FW Online Advising Blackboard Organization

Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
FW Online Advising Blackboard Organization
Welcome – landing Page: You can choose any page to be your landing page.
Sidebar – sections: Academic Success, Announcements, Contacts, Connect, Curriculum, FAQ’s,
Internships, Job Searching, Resources, Veterans & Military, Web Links, and Welcome.
Academic Success: This page contains links to OSU Learning Corner, tutoring info, etc.
Announcements: At the beginning of each academic year, the preset announcements for the year for
each term are reset with new display dates so that these announcements appear and disappear
automatically throughout the year. The preset announcements include: term welcome, drop deadline,
next term’s registration information, withdraw deadline, term break, and the special yearly
announcement about scholarships. All preset announcements sit about the “New Announcements
appear below this line” bar to separate the preset from the non-preset announcements for easy page
maintenance at the end of each term and each academic year.
Contacts: This page contains contact information for the FW and E-campus librarians, internship
coordinator, and advisors.
Connect: This page contains faculty biographies, a link to our faculty page, and information about our
new FW E-Connect endeavor.
Curriculum: We have our Degree Planning Guide here to help students in their course planning. Our
curriculum is on our webpage. The information in the BB org is complementary to the website.
FAQ’s – sections: Registration; Advising & MyDegrees; Next Steps After Registration; Transfer Credits,
Transcripts, & DPP; Academic Success; Internship; Graduation & Commencement; Corvallis & Hatfield
Marine Science Center (HMSC); Switch Major/Minor/Campus; Miscellaneous.
Students can get the answer to the question by clicking on the folder. Including pictures, occasionally, is
helpful for demonstration.
Internship & Job Searching sections: These pages hold additional information beyond what is on
our website (e.g. information and link to the ER Jackman Internship Financial Support Program, a job
searching journal, etc.)
Resources: This page is in a similar format to the FAQ’s page and contains these subsections:
Blackboard, Student Services, OSU Libraries, Mind Mapping Tools, and Virtual Tour/Visit OSU.
Veterans & Military: This page is the catch all for all veteran and/or military information in this org
(e.g. link to OSU Military and Veterans Resources, FAQs, link to National Military Fish and Wildlife
Association, etc.).
Web Links: This page contains links to fisheries and wildlife associated websites.
Updating the organization: Each new FW E-campus student is added to the BB org as part of the new
student intake process. Whenever a student goes inactive, is a non-matriculating student, changes
major out of FW, or graduates then we remove the student immediately from the BB org along with
moving them to the appropriate sheet in our FW E-campus student database. This allows the BB org
student membership to be constantly up-to-date so that we can also use it to send out emails to just the
FW E-campus when needed.
Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
FW E-campus Post Baccalaureate Admissions
History
Many FW E-campus students are interested in a career change and a large portion of them already have
a previous bachelor’s degree. Because the FW E-campus degree program was rapidly growing beyond
staffing resources in its infancy, measures were sought to limit enrollment. Although the department
cannot curb undergraduate enrollment, it can curtail post baccalaureate admission. Therefore, the
admission requirement of having a completed science major biology series was added. It purpose was
twofold: first to manage program growth and second to minimize the amount of students who entered
the program who could not complete a biology series in person. This latter reason was particularly
important because OSU does not yet offer a science major biology series and many students have had to
leave the program because of this.
Standardization
This form was created to keep track of department and university admission
requirement since we are charged with upholding them in our decision making processes. It allows for a
standardized process and records individual advisor recommendations since all FW E-campus advisors
participate in the admission process to minimize errors. The back of the form is used for noting possible
requirement exceptions to assist with the admission decision and to help diminish advisor workload for
a newly admitted advisees.
Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
FW E-Connect
The Idea
FW E-campus students have expressed interest in connecting with fellow students. The first idea was to
create an area in the FW Online Advising Blackboard organization for students to communicate with
each other. However, OSU legal counsel warned us against the idea because FW Online Advising is not a
class and therefore the discussion area would be considered a public forum which could create freedom
of speech issues. The idea, however, did not die and morphed into the creation of a list of FW E-campus
students with their directory email address, organized by state, and published in the Connect section of
the FW Online Advising organization. This idea was approved with the caveat that students would have
to opt-in.
The List
The FW E-Connect list will comprise of FW E-campus students who decide to participate. At minimum,
the list will contain their first and last names along with their directory email address and it will be
grouped by state. They can also choose to add their city and up to three areas of interest (e.g.
aquaponics, salmonids, waterfowl, law enforcement, habitat restoration, wildlife management, etc.).
Survey
Students will be contacted about the FW E-Connect program through an email to their ONID email
address. The email will explain the idea and contain a link to a survey they will need to fill out if they
want to participate. The list will then be generated from the survey results.
Timeline
The email will be sent out at the beginning of September with a reminder during the first week of the
term. The survey will then close after the first week of the term, the results will be compiled, reviewed,
and finally published. If there is a sufficient amount of interest, we will continue to produce the list
annually each September. If not, we will discontinue it.
Disclaimers
To keep the list free from any inappropriate information, we put the following statement in the survey:
“Disclaimer: It is up to the discretion of the OSU FW Advising team to include, or not include, any
information provided in the survey. Students who have elected to have total
confidentiality with OSU should NOT participate in this survey.”
We also felt the need to include these additional statements:
“This list will be updated once per year in the summer. To be included in
future lists, you will need to re-fill out the survey to opt-in. You can have your
information removed from this list at any time by letting your FW Academic Advisor know.”
Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
New FW E-campus Student Processes
Admission
Newly admitted E-campus students are instructed to fill out the E-campus Online Orientation:
http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/orientation/undergraduate/. This includes an orientation review
which generates an email that is sent to the department. Here is the link to the Online Orientation
Reviews: http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/orientation/finishing/quiz.htm?type=undergraduate.
Advisor Assignment
FW Online Orientation review emails are sent to [email protected]. The advising program
assistant forwards the email onto one of the FW E-campus advisors. New advisees are assigned evenly
in a round-robin fashion and advisors are taken out of the mix as needed (e.g. when on vacation).
Initial Set-up
The advisor sets up the student’s manila and Outlook folders; all sent and received emails are kept. The
advisor then sends the student a standard welcome email, fills out the top of the intake form, reviews
MyDegrees, makes any necessary exceptions, and jots down talking points for the initial advising
appointment. The advisor may use the back of the form to note possible exceptions (i.e. if transcripts
have not yet been articulated, if student is a post baccalaureate, and/or if first waiting for a petition).
Confirmation
Once the student emails back, an initial advising appointment is set. The confirmation email informs the
student what they need to have ready for their appointment. Initial advising appointments generally
take between 1 – 1 ½ hours depending on the amount of transfer work, questions that a student has,
and whether or not they can register for classes at that time.
Initial Advising Appointment
Initial advising appointments generally begin with a greeting before the advisor interviews the student
to finish filling out the intake form. Then they cover the curriculum and discuss any transfer
coursework, if applicable. After that, the advisor has the student create a plan in MyDegrees called
“Degree Plan” and they work on planning a couple of terms’ worth of courses. The advisor then puts the
term’s PIN in the MyDegrees Checklist Notes. The advisor then introduces the student to the E-campus
Schedule of Classes and if registration is possible, the advisor assists the student in registering.
Once that is accomplished, the advisor then guides the students through several webpages asking them
to bookmark some and using others as talking points. The minimum websites covered are:
E-campus Current Students: http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/students/
Academic Calendar: http://catalog.oregonstate.edu/ChapterDetail.aspx?key=148
FW webpage for online undergraduates:
http://fw.oregonstate.edu/content/bachelor-science-fisheries-and-wildlife-sciences-ecampus
FW Internship webpage: http://fw.oregonstate.edu/content/internships-3.
The initial advising appointment concludes with logging into Blackboard and taking a brief tour of the
FW Online Advising organization.
Follow-up
After the conclusion of the initial advising appointment, the advisor sends a follow up email and any
additional pertinent information (e.g. math placement test instructions, course petition information,
etc.). The advisor types a note about the initial advising appointment in the student’s MyDegrees
account, finishes recording the student’s information in the database, and mails the welcome gift. The
welcome gift is currently a fish-shaped carabineer inscribed with the department name and is sent with
a personally signed note, the advisor’s business card, and a departmental fish-shaped bookmarker.
Please contact our department if you would like a copy of the FW Orientation Plan for undergraduate
students. It mainly consists of our standardized welcome, confirmation, and follow up emails. You can
send your request to: [email protected].
Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
FW E-campus Student Database
Organization
We use an internal Excel file to track current and past FW E-campus students. It is organized by tabs for
each advisor along with tabs for students who: graduate, change major, switch campus, are inactivated,
do not matriculate, or are denied post baccalaureate admission. Advisor tabs are regularly maintained
by moving student records to another tab when warranted. It allows us to easily search for students
and student records can quickly be restored to an advisor tab if necessary (e.g. readmitted students).
Tabs
Most of the tabs contain similar columns though there are a few differences. It is not possible to update
the city, state, and country on a regular basis, therefore this information is taken directly from the
Banner form SPAIDEN or a Data Warehouse when called for. These are the columns in the advisor tabs:
 Confidential
 Advisor
 Student ID
 Last Name
 First Name
 Phone
 Current Address City
 State
 Country
 Directory Student Email
 Non-Directory Student Email
 Gender
 Military/Active Duty/Veteran
 [Degree] Type (1st, T, PB, M)*
 Quarter Matriculated
 Work in FW (job title,
employer)
 Working Full, Part, or None
 Added to BB
 Added Advisor to Banner
 Gift
 Specialization Done
 Comments
*(Freshman, Transfer, Post
Baccalaureate, or Minor)
 School Full/Part Time
 Paying for School
Maintenance
The database is constantly updated with the addition of new students. Maintenance also occurs Fall,
Winter, and Spring terms using the data from the PIN and non-matriculated student reports. The PIN
report allows us to compare Banner data to our database to find inactive students. We move their
records to the appropriate tab and then contact to find out why they’ve stopped out of the program, if
not already known. This report also identifies new students who need an advisor and email them a
reminder to fill out the online orientation and information about how to change their admission term.
The non-matriculated report identifies students who did not matriculate. Their records are moved and
we email them about their option to change their admission term and ask them why they decided not to
take classes that term or pursue the degree program, if that is the case.
Benefits
This database is helpful for tracking advisee numbers per advisor and it provides
a handy email address list for mail merge emails so advisors can mass email their
advisees about registration advising, etc. while still sending individual emails. It
also quickly shows the number of program graduates and provides easy access to previous student
records.
Oregon State University – Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Transfer Courses
Introduction
Nearly all FW E-campus students already have course work from a previous institution(s). The majority
of newly admitted FW E-campus students are already juniors, seniors, or post baccalaureate students.
Therefore, the advisors are constantly evaluating course work and facilitating course petitions.
Tracking
Since OSU does not offer the science major biology series or a public speaking class online, all FW Ecampus students are required to take those at another institution or in Corvallis. The public speaking
course can either take it locally or online but the biology series needs to be taken in person. However,
as soon as OSU produces an online biology series, students will be able to take it online too.
To help keep track of exceptions and possibilities, we developed two Excel workbooks. The first tracks
all biology series approved by the OSU Biology Dept. as equivalent to the BI 21x series (BI LD2). It is
organized with separate tab for each state. It also tracks public speaking (COMM 111) and general
ecology (BI 370) approved courses. The second logs exceptions made to other FW major requirements
to minimize the necessitation of re-petitioning, non-articulated, approved exceptions (e.g. LDT or UDT).
Petitioning
In order to prevent inconsistency amongst advisors, we developed standardized processes for dealing
with petitions and exception requests. One tool that was created was an Excel spreadsheet to keep
track of the requirement, the petition form(s) used, who to send the petition to (contact person), and
the email address to send the petition to (if it is not a web petition). It also notes whom to contact for
course overrides and their email address.
Internal Exceptions
For FW departmental exceptions, the petitions are sent to the faculty who teaches the course. We
found that giving them the following choices in the email was helpful for speeding up the decision:
1. This course is not similar/rigorous enough to be equivalent as you have proposed.
2. Yes, this course is similar/rigorous enough to make this exception but I do not want it to be global
(for all students in the future).
3. Yes, this course is similar/rigorous enough for all students in the future (we would
then have a formal articulation made through admissions so the equivalency
would be automatic for future students).
I would like more information. Please ask the student to provide______________.