Redesigning Advising and Student Support: Tools for Practitioners

This set of tools aims to help community colleges and broad-access four-year colleges assess their work on technology-mediated advising and student support, sometimes referred to as Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS). This work involves moving from a model of advising focused on information provision or course registration to one in which advising is sustained, strategic, integrated, proactive, and personalized (SSIPP)—in which students have a dedicated advisor who can connect them to a coherent, institution-wide network of services. The rubric titled Technology-Mediated Advising and Student Support: An Institutional Self-Assessment offers guidance on broader institutional structures and processes that support a holistic advising model. This self-assessment tool is designed to allow institutions to evaluate how well they are doing in providing holistic student support. The interactive tool titled Implementing Holistic Student Support: A Practitioner’s Guide to Key Structures and Processes focuses on the specifics of designing and delivering advising and student support services. It is designed to help institutions identify which pieces of holistic student support are already in place and to make plans for implementing those that are not. The information contained in this tool is also available in PowerPoint format for those wishing to lead group discussions about the state of advising and student support at their institution. The PowerPoint can be used to present core concepts while others follow along and make notes directly in the framework. Together, these tools offer a comprehensive blueprint for redesigning advising and student support. (Colleges in earlier stages of advising redesign may refer to CCRC’s self-assessment tool titled Evaluating Your College’s Readiness for Technology Adoption.)