Technology Review: Virtual Intrusive Advising-Supporting Community College Students through Web-Based Synchronous Technologies

Community colleges are the most utilized door into higher education, enrolling close to 50% of all undergraduate students; they are the pathway to education for underserved, underprepared, and nontraditional student populations (American Association of Community Colleges, 2013). These characteristics cause challenges for community colleges and their students. Ashbum (2006) noted that one of the most urgent challenges facing community colleges nationwide, due in part to the student characteristics noted above, are their students' academic preparation and lack of success. The traditional measures of student success in higher education are retention and graduation rates (Nitecki, 2011). The National Center for Education Statistics reported that only 58.9% of first-time, full-time and 41.7% of part-time community college students enrolled in public institutions in 2010 were retained through 2011 (Aud et al., 2013). Of those who enrolled in a public institution in 2008, only 21.7% of those graduated three years later. In addition to low student success, community colleges have been charged through the American Graduation Initiative with increasing their number of certificates and degree completers by an additional 250,000 annually, from 1.5 million to 1.75 million each year by 2020 (Obama, 2009). One way to increase student success rates is through academic advising. One specific form of academic advising that is showing positive impacts on student success is intrusive advising (Ryan, 2013), which provides a mechanism to nurture students, assist them with academic plans (White & Schulenberg, 2012); build relationships (Smith, 2007); and create connections with the institution--all of which positively impact retention and completion rates of students (Orozco, Alvarez, & Gutkin, 2010). Within community colleges, faculty play a significant role in academic advising and often have the single most influence on student success (Perez, McShannon, & Hynes, 2012). McArthur (2005) noted that community college faculty are the key to the community college's work as the classroom is where students have the highest connection to the college, and that faculty's role in providing academic advising is the most critical student support service for community college students. But, what also must be noted is that nearly half of all community college students do not use advising services (Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2012). The same characteristics that impact community college students' academic success are also those that support their need for access to higher education through distance learning. According to Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the United States, 7.1 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2012 (Allen & Seaman, 2014), which was a 6.1% increase over fall 2011. Aud et al. (2011) reported that 24% of students at two-year public colleges take distance courses compared with 14% at public four-year colleges. In Allen and Seaman's (2014) report, of the institutions that participated in their study, 42% of them perceived that it was harder to retain students online than face-to-face. As community colleges struggle to accommodate a diverse population of students (many taking at least one online course) and are also charged with increasing their retention and completion rates in order to provide the U.S. with an educated workforce, one student support service that needs to be front and foremost for community college distance students is virtual intrusive advising. Virtual Intrusive Advising As educators, we know that the preferences of our student population is changing. Today's college students are active learners and approach education like they do their personal and work lives. They have and desire easy access to many sources of information, function in the immediate, are socially engaged and networked, are mobile and are seldom without a smart device, and they like things personalized. …