Ace Research Advisory Board Objectives

ACE Research Advisory Board will convene quarterly to formulate a strategic plan to develop an advising research agenda at UCLA. The Board will consist of ACE Committee members, faculty, librarians, and advisors who will collaborate to achieve the following objectives:

• To support ACE’s advising research mission by providing strategic planning and consultation
• To identify and recruit faculty, instructors, graduate students, and undergraduates, who shall serve as research partners/mentors, or to connect advisors to other mentors
• To identify members of the academic community who shall review research proposals and provide feedback
• To serve as ambassadors to members of the academic community to support ACE’s advising research mission
• To promote research and publication to better support students and to advance the field of advising

Board Members

• Danielle Acheampong (Student Affairs Information and Research Office)
• Jacqueline Ardam (Undergraduate Research Center-Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences)
• Alina Avila (Center for Academic Advising in the College)
• Michelle Brasseur (UCLA Library)
• Marian Gabra (Director)
• Jennifer Hirashiki (Undergraduate Educational Initiatives)
• Amy Pojar (Student Affairs Information and Research Office)
• Diane Mizrachi (UCLA Library)
• Tiffany Tsang (Center for Academic Advising in the College)

Advising/Counseling Research Guide

Welcome to your Academic Advising/Counseling Research Guide. We hope that you will find this guide invaluable as you grow as a practitioner-researcher. This guide is developed for an inclusive community of higher education professionals, both at the 4-year and community college levels. We hope that academic advisors, counselors, faculty, administrators, and students will use this research guide as a resource to foster best practices and intellectual inquiry within the field of academic advising and higher education.

We are sensitive to the fact that individuals may identify as either academic advisors or academic counselors, and our intention is to be inclusive of all professionals. For the purpose of this guide, we use the term academic advising, while recognizing that advising practice is situated in an interdisciplinary framework, rooted in educational counseling, and critical inquiry from diverse academic disciplines and scholarly perspectives.

How to use this research guide
There are many ways to get started! You can connect with an advising community of practice , learn how to get started and plan a research project , find books and articles on advising research, explore open data sources, or contact us to share your ideas for improving this guide.

Have you ever been asked to collect data for your department or program? Are you curious about how students are benefiting from your valuable work? Are you interested in learning how effective program evaluation and assessment may help you advocate for resources? Do you want to find out if a program or initiative is accomplishing what you hoped? If so, join ACE for a Program Evaluation & Assessment Workshop Series, where we will introduce you to the program evaluation/assessment process, and share tools, resources, and strategies that will empower you to engage with that process. By the end of the series, you will be able to develop a program evaluation/assessment plan.

This workshop series is open to all campus professionals.

Participants who complete all 4 workshops in the series will be awarded a Certificate of Completion!

 

Workshop Series Goals:

• Understand the importance of program evaluation/assessment in the co-curricular space
• Understand different methods of gathering data
• Evaluate different approaches to presenting and reporting on data
• Develop and implement a program evaluation/assessment plan
• Assess successes and limitations of proposed projects and how to move forward

Workshop 1: What is Program Evaluation/Assessment?

• What is the purpose of program evaluation/assessment? What is the difference between program evaluation/assessment and research? Why do higher education professionals conduct program evaluation/assessment? How does program evaluation/assessment apply to your work? What questions do you want to explore? How can you define or redefine your program goals?

Workshop 2: Methods for Gathering Data

• We will explore qualitative and quantitative methods for gathering data.

Workshop 3: Data Analysis, Reporting, and Presenting

• How do you analyze quantitative and qualitative data? What are some ways to present your data, visually and narratively? How and to whom should you report your findings?

Workshop 4: Successes, Limitations, and Moving Forward

• Participants will present on successes of their projects to date and limitations experienced or anticipated. We will also discuss how to move forward. What work still needs to be done? What presenting and reporting still needs to be done? How might some limitations be addressed? How might your findings be used to make data-informed decisions in your department?

Examples of Program Evaluation and Assessment

• Student satisfaction
• Number and students being served
• Staff/faculty experiences
• Characteristics of students served (1st gen etc.)
• Measuring of student learning/development
• Sense of belonging (that this community is your “family”)

2018-2019 ACE Advising Research Workshop Series & Certificate Program

ACE has partnered with the UCLA Library, UCLA Faculty, and the Undergraduate Research Center (URC HASS) to launch the ACE Advising Research Workshop Series!

Advisors who complete all 7 workshops will receive a Certificate of Advising Research; however, participants are welcome to attend any workshops that may be relevant to their personal and professional development goals.   

Workshop #1: Exploratory Research Process: What do you want to explore?

(Summer 2018)

Workshop #2: How do you Engage with Scholarship? Joining the scholarly conversation.

(Summer 2018)

Workshop #3: Build Your Research Toolbox

(Fall 2018, Week 8)

Workshop #4: Designing an Advising Research Guide

(Winter 2019, Week 8)

Workshop #5: Creating a Research Proposal (facilitated by URC HASS)

(Spring 2019, Week 8)

Workshop #6: Breaking It Down: Critical Evaluation of Research (facilitated by Professor Jessica Harris)

(Summer 2019)

Workshop #7: Exploring Publication Opportunities

(Summer 2019)