Foundations of Practice: Technological

Learn

The ability to employ current and emerging student information systems and tools to effectively support student engagement, progress, and evidence-based decision making.

A strong technological foundation includes an understanding of:

• Student data and demographics, to understand and better support our diverse student communities.

• One's intentional and unintentional biases when interpreting student records and institutional data.

• How to navigate (and teach students to navigate) pertinent student information systems.

• Tools to effectively aid students with planning and progress toward their goals.

• The ability to use student support technology to provide better coordinated assistance and improve communication and collaboration.

• How to best employ emerging tools and technologies that students find most useful.

• How to construct and improve student services tools and processes.

The Foundation, Applied

Many units on campus have leveraged technology to support students during our remote learning period. Find below some great examples of this:

Tool use: Here is an example of a unit that uses student data. This office has used tools to help students navigate Cal. Improved tools and processes. 

• Virtual Front Desk Innovations and Practices in a Remote Environment
• Cal Student Central Showcase
• Cal Student Central Multilingual Chatbot for Student Support
• Office of the Registrar now offers the ability to search by major requirement on classes.berkeley.edu!
• Berkeley Online Advising (BOA) Trainings

Suggested Learning Activities

Consider engaging with the following suggested learning activities to integrate your understanding of this Foundation of Practice into your own work:

Activity A

Review the advising matters site for “must know” tech resources and come up with questions to explore with your team. Are you familiar with all of the systems listed there?  Are they applicable to your work?

Next, develop a list of tools that you use on a weekly basis. Think of some ways that you are aided and hindered by those tools. If you were to dream up something better, what features would be included?

Activity B

Identify the ways that your office introduces new staff to tech systems at Cal. What supplemental sources have you found to round out that initial training?

Activity C

Work with your team to think about how you use student data for various purposes. Try looking up your program or a specific student population in Berkeley reports on the Office of Planning and Analysis Reports website, and exploring the data available via the Our Berkeley platform. Are there ways that you can investigate your implicit bias when viewing those data? What about the implicit bias baked into the systems and algorithms collecting student data? Can you identify bias that may have been used when creating a tool that you use?  If so, how might that influence the data you retrieve?