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In order to further the argument for the consideration of advising as a high-impact practice, there is a need for the organization of knowledge surrounding advising. This chapter contributes to the ongoing efforts to chronicle the landscape of literature on the scholarship, administration, and practice of advising. Summarization of the major themes found in empirical and best practices literature, as well as a synthesis of learning from advising-related reports is provided alongside the introduction of a typology that draws from Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model in an effort to organize research approaches to advising in the field of higher education.

Historically, High Impact Practices (HIPs) have been identified as experiential learning initiatives that were proven to be effective for engagement and student success, are characterized by eight tenets of practice, and contribute to student learning, development, and achievement. Yet, national research and institutional assessment data indicate that many other curricular and cocurricular practices are educationally purposeful, effective, and maintain fidelity to the eight elements of HIPs. Drawing from existing research and national data, including information collected by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, this chapter will analyze advising practices against the eight tenets of AAC&U's high-impact practices to make the case for its position as an emergent HIP.

The article rethinks the description of college student transitions and offers perspectives for redesigning transition initiatives. Topics discussed include students' sense of community and connection as a factor in college transition, student participation in core activities of the academia to develop skills and facilitate learning, transition as a process of becoming as students deepen their self-reliance and interdependence and engage in acts of self-creation in higher education.

This paper advocates an integrated approach to transition programmes at South Africa's higher education institutions through drawing on the US literature on the first-year student experience and specific reference to behavioural interaction theory. The case for developing intentional and vertically integrated transition programmes is tied to: the need to understand the desired behaviours and learning outcomes at each stage of a student's experience; an appreciation of the cognitive, psychosocial and identity development at different years of study; and a recognition of environmental influences and how they relate to, and can be adapted to, changing student characteristics and needs. Particular reference is made to Chickering and Reisser's seven vectors of identity development, Baxter Magolda's work on young adults' journey toward self-authorship, and Bronfenbrenner's developmental ecology model. It is concluded that an intentional, vertical integration of transition programmes requires horizontal alignment between objectives (desired behaviour), the developmental needs of students, and educational environments. In this regard, a number of recommendations for higher education instructional and support staff are proposed.

This chapter examines how senior capstone experiences can be intentionally designed and delivered to provide structured opportunities for reflection, integration, and applied learning, giving students an opportunity to recognize the kinds of learners, thinkers, and doers they have become through the sum total of their educational experiences.

Background/Context: Based on well-established evidence that certain student success skills and college knowledge are closely associated with academic achievement, persistence, and completion, community colleges increasingly implement various types of first-year student success courses and programs. However, by looking only at the distal impact of program participation, the question of whether these programs actually influence those mediating skills of college success has scarcely been investigated in the higher education literature, let alone which program features may be determining factors. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This study examined the scope and design of community college student success courses to address which program features relate to learning objectives of student success skills, college knowledge, and engagement. Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants were students and instructors drawn from 47 student success course sections at 42 public community colleges in 24 states, representing all U.S. geographic regions. Research Design: The study adopted a multimodal research design, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods while primarily relying on quantitative analysis. Data Collection and Analysis: Students in selected student success course sections completed a pre- and postsurvey. Instructors participated in a structured interview and provided course syllabi. Course design information was quantitized and merged with student-level data to model variation in learning outcomes as a function of course features, according to an activity theory conceptual framework. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Conclusions: Findings from this research point to several recommendations for practice by highlighting the reality that one term may be too little to learn some student success skills and that particular features of course designs may result in unintended adverse effects. Results indicate that structural elements are the most impactful features and that the skills-based curricular features that receive the most attention may be in fact the least influential features in realizing desired skills and knowledge outcomes. The study points to methodological ways forward to further explore and unpack the relationship between success course design features and educational outcomes.

This chapter outlines a case for institutions to engage in assessment as organizational learning to better achieve institutional integrity, using the focus on the sophomore year as a context to identify and evaluate student outcomes and to employ the results in meaningful organizational responses.

This chapter summarizes the recommendations from this volume and provides suggestions for future research and next steps in improving the sophomore-year experience.

This chapter draws from national data to explore unique attributes of first-year seminars in community college contexts as well as high-impact practices that are often connected to them. Findings point to areas of opportunity for practice and directions for future research to better understand how community colleges can be poised to meet the increasing number of demands to support student success in effective ways.

A majority of recent graduates from master's level student affairs preparation programs report having a clear understanding of 58 of 60 foundational learning outcomes derived from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) guidelines. While there were only two significant differences between self-reported learning of graduates from CAS compliant and non-compliant programs on 60 items, data suggest that recent graduates from CAS compliant programs report greater confidence in their preparation in 48 of the 60 outcomes presented in the questionnaire. (Contains 6 tables.)