SBIR Phase II: A Knowledge-Based System to Improve Student Advisement in Two Year Colleges

This SBIR Phase II project is designed to improve academic advising and access to advising to over 11 million community college students. Community colleges serve a significant population of non-traditional adult students seeking associates degrees and vocational training to improve their job and career prospects. Currently only one in four students enrolled in community colleges graduate. The project will fund the completion of a knowledge based software system that utilizes the knowledge of academic advisors, codifies and converts their collective expertise into an advanced, knowledge based system that mirrors guidance and recommendations that an expert advisor would provide a student. Using this program community colleges, under pressure to improve graduation rates while confronted with severe budget cuts, will be able to economically expand the availability of advising services to large numbers of students. The program can be tailored to individual campuses connecting their course offerings to a student's recommended major and provide a wide variety of career advisement support materials. The program also builds on national movements to advise students with career clusters and career pathways in order to improve student completion rate. The broader / commercial impact of the project is to benefit over 2,300 two year colleges serving 11 million students, many of whom are not receiving any or adequate academic advising. Nationally experts are beginning to realize that stronger academic advising is a critical component to improving graduation rates. However, due to the cost of providing one on one advising is high and schools and faced with reduced budgets, campuses need tools to expand their advising without adding significantly to their budgets. Nowhere is this more acute than at the community college level where only one in four students graduate and students report advisement as a major weakness in their progress toward degree and college completion. This project will complete the development of a nationally available instrument that upgrades academic advisement for a broad, currently under-served population of students who receive little or no advisement. The knowledge-based system is built around a nationally accepted career clusters concept. It supports a diminishing number of advisors at high school and two year colleges, as well as advisors at workforce development and other non-campus agencies. The program is already supported by three state community college boards in California, Washington and Nevada.