Academic Advising Teams to Present at National Academic Advising Association Conference
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Two teams of academic advisors will be giving presentations at the upcoming National Academic Advising Association’s region 1 conference being held in February 20-22, 2024, in Providence, Rhode Island.
Assistant Dean for Academic Success and Career Planning Torin Moore and fellow UMass advising staff LizAnette Perez LeBoeuf (Director of Advising, Commonwealth Honors College), Eshwar Shanker (Academic Advisor, College of Humanities and Fine Arts), and Ben Rodriguez (Academic & Career Advisor, College of Education), will host a roundtable discussion titled “Unpacking the Experience of Advisors of Color in a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).” They’ll provide support to Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) academic advisors in navigating their experiences working at PWIs, offering solidarity in their experiences and ways in which they can thrive in their work. This space will provide collective insights and an opportunity to network with other advisors of color to share strategies, taking meaningful steps towards a more inclusive and equitable academic advising landscape within PWIs.
In a separate session, academic advisors Katherine Hanson (speech, language, and hearing sciences), Brigid Williams and Jesse Hunsicker (public health sciences), and Karin Cooley-Sanieski (exploratory track and student success) will present a talk titled “Leveraging ChatGPT to Support Academic Advising.” In their talk, the SPHHS advising team will discuss the growing popularity of ChatGPT, a language-based-model chatbot, and hold a conversation regarding its ethical and practical use on college campuses.
“We take the stance that AI and new technologies like ChatGPT will be part of the fabric of everyday life,” the team notes in their talk summary, “and would like to initiate dialogue among colleagues on how to harness these tools to support academic advising. This talk will provide its participants with an overview of ChatGPT, its potential and limitations for academic advising in its current state, and tips on how to effectively use it in everyday practice.”
They note that “for academic advisors, ChatGPT can be an effective time-saving tool, for example, by creating administrative efficiencies with tasks such as course selection, career advising, writing letters of recommendation, designing administrative templates, and even event planning to name a few.”
Topics of their talk will include:
- Background information on ChatGPT
- Applications and controversies of its use on college campuses
- Current limitations and benefits of ChatGPT for academic advising
- Demonstrations on how ChatGPT can be practically used by academic advisors
- Ethical considerations for ChatGPT going forward
The talk will feature an interactive component where they conduct live demonstrations on how to use ChatGPT with prepared sample questions and on-demand questions from the audience.
The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) promotes and supports quality academic advising in institutions of higher education to enhance the educational development of students, and provides a forum for discussion, debate, and the exchange of ideas pertaining to academic advising through numerous activities and publications.