The announcements on Odyssey about a new advising course have probably brought a feeling of dismay upon many students. Adding another class to an already full load is probably not news students welcome.

But do not be dismayed, because Cornerstone University’s new advising course is really more of a resource group than an actual class.

It can be accessed by clicking on Academic Advising under the “Community Groups” heading on the opening page of Odyssey. It was created to look like a course to make it more familiar and inviting to students.

The purpose of this course is to give students one place to find their answers for advising, rather than having to go to different places to meet their needs.

Each adviser has an e-mail account and can be directly contacted through the course.

The course also has links to all documents students might need to determine what classes would be best for them to take. For example, the course catalog, handbook and exam schedule can all be accessed from one page.

Click on the content tab on the main page to access these documents and others. There are also links available to show students and advisers how to use some of those documents, such as the program evaluation.

All students are automatically enrolled in the course so that the information they need is readily available. The registrar is able to update the course quickly and more frequently as new information becomes available.

“This is our place to put all the pieces together. The advising group is the one place where faculty and students can go together to get answers for advising and planning,” said Gail Duhon, registrar for Cornerstone University.

Duhon created this course as a way for students to be more independent in planning their school career and be more informed of what classes are needed for their majors and minors. The deadlines for registering for classes have expired, but there is still time to make changes if necessary. Check out the advising course and make sure that you are registered for the correct classes. This will help prevent headaches next semester.

It was also created “to allow advising to take place in an easier way,” said Trevor McReady, director of instructional technology for Cornerstone University. “Giving advisers all of the resources they need in one place aids them in assisting students more efficiently.”

Providing advisers with better resources was only part of the reason this course was created. Another reason it was also created was to improve CU’s student retention rates. An academic advising task force was created to combat the problem, and it included Gail Duhon, Kay Landrum, Dionne Klingensmith, Brent Rudin, Amy Dauer, Gene Peterson and Becky Rasey.

Duhon and Dauer attended a National Academic Advising conference that gave them many ideas on how to improve retention. They also looked at the resources Cornerstone already has and developed the idea to bring everything together.

“Ideally we want to integrate all of it into one Internet resource. It will take a lot of work to make the Portal more useful for students,” McReady said.

“Having all of the resources integrated into one source will better aid students to make informed decisions and take some of the stress off them and allow them to focus more on their classes and homework,” Duhon said. “Cornerstone wants the students to succeed, and this is one more positive step in that direction.”

Any student that has feedback on the new course is encouraged to e-mail the registrar at Gail_M_Duhon@cornerstone.edu.