Reimala Sivalingam & Jennifer Rose 

Purpose

The pandemic created the opportunity to reimagine our academic advising process so that it was more blended. We created a reusable digital Academic Advising workbook called 'My Passport to Success' to empower students to engage in critical self-reflection prior to academic personal tutor meetings.

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Methodology

Given the additional pressures faced by academic personal tutors (Sangster, Stoner & Flood 2020) and an increased need of support for students (Pearson/Wonkhe 2020), we recognised a more blended system was needed where students are empowered to prepare for Academic Personal Tutor meetings and thus make the most of contact time. We authored a workbook called 'My Passport to Success', where students answer a series of critical self-reflection questions to guide them through their academic, well-being and employability needs.

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Findings

We used focus groups and reflections to evaluate the impact of the workbook. Based on feedback, students felt the workbook was a worthwhile investment of time but required motivation as it was not credit bearing. Academic Personal Tutors reported benefitting from a greater understanding of students’ backgrounds, reflections, and progress against goals in one document. They were also able to use limited contact time for meaningful conversations and providing focused support.

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Originality

This presentation shares the challenges we faced, how we overcame them and how we constructed our workbook, which we will share with delegates. Our blended approach empowers students to become independent learners through critical self-reflection. It reinvigorated academical personal tutor meetings during the pandemic and has been a positive change we have continued to adopt.