What is academic advising at Capitol Tech?

By: John Washington, Assistant Director of Advising and Student Success

Capitol Tech’s advising staff know each student individually. When a student commits to Capitol, we help guide them through the class registration process, make sure they understand the major they chose, and help them if they have other questions during the transition or throughout their time at Capitol. Throughout the process we work with students to develop the skills to become self-advocates.

We use a number of strategies to help students become successful. Our first method is to make sure students know that the advising team is here to assist them. We work with the students during their first registration and encourage them to keep in contact. We let them know they can reach out to in person or on the phone throughout the week. This establishes a connection that gives a more personal touch to their experience than communication solely by email.

Our second method is using our LMS (Learning Management Systems), Canvas, to monitor student’s progress. This system will notify us if a student appears to be missing deadlines for a class. Professors can send warnings through the system to alert us as well. When we take notice of the changes, we reach out to the student to discuss reasons why their grades may be falling. Once we are able to assess the issues with the student, we can give advice to help them be a more successful student. We often help students with time-management or stress reduction techniques, or alternatively, it may be setting a schedule for help in the Student Success Center.

Students may have other issues or concern that are affecting their ability to complete their coursework. When that happens, we meet with the student to determine the problem and determine the best path to assist the student. 

Capitol Tech’s advising team is committed to student success.  We know that students succeed when given the tools to become self-advocates. If you are an undergraduate student and you need to speak to an advisor please reach out to us at advisor@captechu.edu. Grad students can reach an advisor at gradadvisor@captechu.edu.