Part 1: Introduction/Background

Introduction

“Academic advising is one of the most important services for helping students
become aware of their intellectual and emotional growth, in particular, and
for helping them monitor the progress in their development” (Gordon, 2002,
p.240).

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a pivotal element in various sectors,

including education. This paper explores the integration of AI in educational counselling
particularly academic advising, a domain where (presumably) technology has the potential to
significantly enhance the support provided to students. Educational counselling traditionally
involves guiding students in their academic, personal, and career development. As I
researched more about AI and it’s potential, I discovered that the inclusion of AI offers new
possibilities for personalized learning, predictive analytics, and mental health support, which
could revolutionize this field.

Before, I delve deep into the topic, lets first understand what academic advising entails.

Image 1:

What is Academic Advising and what is the role of an academic advisor?

Academic advising is a structured and supportive process designed to help students make
informed decisions about their academic and career goals, navigate their educational journey,
and achieve academic success.

Bilquise and Shaalan (2022) assert that the advising process encompasses several critical tasks. These
include ensuring that students are well-informed about institutional policies, course offerings, and
program requirements, and that they enroll in courses aligned with their degree plans. Moreover,
advising ensures that students follow a customized learning track based on their academic
progression. Academic advising provides essential support and guidance to students who require it the
most, such as those on probation or at risk of dropping out or failing a course.

Role of Academic Advisors:

The role of an academic advisor is truly multi- faceted. They don’t just help students
understand their programme requirements, choose appropriate courses, and create academic
plans that align with their goals, they also identify academic challenges early and provide
strategies for improvement. In times of personal or academic crisis, advisors can provide
immediate support and connect students with the appropriate resources, including counselling
services.
They also assist students in exploring what next after they graduate. From potential career
paths to choosing the right higher education degree and institution to starting up, the students
have several choices and may often be confused. The Advisor can help them connect their
academic choices to their future aspirations. And the most important- identify vulnerable
cases and offer them personalized support, taking into account each student's unique
background, needs, and interests.

According to Bilquise and Shaalan (2022), an advisor’s role encompasses three primary
tasks: creating a customized study plan for academic progression, providing guidance and
support to address queries and recommend opportunities for personal and career growth, and
monitoring academic progression while supporting students at risk.

Firstly, an advisor collaborates with each advisee to create a study plan by recommending
courses each semester. A well-structured study plan ensures smooth academic progression
within the program of study. The advisor must select appropriate courses that fulfill academic
requirements such as prerequisites, minimum credits, and specialization. Additionally, the
advisor prepares a graduation plan during the final year of an advisee’s study to ensure timely
graduation.

Secondly, the advisor offers guidance for general academic queries. Serving as the central
contact point, the advisor provides direction and support for any personal or academic
concerns. The advisor directs students to institutional support systems, such as student
services and academic tutorials, or answers general queries about grades, volunteering hours,
GPA requirements, work placements, and more. This type of advising strengthens the
student's connection to the institution, fostering a sense of belonging. Furthermore, the
advisor encourages advisees to participate in extracurricular opportunities, competitions, and
programs related to their career and personal growth. Advisees often seek guidance from their
advisors on policies and procedures, which enhances their satisfaction with the institution and
reduces attrition rates.

Thirdly, the most crucial advising task is directly related to student success. This task
involves proactively monitoring students' academic progression, particularly those struggling
with their studies. The advisor identifies at-risk students and provides necessary support,
which may include arranging meetings with counsellors or facilitating tutorial sessions
through the academic success center.

Figure 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi5WDW4vP64
From 0.24 to 0.37 the role of an advisor
College of Southern Nevada

Why am I interested in researching this?

I work with students and faculty day in and day out as a part of my role at the Centre for
Learning Futures at Ahmedabad University. We are a comparatively new university and
several of our processes are still being set up. Educational counselling or academic advising
is at a fairly nouveau stage at the University right now and is currently being done by the
Program and Major Advisors but not in a structured and formal manner. We are a large
university (20 degree programs and close to 5000 students) so it is a fairly cumbersome task
to have a free standing advising program.
We have realizing more and more that to identify vulnerable cases in the nascent stages and
to advise a student throughout their academic lifecycle, it is better to have dedicated advisors
who will provide guidance, information, and support regarding course selection, degree
requirements, academic policies, and career planning but finding the right talent and then
training them are no mean feat.
My endeavour through this paper is to explore if AI can be used to ease the load on Program
and Major Advisors at least where some routine advising is concerned.
Problems with the current system
Figure 3: University of South Carolina- resource utilization for academic advising
Figure 4 summarizes the advising problems faced at the institution of students and its impact on the institution
and its members. The challenges highlighted below are the cause of inefficiencies in the advising process.

We cannot explore the need for AI in academic advising before talking about the problems in
the current system.

Academic advising is recognized as crucial to student success, particularly for those from
disadvantaged backgrounds. However, institutions of higher education often struggle to provide
adequate student advising due to several challenges (Bilquise & Shaalan, 2022).

Firstly, the provision of accessible and effective academic advising is highly resource-intensive.
Hiring full-time academic advisers is costly, and faculty advisers, burdened with teaching, research,
mentoring, and other duties, may not consistently be able to devote sufficient time or attention to
general academic advising (Bilquise & Shaalan, 2022). Additionally, institutional subscription fees
for advising tools are steep, limiting access to these resources (The Future of Advising, 2022).

Human advising in education encounters several significant challenges, identified by

researchers and practitioners alike:

1. Limited Availability of Advisers: Students often encounter difficulty scheduling

appointments due to the scarcity of available advisers (Karp, 2017). This shortage
results in longer wait times for students seeking guidance on academic planning,
career choices, and personal development.
2. Inconsistent Advice: Variability in the quality and accuracy of advice provided by
advisers can lead to students receiving conflicting or insufficient information
(Bilquise & Shaalan, 2022). This inconsistency can hinder students' academic
progress and decision-making.
3. High Student-Advisor Ratios: The National Academic Advising Association
(NACADA) recommends a ratio of one academic advisor for every 300 students.
However, many institutions experience ratios as high as 1:600, and some, including
my own, face even higher ratios (Bilquise & Shaalan, 2022). This disparity means that
advisors, particularly full-time faculty members serving as Program and Major
Advisors, often have limited time to devote to each student for personalized advising.

In addition to these systemic issues, human advising faces practical challenges that impact its
effectiveness:
 4. Fatigue and Infrastructural Requirements: Advisers frequently experience fatigue
due to heavy caseloads and inadequate support infrastructure (The Future of Advising,
2022). This strain can diminish the quality of advising interactions and contribute to
burnout among advisors.
5. Frequent Turnover: High turnover rates among entry-level advisers result in
students encountering advisers who may lack familiarity with campus culture,
university policies, or available student resources (The Future of Advising, 2022).
This turnover disrupts continuity in advising relationships and can negatively impact
the quality of guidance provided.
6. Sheer Volume of Caseloads: School counsellors and academic advisors often
manage caseloads exceeding 450 students per advisor, far surpassing the
recommended ratio of 250:1 by the American School Counsellor Association (Karp,
2017). Such high caseloads strain advisors' capacity to provide individualized
attention and support to each student.
7. Limited Meeting Times: Advising sessions tend to be brief and transactional due to
the overwhelming number of students requiring assistance (The Future of Advising,
2022). This brevity limits opportunities for meaningful, in-depth discussions that are
crucial for addressing students' academic and personal needs effectively.
8. Personal Bias: Advisors' personal biases can influence the advice they provide,
potentially leading to disparities in the support offered to different students (Bilquise
& Shaalan, 2022). Addressing these biases is essential to ensuring equitable advising
practices across diverse student populations.
9. Inadequate Support for At-Risk Students: Advisers often lack sufficient time and
resources to adequately support students who are struggling academically or at risk of
dropping out (Bilquise & Shaalan, 2022). Effective intervention for these students
requires dedicated efforts that are challenging to sustain under current advising
constraints.

There is a recurrent pattern of advising dynamics in one-to-one sessions which point to a scaffolding
approach to learning advising. This is best expressed in the form of a conceptual organiser (Fig. 1)
which depicts generic, prescriptive and developmental advising as a continuum that is flexible and
allows advising intervention at any point, depending on the needs and the level of readiness of the
advisees.
Conceptual organiser for one-to-one academic learning advising.

Theoretical Framework

The rationale for integrating AI in educational counseling draws on various educational

theories, with personalized learning standing out prominently. Personalized learning involves
tailoring instructional approaches to individual learners, which, as Feldstein (2016) notes,
emphasizes the what rather than the how of learning. While achieving personalized learning
in traditional classrooms can be challenging with larger student numbers, adaptive learning
technology offers a scalable solution. This technology assesses learners' current skills and
knowledge, provides feedback and customized content, and continuously monitors progress
using learning algorithms (Educause Learning Initiative, 2017). The Horizon Report (2018)
further clarifies that adaptive learning leverages digital tools to create individualized learning
paths based on students' strengths, weaknesses, and learning pace (Taylor, Yeung, & Bashet,
2021).

Personalized and adaptive learning are driving a shift in higher education from instructor-
centered to student-centered pedagogies. Grounded in constructivist learning theory, student-
centered learning empowers students to make decisions and construct knowledge through
interactions and experiences (Goodman et al., 2018; Hannafin and Land, 1997; Wright,
2011).

The theoretical frameworks of constructivism and personalized learning underpin the

integration of AI in educational counselling. AI-driven practices align with these theories by
offering adaptive, individualized learning experiences and support.

Linking Theory to Practice

The integration of technology in advising began in the early 2000s, with initiatives like
Athabasca University's e-Advisor system since 2003, aimed at facilitating program planning
and advising processes (Lin, Wen, Kinshuk, & McGreal, 2007). Subsequently, the University
of Central Florida implemented the Student Success Collaborative system in Fall 2017. This
online tool connects students to faculty, staff, and campus resources, utilizing predictive
analytics to assist students in decision-making (UCF Faculty Center for Teaching and
Learning, 2019). Similarly, Georgia State University's Graduation and Progression Success
(GPS) system, launched in 2012, employs data analytics to predict student performance and
graduation rates based on extensive historical data (Kurzweil & Wu, 2015).

The transformative potential of AI in educational counselling lies in its ability to cater to

diverse student needs, enhance efficiency, and provide data-driven insights. By addressing
individual student requirements, AI-enhanced counselling can foster improved academic
outcomes, offer better career guidance, and support mental health initiatives.

Additionally, various AI tools are currently available for academic advising:

1. Intelligent Advising Programs: These adaptive systems recommend courses and

develop study plans using rule-based and case-based reasoning to enhance advising
efficiency and quality (Daramola, Emebo, Afolabi, & Ayo, 2014).
2. Predictive Analytics for Student Success: Initiatives such as Georgia State
University's collaboration with the Education Advisory Board demonstrate how
predictive analytics can identify at-risk students early, improving graduation rates and
reducing time to degree completion (The Future of Advising, 2022).
3. Conversational AI Chatbots: Institutions like Georgia State have implemented
personalized advising experiences through AI-driven chatbots, enhancing student
engagement and graduation rates across diverse student populations (The Future of
Advising, 2022).

Critical Evaluation of AI in Academic Advising

AI has a plethora of benefits but comes with its own set of limitations.

1. Lack of Personalized Human Interaction or Humanistic Advising

 AI systems, despite their advanced algorithms, often lack the nuanced
understanding and empathy that human advisors provide. Students might feel
less supported and understood when interacting with an AI, potentially
affecting their engagement and satisfaction. (Bermea, 2022).

AI should not be seen as a replacement of human advisors but rather a tool to

augment advising by handling routine tasks, allowing advisors to focus on
more personalized and empathetic interactions.

Bias and Fairness Issues

AI systems can inadvertently perpetuate existing biases present in their

training data. This could lead to unfair or biased advising, particularly
affecting underrepresented or marginalized student groups. But, this could
easily be overcome by continuously monitoring and updating AI training
datasets.

Privacy and Data Security Concerns

The use of AI in academic advising involves the collection and processing of

sensitive personal data, raising concerns about privacy and data security.
However, ensuring robust data protection measures, including encryption,
anonymization, and strict access controls, can safeguard student data..

AI may also mean substantial investment but if go by Georgia State University’s

example, them moving to a predictive AI based advising system saved $21 million for
the Class of 2022 in tuition money! (The Future of Advising, 2022)

Conclusion

AI stands poised to revolutionize educational counselling, offering the promise of

personalized, efficient, and data-driven support that can cater to individual student needs
more effectively than traditional methods. By leveraging AI, educational institutions can
potentially streamline advising processes, provide tailored guidance, and enhance overall
student experience and satisfaction. However, the integration of AI in educational counselling
must navigate ethical considerations and the imperative for human oversight.

Ethical concerns surrounding AI include issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the
potential for over-reliance on technology at the expense of human interaction. It is essential
that future research focuses on refining AI tools to mitigate these risks while maximizing
their benefits. Ensuring robust data privacy protocols and addressing algorithmic biases are
crucial steps towards ethical AI deployment in education.

Moreover, while AI can augment advising practices by offering quick access to vast amounts
of data and predictive analytics, it should complement rather than replace human advisors.
Human oversight remains indispensable for interpreting nuanced student needs, providing
empathetic support, and fostering meaningful relationships that contribute to student success
and well-being. Advisors should view technology as a tool to enhance their capabilities,
alleviate administrative burdens, and enable more focused and personalized interactions with
students.

Ultimately, the integration of human expertise with AI-driven technologies has the potential
to save time for advisors, improve the efficiency of academic advising, enhance student
satisfaction, and contribute to higher graduation rates. This symbiotic relationship between
human advisors and technology can pave the way for a more responsive and supportive
educational environment, where students receive timely and tailored guidance towards
achieving their academic and career goals.

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