Navigate user of the month: June 2021

How has your department/unit benefited from using Navigate?
The campaign feature has been a great benefit for the General Engineering Advising team within Engineering Education. Campaigns allow us to prioritize our outreach to special student populations, which lets them know that we care and want to stay connected with them. It helps us coordinate campaigns for vital academic deadlines, such as the opening and closing of drop/add, course request, or course withdraw, as well as for students on probation or those who may have missed a deadline.

This year, during orientation, we have been using the Campaign feature to hold advising “office hours” to give students the opportunity to meet their advisor, other students, and ask general questions. This is supplemental to their advising feedback they receive about their fall class schedule which is also documented for each student in Navigate as an appointment summary. Each incoming student is added to the campaign after receiving their feedback and then they can easily sign up for office hour times that work for them! It is also useful in tracking who is utilizing this opportunity.

What feature in Navigate do you utilize the most?
The appointment feature is what I use the most for students to schedule their academic advising appointments with me. It is very simple for students to access my availability anytime they wish to make an appointment with me and I don’t have to worry about coordinating our availability since Navigate takes care of it. I also really like to use Navigate to easily look up a student with any information I have (name, email address, or ID), which is very convenient.

What would you tell other advisors who are thinking of using Navigate?
Navigate is great tool to help you manage and communicate with all of your students! It is an easy way to schedule appointments, communicate, and document advising meetings. I cannot always remember all the courses I advise a student to consider taking or the important deadline or policy we discussed, but I document those things in my appointment summaries. I can then reference those summaries later if needed, but so can the student, my colleagues, and their professors. I certainly could not manage my caseload as effectively or as efficiently without using Navigate and its many features!