The #acadv Community: Networked Practices, Professional Development, and Ongoing Knowledge Sharing in Advising

Abstract

The #acadv Twitter chat is an organic, online community of higher education academic advising professionals. Using a longitudinal study, we explored the way a self-directed learning network sustains ongoing professional development and knowledge sharing by examining the archives of 203 structured online discussions. In mapping the chat topics to published core competencies, we discovered that this advising community scaffolds on-demand learning for discussion of advising approaches and strategies, distribution of resources for supporting student success, collective sharing of personal advising philosophies, and encouragement to engage in reflective assessment about advising practice. Community members are motivated to contribute to networked practice to enhance professional development activities, share open educational practices, and support advising competency development in an occupational community of practice.

Achieving Student-Centred Advising Using Hermeneutic Theory: Implications for Advisor Training and Professional Development

“…The training programme focuses on various components; however, the conceptual component is of particular interest, since it focuses on theories and provides a common knowledge base across the HE sector. Advisors are thus able to provide improved support to students, and theory serves to strengthen the professionalisation of advising within HE (Pasquini & Eaton, 2019). Participants used hermeneutic theory in their practices, and the operationalisation of hermeneutics as a viable theory in advising will be elucidated in the next section.…”

Searching for settlement information on Reddit

“…There are fewer studies that examine how migrants use specific social media platforms when seeking information. Instead, there are several studies on how people use specific platforms like Reddit, StackOverflow and X/Twitter to search for information on health (Nobles et al., 2018), work (Sengupta & Haythornthwaite, 2020), teacher or advisor training (Nochumson, 2020; Pasquini & Eaton, 2019; Tur & Victoria, 2014), and education (Gruzd et al., 2018; Kumar & Gruzd, 2019; Sengupta & Haythornthwaite, 2020).…”

Being/becoming professional online: Wayfinding through networked practices and digital experiences

“…In addition, organic occupational communities emerged on Twitter as the unique identifier of hashtags allowed professionals to organize and host conversations around a single thread connected to a distinct professional role. For example, participants who worked in academic advising and student support often contributed to the #acadv Twitter chat conversation (Pasquini and Eaton, 2019). Similarly, faculty, instructors, and educational developers valued the weekly #lthechats for insights into teaching and learning practices in HE and continued professional development (Beckingham et al, 2015).…”