The college’s Advisement Center is now providing online advisement sessions, videos and more resources to help meet the needs of SUNY Oswego students.
Virtual advisement sessions can be accessed through www.oswego.edu/advisement via Zoom. Students can follow the link during the posted available hours to talk live with an academic success advisor.
Virtual Walk In meetings continue to take place between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.
“It’s very similar to what the experience would be in our regular offices,” said Andrew Buchmann, an academic success advisor who has been a key part of the transition team. “Our advisement services are the same. The main difference is that students would go to a virtual waiting room instead of a physical one.”
Over the winter and summer, the office already had a system in place to work with students remotely. “So once we got the word we would be going remotely, we had the foundation to be able to make that move,” Buchmann said.
“That week of spring break, we were meeting constantly and asking how we could get all that information on the internet,” he added. “We realized most of the things we were doing could be converted to online learning without too much of a hassle. I think we’ve done a really good job as a center in making sure that everything we’ve provided previously students will still have access to.”
Each academic success advisor has a caseload of 120 to 150 students, and regular meetings with students on registration and related issues have continued.
“We’re still encouraging students to reach out to their advisers to have a meeting with them about their next semester classes to make sure they’re getting the most out of this experience,” Buchmann said.
In addition to the Virtual Walk In hours, advisors also have created online success videos to help students continue to be successful through these times. The videos are posted on www.oswego.edu/advisement (at the bottom of the home page) or to the newly created SUNY Oswego Advisement Center YouTube channel. The most recent example is a video workshop created to help students make the transition to online learning.
For students that need verification that they viewed a success workshop, they can access accompanying assessments for the videos.
In addition, every Wednesday the center offers a Zoom open roundtable forum for advisors and academic staff to discuss what is working, as well as what might need improvement and where the Advisement Center can focus on creating solutions.
For more information, contact the Advisement Center at advisement@oswego.edu or visit www.oswego.edu/advisement.