IU-ADVISE?

History

The academic origins of this system can be traced to a project in Dr. Hakimzadeh’s Database Management class offered in spring 2007 where the data model for this system was developed. Later in 2009, Mr. Hung Quoc Truong completed his graduate thesis in this area, furthering the research in the design, development, and implementation of this system. Nearly two years later in the fall of 2011, Mr. Hung and Dr. Hakimzadeh resumed the design and development of the system on a part-time basis . Finally in 2012, Drs. Adaikkalavan and Hakimzadeh received a Strategic Campus Initiative grant to further develop the degree management portion of the system. As the result of these efforts and support from number of sources, our team of students and faculty is proud to introduce a powerful, intuitive and friendly advising system to the university community.

Academic advising is an important activity at IU South Bend which directly effects student satisfaction and retention. To provide accurate academic advice, faculty and professional advisors must acquire significant and detailed up-to-date information about academic programs offered at our campus. In addition, advisers must be able to keep track of student progress, have access to student historical data, have knowledge of the latest general education and other degree requirements, and be able to perform degree audits and verification. Finally, students and their advisors must be able to easily ask “What if…?” questions and quickly and accurately receive their answer. For example, a student should be able to ask:

• What if I switch my major to Computer Science?
• How many of my existing courses will count toward the new degree?
• When do I graduate?
• What courses satisfy a given requirement?

As more and more faculty are asked to join the ranks of academic advisors, an intuitive yet comprehensive tool that can help students and advisors navigate these complex degree requirements is clearly desirable. IU-ADVISE is such a tool, developed by and for students, faculty, and advisors at Indiana University South Bend.

Special thanks go to the Lilly Foundation for their generous support of Indiana University and the CIVECS initiative at IU South Bend. We further thank the members of the (2011) IU South Bend Senate Budget Committee for their review, feedback and support of the IU-ADVISE proposal. Finally, we thank former IU South Bend Chancellor Una Mae Reck for her vision and financial support of this Strategic initiative. We further thank the Chancellor’s cabinet for their support.

• Lead Software Engineer: Mr. Hung Q. Truong
• Software Developer, Usability Testing: Mr. Nathan D. Ratkiewicz

Questions about the IU-ADVISE system may be directed to:

• Dr. Adaikkalavan (radaikka @ iusb.edu)
• Dr. Hossein Hakimzadeh (hhakimza @ iusb.edu)