Site compiles advising resources

The Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) has recently created a new resource for academic advisers that brings necessary information together into a single website, accessible by both faculty and students.

Conversations regarding its development began in fall 2008 at meetings held before the school year at the faculty meetings at the Bread Loaf Mountain campus. The site was constructed primarily by CTLR Director and Professor of English Kathy Skubikowski, Associate CTLR Director Mary Ellen Bertolini and Director of Learning Resources Yonna McShane. The development also included feedback from students, deans and faculty to make the available advising resources more widely accessible and concentrated in one space. The website, according to Bertolini, was made available during September 2010 and was used most recently by advisers for the newly matriculated Feb class of 2014.5.

The website is now available to the College community, although Dean of Faculty and Rehnquist Professor of American History and Culture Jim Ralph noted that “it is still a work in progress and has potential to evolve into a gateway for academic advising information and resources.”

Bertolini seconds Ralph, adding that more focus needs to be put on creating resources for upperclassmen advising.

“We still have a lot more work to do — for juniors and seniors, especially,” wrote Bertolini in an e-mail. “We hope to enlist the help of the Study Abroad Office and the Education in Action Office as we develop more areas of the site.”

The website provides information that ranges from reports on distribution requirements and major fulfillments to course catalogs. Not only are advisers able to access information regarding regular courses, but they can also view key details to aid sophomores in the study abroad application process.

The website states that “students’ advising needs to change over their four years at Middlebury,” and provides a relatively detailed outline that traces the evolution of  students’ advising needs through their career at Middlebury. As Ralph noted, “advising can come from anywhere: coaches, professors, fellow students, but having academic advising knowledge concentrated in an accessible and organized space could provide more direction for student-adviser relationships.”

The outline begins with first-year requirements, such as selecting courses, mastering the transition to college and pre-advising, and ends with senior research, capstone work, completing the major and graduate school and employment advice.

The new site also contains links that enable users to directly access CTLR resources, First-year Seminar information, Academic Policies, the Registrar’s Office and BannerWeb. The future expansion of the site would include academic advising that extends to planning for graduation and beyond into real-world professions.

The site is not intended to replace “face-to-face interactions between students and advisers,” Ralph said, but rather that it should be used as a supplement for both students and advisers to expand their academic advising relationship. As Bertolini commented, the site should make the student-adviser relationship more productive and focused with regard to Academic Advising scope.

Bob Cluss, dean of curriculum and professor of chemistry and biochemistry, added that the site can also be a way to help students in transition between their original first-year seminar adviser and their major adviser.

Vivian Cowan ’14 noted that her adviser relationship would have been much improved if her adviser “had more knowledge about the course catalog and potential classes.”

For others, having a less involved adviser can be a plus.

“[My adviser is] more of a mentor and sounding board than life planner,” said Kathryn Miller ’13. “I like the way our relationship works because it gives me guidance without being controlling.”