SAC Discussion Hour

Managing the revolving door: Battle of the competing deadlines

Our eighth SAC Discussion Hour was held via MS Teams on Tuesday, March 29th from 1:00-2:00pm. The topic for this event focused on what we’ve all been thinking about these days: Managing the revolving door. 

The end of the Winter semester and the start of Summer will bring a flurry of important dates and deadlines that affect new, returning, and graduating students – all at the same time. We’ll be working on graduation approvals, convocation ceremonies, yield events, and registration (for both returning and incoming students), all in a span of about 6 weeks!  

Due to this, as advisors, it can sometimes feel like we’re managing a revolving door: we’ve barely said goodbye to one cohort of our students when we need to start advising our new ones. How can we reduce the speed of this revolving door and turn it into a nice Ferris wheel ride?   

Advisors had great ideas about how to best tackle this bottle neck and still (hopefully) keep our sanity intact! Suggestions included:

• Setting strict boundaries (i.e. working on the most urgent matters before moving on to other tasks, but also planning time for yourself throughout the day/week) and being aware/accepting that we can only do one thing at a time;
• Remembering that some "urgent" requests from students do not always need to be responded to with urgency;
• Managing perfectionism in our work (i.e. doing what is good enough for the task at hand);
• Using automatic responses on emails to manage students' expectations during this busy time;
• Making short instructional videos for new students in advance that can be posted on websites and automatic replies while busy working with returning and graduating students;
• The importance of keeping records and sourcing answers to enquiries with the appropriate weblink to official policies (either through Teams or via email) as this can save a lot of work later down the line;
• Using MS Bookings or other similar applications to help manage appointments more efficiently;
• Being mindful about managing your mental health in active ways during stressful/busy periods (i.e. setting a timer for breaks during grad approvals to check on your progress and try to change that "fight or flight" feeling into confidence about your ability to get through this task);
• Finding ways to maintain wellness even when it feels like we don't have the time (i.e morning meditation, sports such as swimming, running or cycling, walking to work from home or "up the hill" to the office from the metro);

Midterm Check-in: Post(?)-Chaos

Our seventh SAC Discussion Hour was held via MS Teams on Wednesday October 20th from 1:00-2:00pm. 

We used this hour to check-in with the advising and student affairs community to see how everyone was managing post(?)-chaos. The meeting started with a poll (a new must at DH events!) and there was consensus among participants: staff have gotten used to returning to campus 2-3 days a week, with some adjustments, but do appreciate staying home on other days with their pets or other companions.

The general trend was that most advising offices are not getting many in-person appointment requests or walk-ins. The impression was that students want the in-person experience to bond with other peers but may not need the connection with the administrative staff; virtual services remain in high demand from our student population.

Finally, the most popular tip from our Top 10 list of best ideas for the fall 2021 return to campus was QR codes. Advising staff members created QR codes for either their booking links or office hours. It was recommended that staff using QR codes verify whether their links were static, as some QR codes may expire after X number of days. The short links service from IT Services was also mentioned as a good alternative to long weblinks.

Embrace the Chaos! Your best ideas for the transition back to campus and the Fall 2021 semester

Our sixth SAC Discussion Hour was held via MS Teams on Friday, August 27th from 1:00-2:00 pm. The discussion topic for this event focused on what we’re all thinking about all the time right now: getting back on campus and the Fall 2021 semester. The conversation centered around the following questions:

1. What are your best tips for the return to campus with your colleagues? 
2. What are you planning for the start of the Fall semester and how are you going to make it a success for both yourself and your students?

Following the event, the SAC team put together a Top 10 list of best ideas that advisors and student affairs professionals shared with each other during the Discussion Hour, whether on a personal level or professionally to help us all adjust to this new reality as a community, as well as a breakdown of Faculty advising Office services for the fall add/drop period. The event was a good opportunity to hear what other advisors are thinking about, to share our thoughts, and to support each other as we take on this new challenge.

Top 10 list of best ideas for the Fall 2021 return to campus

In-person meetings with students

1. Add signs throughout your unit noting in-person meetings are by pre-booked appointment only
2. Use QR code to redirect students to Bookings site
3. Communicate with students about your plan for fall services before they are back on campus; consider using automatic response messages for emails
4. Hold in-person appointments in conference rooms rather than your office where 2m distance can be maintained, so no plexiglass required. Use a projector to share your screen. Maintain office as “safe space"
5. Have the students disinfect their own seat after their appointment. 

Personal / Stress management

1. Rehearse the commute
2. Take time to orient yourself in your building: visit meeting rooms & physical spaces beforehand to make sure the space works for your meetings
3. Take a walk outside during your break & consider regular exercise for stress management
4. Have lunch with a colleague
5. If possible, avoid busy hours travelling to your office, staggered hours with other staff (keep flexible hours)

Faculty advising offices service breakdown for the start of term

All in-person services by appointment only

OASIS: primarily remote services with limited in-person meeting options 

SOUSA: remote services only

BCom Office: remote services only until end of add/drop

MESC: primarily remote services with limited in-person meeting options at front desk

MAC: primarily remote services with limited in-person meeting options

Advising Lessons Learned Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic 

Our fifth SAC Discussion Hour was held via MS Teams on Wednesday, March 31st from 1:00-2:00 pm. The conversation covered the following two questions:

1. What are the unexpected positive advising outcomes you experienced during the pandemic?
2. What advising practices are you likely to carry forward?

McGill advisors are an innovative bunch! Overall, everyone agreed that the pandemic has served as an opportunity to get creative and revisit how we do what we do. Many advisors expressed their appreciation for MS Bookings which is a tool we're all hoping to carry forward when we resume meeting students in person. Being able to easily record virtual information sessions was also something that added a lot of value and we hope to continue to do. Platforms like myCourses were also discussed as a place to post such recordings. Group advising is something that can be done easier online because space is no longer an issue. MS Teams has been hugely popular for inter-office communication and for sharing internal documentation and knowledge bases. Some teams implemented, and plan to continue using, web forms for emails (by advising topic) which has helped streamline questions. And finally, everyone learned a little something about setting appropriate boundaries, work-life balance, and self-care. We hope that these are all lessons we can carry forward when we return to campus.

Surviving Our First Virtual Add/Drop Period 

Our fourth SAC Discussion Hour was held on Wednesday, October 28th from 1:00-2:00 pm. It provided an opportunity for discussion about what worked well for you/in your unit during the Fall Add/Drop period, what didn’t work quite so well, and what you might like to try in the Winter semester. The session was be hosted using MS Teams (meeting link).

Many interesting take-aways came out of this discussion. Several units reported seeing fewer students and had a sense that engagement with us was lower. That said, advising was really active throughout the summer and may account for fewer visits. Scheduling weekly appointments by topic, like "academic standing", "withdrawals", "graduation", etc. proves very helpful and yields more students. A few areas have adopted webforms for emails which makes it easier to triage and respond to inquiries based on topic. One unit has a daily MS Teams chat line which gets good traffic. Generally speaking, feedback from students regarding virtual appointments has been very positive and mornings tend to be busiest. In terms of engaging students, some interesting ideas include: buddy programs, "speed friending", and a wellness newsletter.

Surviving Remote Advising 

Our first SAC Discussion Hour was held on Wednesday, June 3rd from 1:00-2:00 pm. The topic for discussion was Surviving Remote Advising. We discussed engaging students online, using MS Teams tools, developing best practices for online advising, and online appointment booking options. We were ecstatic to see that over 60 participants attended! Notes from the session are saved in the Advising Hub Group on MS Teams (in the SAC Resources Channel). The Advising Hub Group on Teams can be joined here and information from IT on accessing/using Teams can be found here.

Engaging Students Online

The second SAC Discussion Hour was held on Wednesday, July 15th from 1:00-2:00 pm. The topic for discussion was Engaging Students Online. During this session we addressed how advisors can foster connectedness with our students through different technologies (like Facebook, Yammer, and MS Teams), through taking the time to build rapport, and through planning non-academic events like virtual coffee dates nature walks. We also discussed some of the challenges of virtual advising and how we may be forced to re-imagine how we do our advising. For example, we may consider hosting group advising sessions by topic rather than via one-on-one drop-ins. Some interesting feedback was also provided regarding potentially limited internet packages and how MS Teams is more accessible than Zoom (ie. closed captioning).

How to use MS Teams and MS Bookings for Advising

The third SAC Discussion Hour was held on Wednesday, July 29th from 1:00-2:30 pm. Guest speaker courtney.sheppard [at] mcgill.ca (Courtney Sheppard), a Training and Communications Specialist from McGill's IT Services team, led the session which focused on How to use MS Teams and MS Bookings for Advising. 

Courtney introduced new tools to help us manage student advising while working remotely. She provided an overview of these tools, as well as some tips and tricks for coping with all the new ways that students may try to reach us. The presentation was followed an informal question and answer period, and a brief discussion of best practices. 

For more information on the services and training options for Microsoft tools available through IT Services, click here.

To view the recording of this session, click here.