Remote Academic Advising with a Synchronous Communication Technology: A Case Study

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most face-to-face instructions and services in higher education, universities struggled to continue teaching and serving students. In particular, student services like academic advising were significantly impacted, as most advising is conducted in person. The use of synchronous communication technology was suddenly increased to continue advising students, employing Remote Academic Advising (RAA). Three researchers at a state university in the southeast USA conducted a case study to understand the experiences of using RAA by academic advisors. The study included 11 academic advisors from different academic colleges and areas who were engaged in RAA to provide advising service to students during the 2020–2021 academic year. Four themes emerged after a reiterative process of coding and analysing the interview responses. The four themes were a slow transition to using RAA, RAA can also be relational, RAA can promote more awareness of mental health and RAA should be part of regular advising practice. The discussion section includes recommendations for advancing RAA as regular practice through a concerted effort of promotion, leadership and effective use of RAA with synchronous communication technology among the advising community on campus.