Session Outline

Academic advising and personal tutoring often aim to support students in developing both their educational goals and broader graduate attributes. Yet, in many institutions, the relationship between advising outcomes and graduate attributes is implicit rather than intentionally designed, and far less clearly articulated than in taught curricula. This workshop invites participants to explore how advising practice can be more deliberately aligned with institutional expectations for student development.

Drawing on the Academic Advising Continuum (Grey & van den Wijngaard, 2023) and the framework of service, direct, and indirect advising outcomes, the session begins by introducing the concept of advising as a developmental and learning process. If advising contributes to learning, then it should also produce identifiable outcomes—whether students learn to articulate personal and educational goals, navigate curricula, build confidence and self-efficacy, or develop collaborative and reflective capacities. Using the Biggs and Tang (2011) model of Constructive Alignment, the concept of ILOs for advising will then be connected with advising activities and the assessment of the impact of advising.

The workshop is highly interactive. Participants will engage in small-group dialogue, use worksheets to map outcomes to graduate attributes and share examples of good practice from their own contexts. The aim is that each participant leaves with a clearer conceptual model and practical tools for embedding graduate attributes in their advising practice, as well as approaches for recognising and evidencing student achievement of these outcomes.

Participants will work collaboratively to:

1. Identify intended advising outcomes using examples provided (e.g., increased agency in articulating goals, enhanced belonging, improved decision-making, or greater self-awareness).

2. Map these outcomes to their institution’s graduate attributes, highlighting how advising contributes to institutional visions of the successful graduate.

3. Analyse the challenges of evidencing achievement of advising outcomes, especially those that are indirect, affective, or relational.

4. Apply principles of constructive alignment to advising: clarifying the intended outcome, identifying what evidence of achievement might look like, and considering how advising interactions, activities, or reflective tools can be aligned to those outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

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