Dear Presidents, Provosts, Chief Student Affairs Officers, and Chief Enrollment Management Officers,

As I mentioned in the “Call to Action: Academic Pivot to Summer 2020 and Beyond” memo of April 16^th, the Office of Academic Affairs committed to providing targeted remote professional development offerings in key student support service areas to ensure staff who work directly with students are more fully prepared to support them in the remote learning environment.

Below and attached please find information for our initial offering in the area of advisement. We are pleased to be launching a three-part webinar series on effective practices in remote advisement. The webinar series has been organized by members of the OAA Academic/Student Success Response Team and cosponsored with Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). The webinars are open to all advisement staff, including those who work in support/success programs on the degree and non-degree side of the house.

We ask that in sharing this information that you message the importance of these webinars and strongly encourage the participation of all your advising staff. The first session in on May 27.

Note that information will be forthcoming very soon on additional remote professional development opportunities in other key student service areas including mental health, career engagement counseling, and virtual recruitment. We are also prepared to host additional advisement offerings and informal discussion forums based on the specific needs and interest of staff that we hope come to light in the course of these sessions -- and would be pleased to highlight campus best practices.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the training in online instruction, the first wave of which began last week, being led by our colleagues at SPS. As of May 7, 476 faculty from 14 colleges were enrolled in the first Online Teaching Essentials (OTE) workshop. The training is organized into six modules, and covers topics that include the course structure and schedule, communication, engagement, and assessment. The second OTE workshop is scheduled to begin in early June, with an additional cohort beginning in July.

Thank you for your partnership on this matter. If you have any questions about this remote advisement webinar series, please contact University Assistant Dean for Student Success Initiatives and Deputy/Chief of Staff to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Kara Heffernan at kara.heffernan@cuny.edu.

As always questions, comments, and suggestions more than welcomed.

All the best,

JL

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Advisement Professional Development Series

            Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs & ASAP

This 3-part webinar series, Successful Strategies for Remote Advising, will take place in three parts in May and June 2020. The series will focus on current CUNY best practices in remote advising, drawing primarily from ASAP, but also from college advisement offices, and highlight how technology is being harnessed to both foster effective remote advisement teams and engage students. Advisement staff across the University will be featured and participants will have a chance to ask questions. All advisement staff are strongly encouraged to join a session synchronously or watch at a later date.

Part 1: The Remote Advising Operation for Staff and Students

Wednesday May 27, 2020, 10:00-11:00

This session will focus on how Microsoft Teams is being utilized to both organize effective remote team advising operations (in addition to Slack and Google Docs) and engage students. It will cover strategies for aligning expectations between staff and supervisors and managing workflow and communications. A step-by-step guide to how one campus utilized Microsoft Teams to support student advisement and registration will also be presented.

Part 2: Individual and Group Advisement & Registration Practices

Wednesday June 3, 2020, 10:00-11:00

This session will focus on how technologies are being used to enhance the effectiveness of both individual and group remote advisement sessions. It will showcase how various technologies are integrated or being used in mutually supportive ways, like Hobson’s and Schedule Builder or EAB and Starfish with remote advisement options. It will also explore the use of Blackboard for virtual new student onboarding (featuring virtual assistants and online advising rooms) and showcase one college’s process to move a group advisement curriculum to an online setting.

Part 3: Keeping Students Engaged

Wednesday June 17, 2020, 10:00-11:00

This session will focus on how technologies can support innovative engagement practices and enhance documentation and tracking. It will showcase staff-led and peer-supported strategies for promoting social interactions and ongoing engagement. Tracking and monitoring mechanisms for student status, withdrawals, and participation in program supports will be explored.

How to Attend

RSVP here to register to attend a session live or receive a link to the recording.

All sessions will be offered live at the times noted above, but attendance is capped at 100 participants (you will be notified if you are selected to attend live and we are over capacity). If you are unable to attend the live sessions or we exceed our cap, you can view the sessions at a later date in recorded form. Instructions to access recordings will be sent to all registrants.