Effective advising: How does academic advising influence student learning outcomes in higher education institutions in Oman?

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the advisees (N = 128)

Characteristics	Details	N	%
Gender	Male	88	68.8
	Female	40	31.3
Level	Year 1	37	28.9
	Year 2	21	16.4
	Year 3	31	24.2
	Year 4	39	30.5
Program	Accounting/Auditing/Finance	83	64.8
	Business/Management	25	19.5
	HND Business/Accounting/HR	16	12.5
	Islamic Finance	4	3.1
No. of visits to advisor	None	26	20.3
	Once	61	47.7
	Twice	29	22.7
	More than two times	12	9.4

Table 2. Views of the advisees on the academic advising system in % (N = 128)

Statement	AD	D	N	A	SA	Chi2 value	P-value
1. I know my responsibility as an advisee	8.6	11.7	27.3	22.7	29.7	22.63	.000
2. My academic advisor is receptive to my needs and concerns	12.5	11.7	35.2	21.9	18.8	23.02	.000
3. My Academic Advisor is accessible during regular office hours or by appointment.	11.7	10.9	36.7	20.3	20.3	27.55	.000
4. My Academic Advisor is someone with whom I feel I can talk freely.	12.5	12.5	34.4	20.3	20.3	20.44	.000
5. My Academic Advisor takes an interest in me as an individual.	14.1	14.8	32.8	18.0	20.3	14.73	.005
6. My Academic Advisor helps me to understand and be informed about academic requirements.	14.1	8.6	25.8	25.8	25.8	17.00	.002
7. My Academic Advisor is knowledgeable about academic courses, programs, and procedures.	12.5	7.8	24.2	26.6	28.9	22.08	.000
8. My Academic Advisor provides accurate appropriate information about my interest areas and major.	10.9	10.2	31.3	28.9	18.8	24.73	.000
9. My Academic Advisor refers me to the appropriate person, office, or resource, when necessary.	10.9	10.9	32.0	25.8	20.3	21.92	.000
10. My Academic Advisor facilitates my self-understanding of my abilities, interests, and potential.	13.3	7.0	41.4	20.3	18.0	43.25	.000
11. My Academic Advisor encourages my growth and development as a student and individual.	12.5	13.3	29.7	24.2	20.3	13.64	.009
12. My Academic Advisor discusses my academic goals and progress toward these goals.	18.0	13.3	29.7	20.3	18.8	9.27	.055
13. My Academic Advisor discusses my long-range and career goals.	17.2	12.5	36.7	14.8	18.8	23.80	.000
14. My Academic Advisor respects my right to make my own decisions.	11.7	7.8	28.9	27.3	24.2	23.56	.000
15. My Academic Advisor sees advising as a cooperative effort.	11.7	8.6	37.5	25.0	17.2	34.42	.000
16. My Academic Advisor has a positive constructive attitude toward working with me as an advisee.	12.5	8.6	35.2	24.2	19.5	27.78	.000
17. Overall, my Academic Advisor has worked effectively with me as an advisee.	15.6	12.5	32.8	21.1	18.0	15.67	.003

Table 3. Factor Analysis for components of academic advising

Component	Initial Eigenvalues			Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
T Total		% of Variance	Cumulative (%)	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Communalities
1	11.30	66.483	66.483	11.276	66.30	66.330	.487
2	1.094	6.435	72.918	1.120	6.588	72.918	.742
3	.686	4.037	76.955				.555
4	.621	3.654	80.609				.677
5	.494	2.907	83.516				.699
6	.454	2.672	86.188				.728
7	.387	2.278	88.466				.724
8	.380	2.233	90.699				.794
9	.294	1.731	92.429				.742
10	.267	1.573	94.002				.812
11	.248	1.459	95.462				.828
12	.198	1.163	96.625				.760
13	.150	.883	97.508				.681
14	.128	.750	98.259				.690
15	.117	.685	98.944				.810
16	.108	.638	99.582				.754
17	.071	.418	100.000				.914

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Measure of Sampling Adequacy = 0.942 Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity Approximately Chi-Square = 2202.3 df = 136 Sig = 0.000 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Table 4. Rotated components of the academic advising matrix

Items	Component
	1	2
1/Academic advisor is receptive to my needs and concerns	.859	.064
2/I know my responsibility as an advisee	.644	.270
3/Academic Advisor is accessible during regular office hours or by appointment.	.729	.153
4/Academic Advisor I feel I can talk freely with.	.809	.149
5. Academic Advisor takes an interest in me as an individual	.833	.079
6. My Academic Advisor helps me to understand and be informed about academic requirements.	.850	.071
7. My Academic Advisor is knowledgeable about academic courses, programs, and procedures.	.850	−.042
8. My Academic Advisor provides accurate appropriate information about my interest areas and major.	.887	.090
9. I regularly visit my Academic Advisor	.002	.956
10. My Academic Advisor refers me to the appropriate person, office, or resource, when necessary.	.861	.028
11. My Academic Advisor facilitates my self-understanding of my abilities, interests, and potential.	.893	.118
12. My Academic Advisor encourages my growth and development as a student and individual.	.908	−.066
13. My Academic Advisor discusses my academic goals and progress toward these goals.	.868	−.079
14. My Advisor discusses my long-range and career goals	.824	−.045
15. My Advisor respects my right to make my own decisions.	.816	−.156
16. Academic Advisor sees advising as a cooperative effort.	.899	−.041
17. My Academic Advisor has a positive constructive attitude toward working with me as an advisee.	.863	.097

Source: Authors calculation

Figure 1. Average effectiveness of advisee-induced factors.

The frequency of visits to academic advisor stands at 3.34 whereas the advisee’s awareness of responsibility is 3.23

Table 5. Average and reliability of the advisee-induced factors

Items	Mean	Standard Deviation	Alpha Cronbach
1/Advisee’s awareness of responsibility	3.23	1.24	0.68
2/Frequency of visits to academic advisor	3.34	1.23

Source: Authors calculation

Table 6. Average and reliability of the advisee-induced factors

Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Alpha Cronbach
1/Academic advisor is receptive to my needs and concerns	3.23	1.24	0.96
2/Academic Advisor is accessible during regular office hours or by appointment.	3.27	1.24
3/Academic Advisor I feel I can talk freely with.	3.23	1.26
4/Academic Advisor takes an interest in me as an individual	3.16	1.30
5/My Academic Advisor helps me to understand and be informed about academic requirements.	3.41	1.34
6/My Academic Advisor is knowledgeable about academic courses, programs, and procedures.	3.52	1.32
7/My Academic Advisor provides accurate appropriate information about my interest areas and major.	3.34	1.21
8/My Academic Advisor refers me to the appropriate person, office, or resource, when necessary.	3.23	1.22
9/My Academic Advisor facilitates my self-understanding of my abilities, interests, and potential.	3.27	1.28
10/My Academic Advisor encourages my growth and development as a student and individual.	3.09	1.35
11/My Academic Advisor discusses my academic goals and progress toward these goals.	3.05	1.31
12/My Advisor discusses my long-range and career goals	3.45	1.27
13/My Advisor respects my right to make my own decisions.	3.27	1.20
14/Academic Advisor sees advising as a cooperative effort.	3.30	1.24
15/My Academic Advisor has a positive constructive attitude toward working with me as an advisee.	3.13	1.29

Source: Authors calculation

Figure 2. Average effectiveness of advisor -induced factors.

The highest ratio is 3.52 for Advisor’s knowledge about academic courses and the lowest ratio of 3.05 is for Advisor discusses my academic goals and progress.

Table 7. Relationship between student performance and satisfaction with academic advising

Statement	SD	D	N	A	SA	Spearman Correlation	P-value
Academic advising has helped me improve my GPA.	3.2	9.6	35.1	35.1	17.0	0.656	0.000
I am satisfied with the academic advising at the College.	2.1	2.1	23.4	52.1	20.2

Source: Authors’ calculation

Figure 3. SWOT analysis for academic advising system.

Major strengths of the system include presence of an advising policy in place, student-teacher rapport building and student retention, whereas weaknesses of the system include lack of computerized advising system and low staff commitment to work overload. Further opportunities of the system include chance of increasing student retention rate and satisfaction, and advising to be included in the duty allocated on timetable. The major threats identified in the system include errors in ERP system, and lack of full-fledged LMS system to integrate academic advising. Table 7 confirms that more than 70 percent of students are satisfied with the academic advising which helped to improve their grade point average (GPA).