ACADEMIC ADVISING CENTER

The mission of the Academic Advising Center is to enhance student success at Zayed University.

The goals of the Academic Advising Center are to help students:

• Realize and make a good adjustment to the expectations of university education:  English language work, extensive reading, independent effort and responsibility, classroom engagement, use of information technology to enhance learning.

• Learn the academic and personal success skills required to progress through and graduate from the university: specific study skills, time management, goal setting, information gathering/presentation, planning/organization and other strategic behaviors.

• Explore and make good decisions regarding major/career choice and involvement with student organizations and activities

• Reach a level of self-directed learning where they can access their own level of interest and development in a given area and seek appropriate sources of opportunities and assistance.

Each component of the Academic Advising Center's sequence makes a unique contribution to the mission and goals.

In each of the Academic Advising Center's courses, Advising faculty will have one week of full-time advising availability to students during the drop-add period. During this week the class meeting schedule will be suspended.

For students in the Readiness Program

READINESS ADVISING LEVELS  001 – 008

Advising is an integral part of the academic program at Zayed University.  It is an on-going, developmental process requiring mutual trust and cooperation between advisors and students.  Its aims are to: facilitate students' adjustment to ZU academic and social environment, respond to students' needs and help them become more confident, successful and self-directed learners and individuals and encourage students to be responsible members of ZU academic community and to develop informed and meaningful academic career and life goals.

Readiness Modules ADV 001-006 - 0 credit hours, 1 contact hour, 19 weeks (each)

Through these classes, the advisor helps students become independent organized learners with increased self- confidence. While students learn English skills, advisors work with them and encourage them.  In each module, the advisor helps students learn how to organize their work and manage their time, set short-term goals, understand priorities and go beyond the minimum requirements of assignments given. Students also learn about activities and resources on campus and become more open and receptive to new ideas.

Readiness Modules ADV 007-008 - 0 credit hours, 1 contact hour, 19 weeks (each)

Students learn how they can select courses that will broaden their thinking and prepare them for work in the major. They explore an come to understand the concept of General Education and see how it enhances their own educational planning. Advisors develop activities and discussions that encourage students to make the most of their education at ZU.

For students entering directly (or after Readiness) into the baccalaureate program:

BACCALAUREATE ADVISING

Advising is an integral part of the academic program at Zayed University.  It is an on-going, developmental process requiring mutual trust and cooperation between advisors and students.  Its aims are to: facilitate students' adjustment to ZU academic and social environment, respond to students' needs and help them become more confident, successful and self-directed learners and individuals and encourage students to be responsible members of ZU academic community and to develop informed and meaningful academic career and life goals.

ADV 100 – 0 credit, 2 contact hours, 10 weeks

Students who exit the Readiness Program after the first ten weeks of the semester enter this course, which provides advising support and course planning guidance until the student enters COL 120

COL 120 – 4 credit hours, 4 contact hours, (19 weeks) letter grade awarded – first baccalaureate semester

As the first semester course in the Colloquy on Integrated Learning, COL 120 systematically introduces students to the university and its disciplines. The course is thematically organized so as to demonstrate the ways in which each discipline generates knowledge and solves problems.  At the same, the Colloquium also introduces students to the various courses of study available at ZU so as to assist them in selecting a major.

LOA 101 – 1 credit hour (19 weeks), 3 contact hours, 19 weeks, letter grade awarded - second baccalaureate semester.

During this General Education course taken in the second baccalaureate semester, students will develop a personal understanding of Zayed University's majors and possible career options that they will explore in the light of their personal aspirations, abilities, cultural values and the opportunities open to them in the UAE labor market.  Students will do mentored independent work to develop, complete and present a project on majors/careers.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will develop a personal understanding of Zayed University's majors and possible career options, as evidenced by an in-class reflective paper, and work applied to choice (or confirmation) of their own major.
• Students will do mentored independent work to develop, complete and present a project focusing on major/career.

ADV 201 – 0 credit hours, 2 contact hours, 19 weeks (each) – scheduled during second baccalaureate year – pre-major advising including mentoring in relation to ZULO portfolio development.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will recognize how academic and personal behaviors and strategies enhance or detract from their success as learners.
• Students will make progress on their portfolios.
• tudents will select a major and make successful application to a college.