Guidance, support and information
These resources aim to support our Academic Advisers including those colleagues who support students, such as Course Leaders and Module Leaders. Click on the following headings to jump to the relevant section.
Academic Advising Framework
Developed in 2018, Hallam’s Academic Advice Framework supports the requirement that every student has a named Academic Adviser.
Academic Essentials
The academic resources library A-Z provides access to a range of resources for Academic Advisers.
Academic Tutoring Model
Based on the model currently in use at Nottingham Trent University, take a look at a sample model for undergraduate students and courses.
Action Planning
Typically, at the end of Semester 1, the reflection and action planning is undertaken by both the Academic Adviser and their student in order to reflect on academic performance. The outcomes of which should inform and develop the student in Semester 2.
Appointments
Using the calendar function to manage your academic advising appointments – here the Sheffield Business School present;
Apprenticeship
- An overview of the Academic Advising Process for the Policing Degree Apprenticeship course – level 4. Created by Louise Povey, Senior Lecturer in Policing, Course Leader Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship, Law & Criminology, SSA.
- Visit Academic Essentials – Apprenticeship, Employability and Work-Based Learning for more guidance.
Blackboard
Academic Adviser details on Blackboard
When students log on to their Blackboard page, they should now be able to see their named;
Academic adviser allocations
When students log on to their Blackboard page, they should now be able to view their named academic adviser. If any information is omitted, students are being referred to their course leader in the first instance. Please refer to the SITS step by step guidance regarding their student support adviser details.
Academic advisers course grades overview
Its beneficial for Academic Advisers to review a student’s performance over time by seeing their marks across all modules and all years of study in a single view. New in Blackboard – Course Grades Overview collates and provides a read-only view of all available grade columns from all module sites that a particular student is enrolled on. Academic Advisers can look up any student and use this view to support and help their students reflect on their overall performance. It displays academic year, module site name, assessment name, due date, submission date, and mark awarded. If you need access please contact Melissa Jacobi, Academic Director for Academic Advising direct at melissa.jacobi@shu.ac.uk
Further guidance on how to navigate around Blackboard can be found on Academic Essentials: Digital Capability, Skills and Support page under the Blackboard section.
Career Assessment
- A range of resources to understand your motivations, preferences and values in Academic Advising. Please use your standard SHU credentials to log-on.
- Online resources for Academic Advisers, a video presented by Dr Darcey Gillie, Employability Consultant, HWLS, Business Engagement, Skills and Employability (BESE).
Case Studies
- You can also access a range of video case studies around academic advising.
- You can access a range of case studies based around themes that support academic advising.
Contacts and Communications
Here we present information on who you can contact regarding academic advising in your College and Department along with ways in which we communicate to the academic advising community.
Disabled Students
A range of resources to help you support your disabled students.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Here we present a wide range of EDI related guidance and information. This includes the university’s strategic position to resources and materials to provide your students inclusive support.
GDPR
When hosting academic advising sessions, please ensure you make reference to the Guidance on GDPR for Academic Advisers including information on how to request restricted access folders.
Hallam Guild – UKAT Community of Practice
Visit the Hallam Guild – UKAT Community of Practice page.
Hallam Welcome
Take a look at the Support for course and module design and delivery overview for Hallam Welcome guidance and resources.
International Students
Take a look at Supporting our Students overview for details of how the International Student Experience Team support students and the resources they offer.
Mental Health support
A range of support available for staff supporting students with mental health issues.
- Fundamentals of Academic Advising – for staff who are AAs, this workshop provides details of the expectations and boundaries of the role. Visit the training and development page for further details.
- Introduction to Academic Advising – for staff who are looking for a practical overview of the remit of the Academic Adviser role and an introduction to the tools used to support AAs. Visit the training and development page for further details.
- Mental Health Awareness training / workshops – Visit the training and development page for further details.
- Advice for a specific situation or emergency / distressed student – visit the Supporting our Students page, section Student Support Triangle.
Next Steps
Is a simple, user friendly, digital tool that is designed to support students transition to their next level of study, or graduation by providing them with key information and resources based on their level of study and their level of confidence. Read more about this on our Supporting our Students overview page.
SITS
Ahead of the new academic year it would be useful if Academic Advisers could check their allocation of students on SITS and use the Academic Adviser Allocations process and guidance to check the data and allocations within SITS and use this as a template to send any updates.
Also known as Curriculum View/Catalogue, you can find a host of other guidance on the Academic Essentials: support for course and module design and delivery overview page – section curriculum view/catalogue.
The finding an AA on SITS guidance shows you how to find an individual student on the student view.
Student Conversations
- Tool – iDevelop – Developed by Jon Painter and Sharon Frankland HWLS, this tool helps students draw together individual pieces of feedback and provide an overall picture of their academic development.
- Assessment Group Session – A briefing document to help you interpret the PowerPoint and resources for this academic advising session focusing on assessments.
- Conversations with students – academic advising strength-based questioning video
- Appreciative Advising consists of six phases and are the intentional collaborative practice of asking positive, open-ended questions that help students optimise their educational experiences and achieve their dreams, goals and potentials.
Supporting your students
- Take a look at Academic Essentials: Supporting our Students overview to see the full range of support guidance and resources.
Student’s 1st year at university
Settling In Emails
An intervention utilised by the BSc (Hons) Sport Business Management team in the Academic of Sport, which has a cohort of around 75 students. Aimed at all 1st year students during their first 6 weeks.
LEGO Serious Play
Developed by Sue Beckingham, LTA Lead for Computing, this is a group session that allows students to answer a serious of questions related to barriers or obstacles they might face as freshers.
First Group Session
Sarah Churchill from Student Experience, Teaching & Learning (SETL) has created first group session guidance and resources for academic advisers to support the 2021 Academic Advising Principle that ‘Group meetings should be used at the start of the year to facilitate consistent messaging and icebreaking’.
This session is supported by a screencast to aid understanding for Academic Advisers and can be tailored to best suit the needs of the cohort/adviser.
Top Tips
Here are some top tips for staff that are involved in the role of Academic Adviser and those that manage and support staff linked to the role.
Training, Development, Events and Activities
- Here we present a range of training and development opportunities for staff undertaking the role of Academic Adviser including guidance on supporting students with mental health issues.
- Here we present a range of events and activities that are likely to be of interest to staff with Academic Advising roles.
Tutoring Model
- Based on the model currently in use at Nottingham Trent University, take a look at a sample model for undergraduate students and courses
- Freely available guidance from the US which has been produced by our colleagues in NACADA and the NSF Aspire Alliance. Faculty advising in US terminology is broadly synonymous with what we know as personal tutoring in the UK. If you are a personal tutor in a STEM discipline, this guide may be really helpful to you, particularly in working with underrepresented groups or in trying to address differential attainment.
UKAT Membership
Visit the Academic Advising Framework page for more details.
| This page is maintained by the Academic Development & Diversity Team on behalf of our AA stakeholders.
Last updated: 30th September 2021 – NB |