College of Arts & Sciences advisers are standing up a new system for drop-in advising hours that’s both high-tech and high-touch.
Undergraduate students in need of schedule changes or graduation checks used to show up at the first floor of Wilson Hall on the Ohio University College Green during drop-in hours. Undergraduate Student Affairs staff would greet them, find out what they needed, and get them in the first-come, first-served queue to talk with an adviser.
That high-touch process is still happening, even in the gone-virtual world that is life during a pandemic.
But putting some new technology into play makes things happen a little easier when folks can’t be in the same office.
Using the Microsoft Teams planner and chat functions gives the staff and advisers the next-best-thing to being there.
Here’s How It Works
To get in the advising queue, a student fills out the drop-in form, available on the A&S Undergraduate Student Affairs web page.
Staff members Shelley Barton and Mark Shields will then put the students in the queue to meet with an academic adviser. Additionally, they reach out to the students—via Teams chat, email or phone— for additional information, or just to say hi and to let them know an adviser will call them into a Teams meeting shortly.
“The chat works like our lobby in Wilson Hall does when we have walk ins,” Barton explains. “There is always a lot of communication to coordinate walk in/drop in advising because it’s first come, first served.”
For now, drop-in hours in Arts & Sciences are five days a week, and the schedule is posted on the Undergraduate Student Affairs web page. If a student tries to sign up for drop-in after hours, Barton or Shields will reach out to them and get them into the next day’s queue.
“Virtual drop-in hours are going really well so far,” says Dr. Randy Price, assistant dean for student affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Our staff and advisers are really focused on delivering personal attention to our students, even in a virtual space.”
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