Impact of Technology-Mediated Communication on Student Evaluations of Advising

Abstract

The field of academic advising lags behind other similar fields in the use of technologically mediated communication modalities shown to improve academic outcomes. We investigated student satisfaction with undergraduate advising by examining the ways communication methods, such as social media, between student and advisor relate to student satisfaction. Results showed that although advisors rarely communicated with students via social media, text messaging, or instant messaging, the number of face-to-face advising meetings was positively predicted by advisor use of instant messaging and text messaging and negatively predicted by their use of Facebook. Furthermore, e-mail communication positively predicted a student's positive view of the advising experience, but communicating through Twitter predicted negative views of advising.