3. An IPAS-ready culture facilitates reform.
In describing each lesson, they provide specific examples from the six colleges and share strategies they used to move their projects forward.
Download guide
June 2015
Download supplement: Questions to Ask
June 2015
  • Evaluation of Integrated Planning and Advising​ for Student Success​ (iPASS)

Related Publications

July 2017

Leadership for Transformative Change: Lessons From Technology-Mediated Reform in Broad-Access Colleges

August 2015

Student Attitudes Toward Technology-Mediated Advising Systems

July 2014

Evaluating Your College’s Readiness for Technology Adoption

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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