Lesson 18: Scheduling Advising Appointments

Introduction

Because a large part of your job will be directing students to the correct department, you will often need to direct students to advising. Since advisors assist so many students, we have a tool that allows us to schedule appointments for students to meet with advisors without needing to get in contact with the advisors first. This saves a lot of back-and-forth communication between them, and it also gets them in contact with an advisor faster than otherwise.   

Issues to Send to Advising

There are quite a few things that advising helps students with, though it is important to note that they do not do everything for students. There will be some issues that you will need to direct students elsewhere for, and often where you will need to help the student yourself. It is also important to note that you can just send students to advising to have an email conversation, rather than scheduling an appointment to meet with an advisor. 

Here is a list of things that will need to be sent to advising:
-Registration Questions
-Degree Planner Errors
-Course Planning
-Degree Audits
-Brand New Students

Keep in mind that not all of these issues necessitate an advising appointment. Make sure to review the Knowledge Base Articles to make sure the issue the student has requires an advising appointment, and not just a quick email exchange. 

Here is a list of things that advising does not help with:
-Anything to do with the application
-Evaluating Transfer Credits
-Analyzing Transcripts
-Sending Transcripts

How to Direct Students to Advising

Before sending students to advising, you need to make sure the student doesn't have any holds on their account, and that they are not waiting for any transfer credits. Since advising does not help students with transfer credits, we need to wait until the credits are applied by BYU-Idaho or Ensign College before setting up an appointment. Similarly, they will not be able to move their courses, register, or request their transcripts if they have a hold on their account, so they will need to clear that before contacting an advisor. You will refer to the Knowledge Base Article "OD - BYU-Idaho Holds" or "OD - Ensign College Holds" for how to help students clear holds. 

As mentioned earlier, not all questions require an appointment. You will need to use your best judgement on what needs an appointment and what does not, but here are some questions to ask yourself prior to setting up an appointment to help you determine what is needed:
Does the student want to do an in-depth review of their courses, or do they just have a few simple questions?
Is their error a known issue, or is it something new?
How complex is the error?
Is the student upset and/or anxious?

If the issue seems to be more complicated, the student seems upset, or the student is very confused, you will want to set up an appointment. If the answer is simpler, you can just direct them to advising using the Advising Escalation Form, which allows them to contact advising through email. You will fill out the form, not the student. The form is straightforward, and all you need to do is fill out the required fields and select the correct boxes. Be as thorough as you can so the advisor can help the student to the best of their ability. If the request comes in an email, you can simply assign the email to the Advising - Default queue, rather than filling out the escalation form.

Setting up an Appointment

Once you have determined that the student needs to have an advising appointment, you will use the Bookings Link to set up an appointment. When you first open the link, you will be offered three types of appointments: Prospective Student, Graduation Review, and Online Degree Advising. Prospective students are students who are in their final semester of the PathwayConnect program, have completed the PathwayConnect program, or are applying to the Advanced Path, but are not enrolled in the Online Degree Program yet. Graduation review is for students who have fulfilled most or all of their graduation requirements and are looking to finalize everything before getting their bachelor's degree. Online Degree Advising is for people looking for help with their degree planner, course planning, and registration questions. 

Once you select one of those options, you will scroll down to the calendar to select a day and time. Keep in mind that the closest available time will always be for the next day. Advisors will not accept appointments for the same day. Be sure to get a day and time that works well for the student, then select the date on the calendar and the time that appears next to it. Sometimes students will request an appointment with a specific advisor, and you can select them using the drop-down menu that appears above the time selections.

Underneath the date and time selection, you will see a section where you will fill out your information. You will fill this out with the student's name, email, and phone number, not your own. Finally, you will fill out the bottom section. Again, please be sure to be as detailed as possible about the student's concerns. You may need to ask the student additional questions to get all of the information the form asks for, so be sure to be thorough. When getting the student's major, you will need to access their degree planner to find it there, since sometimes the student will not know their major. If the student is switching majors, put down their current major, not the one they are switching to. Also be sure to inform the student that all appointment times are in Mountain Time, and they will need to plan for any time zone differences. 

Knowledge Articles

OD - Advising Appointments

OD - BYU Idaho Holds

OD - Ensign College Holds