What is Navigate?

Navigate is a platform for student advising that professional advisors at UW-Superior have been using since 2019. All academic advisors are expected to use Navigate, especially the appointment scheduling, availability, and appointment summary functions. All advisors should learn the tool and incorporate it into advising and registration. Log into Navigate via the Campus Logins page.

Why Are We Using It?

Navigate will enhance current advising practices in four ways by:

1. Allowing advising activities to be captured at a whole-university level. Advisors spend many hours scheduling students, meeting with and supporting them, and keeping advisement records. These activities performed through the platform allows us to “see” the results of advising without asking faculty and IAS to take time to report them.
2. Providing student information to advisors on a dashboard that helps inform the types of courses, support, and activities an advisor might help a student explore.
3. Affording instructors easier ways to communicate with all of their advisees or appropriate subsets at once via email and calendar scheduling, as both are connected to Outlook.
4. Students who began at UW-Superior in Fall 2019 or later have already been using this platform to be advised; this will bridge the gap they experience in moving from their professional to their faculty or IAS advisors.

Availability

Navigate availability refers to when you have indicated that you are available to meet with students. When students go to schedule an appointment with you, they will only see the times you have indicated that you are available. For example, if you have listed your availability as Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:00-5:00, students will only be able to schedule an appointment with you on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:00-5:00. Navigate syncs with your Outlook calendar, so if you have another engagement during that availability timeframe, students will not be able to schedule during that time.

Best practice for availability is to offer students as much availability as possible. Remember that Navigate syncs with your Outlook calendar, so the more availability you offer doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be fully booked with appointments –it just lets students know when you might be available to meet.

Scheduling

Navigate also allows students to schedule directly with you during your availability timeframe. Students can do so through a campaign, through the Navigate app, or through your direct Personal Availability Link. Scheduling through Navigate is used across multiple offices on campus, including the Link Center, Educational Success Center, and Dean of Students office, so utilizing Navigate scheduling provides students a consistent scheduling experience across campus.

Campaigns

Navigate campaigns refer to targeted outreach efforts designed to support students throughout their academic journeys. At UWS, the most common use of a campaign for academic advisors is to schedule with students each semester to meet to talk about the upcoming semesters’ classes, remove the advising hold, and answer any questions that the student may have. Instead of having to email students and remind them, Navigate does all the heavy work for you! You can schedule each “nudge,” or reminder to students, in advance, so the campaign will send the student a direct link to schedule with their advisor.

Appointment Summaries 

At the conclusion of each appointment with an advisee, each advisor should submit an appointment summary of what happened during the appointment. An appointment summary should include what classes the student plans on taking in the upcoming semester, how the student is currently doing, any post-graduation plans or aspirations the student might have, any To Do’s or next steps for the student, any change of major/minor, information about transferred courses and course substitutions, any testing information, a degree plan (if completed), and any other information that a future advisor might need to know about the student. Students can also access their appointment summaries, so make sure to include enough information that the student is able to refresh their memory on what happened during each appointment.

Notes

Notes in Navigate are smaller bits of information about a student that did not happen during an actual appointment. For example, if a student sent a quick message and said they really like a class they are currently taking, advisors could add a quick note to let the next advisor know a subject that the student might be interested in. In general, advisors should utilize appointment summaries more than the Notes feature.