At Nexford University (NXU), advising is key to learners’ success. Learners pursuing a certificate or degree program benefit from a combination of technological and personal support. Nexford’s learning technologies assist learners with their academic planning, helping them determine which academic programs and pathways best align with their post-graduate job and career ambitions; track their academic progress; provide them with immediate and substantive feedback on course assessments; connect them with Nexford’s advising staff in the event performance or progress issues arise; and provide them with strategies for overcoming academic difficulties.

Technology is only part of NXU’s learner success approach. Learners are also supported by a network of advisors and mentors — Nexford faculty and staff — who provide them with a wide range of hands-on assistance. Nexford understands the challenges that any education presents, whether traditional or online. The goal of Nexford advising is to remove obstacles from learners’ paths, addressing questions and concerns of theirs quickly; helping them maximize their online learning experience; providing them with personalized and ongoing guidance; making them aware, at all times, of all their options; and giving them the tools they need to make confident and well-informed decisions. Nexford advisors take a highly personalized approach to advising. They do not simply wait for learners to contact them. Instead, they actively track learners’ progress and reach out and intervene as appropriate. And they do not simply work with learners in distress. They work to enhance the experience of all Nexford learners, helping them to get the most out of their Nexford education, and to link their learning most effectively to their post-graduation goals.

Support and Resources for Learners

Success Advisors

Success Advisors (SAs) are available to Nexford learners 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through email, chat, and video conferencing services.

The primary role of SAs is to assist enrolled learners with such advising issues as goal setting, time management, study skills, building plans of study, navigating Nexford’s online resources, and developing broader support networks in and outside the university. SAs also provide a layer of personal support, checking in with learners who may be experiencing personal difficulties and, in general, taking a holistic approach to advising them.

SAs have access to data analytics pertaining to learner progress, which enable them to assist learners with academic difficulties such as: unsatisfactory academic progress or under-engagement in coursework. In addition to serving as a resource to whom learners can proactively reach out, SAs also monitor a learner’s academic progress and, in coordination with course faculty, devise appropriate outreach/intervention plans.

Every Nexford learner is matched to an individual advisor upon their enrollment in Nexford and continues working with that advisor until they have successfully completed their first two courses. After this formal 1:1 relationship ends, learners are welcome to connect with any member of the Success Advising team on an as-available basis. Learners do this by sending an email to success@nexford.org.

In fact, this option is available to learners even during their first two courses (e.g., if their personal advisor is off-shift and the learner has a concern that needs to be addressed quickly). This approach benefits learners by widening their advising network and sharpening their skills at support seeking. Success Advisors are expected to proactively check in with every Nexford learner at least twice a month (more often with learners who present concerns). They are also expected to monitor learner academic progress and engagement on a weekly basis.

Career Advisors

Career advising is a key component of Nexford’s learner success approach. Nexford’s career advising merges technological and traditional approaches. Nexford utilizes web-based big-data analytics on both global and local employment trends to understand future areas of employment growth. Nexford feeds this information into our curricular design and provides it to learners for their academic planning purposes. Nexford’s proprietary virtual career advisor (Cary) — currently in development with an expected launch date of Spring 2021 — will help learners to learn about career options in their local and global markets, and about the skills/competencies they will need in order to pursue them. In addition, Cary will assist learners with identifying appropriate learning pathways through Nexford.

Cary will be available to learners throughout their enrollment at Nexford, giving them real-time guidance on employer needs and job/career options, and on appropriate academic planning strategy. In addition to deepening learners’ understanding of how their individual courses and overall academic programs connect to their real-world goals, Cary will also enable learners to pivot quickly and adjust their academic plans if and as their thinking about careers evolve.

Nexford learners have access to a comprehensive career planning portal: Career Transitions. The portal offers a wealth of resources including how to write a resume, interview simulations, how to prepare for an interview, as well as an online job database, which is currently limited to US jobs. The portal also includes a career planner where learners can browse different career paths, understand growth prospects per career, average salary per career and even deep dive into each career to understand typical activities, common tools, and typical career ladders that are associated with each role.

In addition to the aforementioned technologies, starting September 2020 Nexford will offer career advising guidance, assisting learners in completing career goals assessments, and helping them formulate academic plans appropriate to their career goals.

Nexford tracks the employment and career outcomes of all program graduates. These data feed both our curricular design and our learner success approaches and assist learners in their own strategic planning. Nexford’s insights team tracks longitudinal employment outcomes by sending brief employment surveys to alumni at regular monthly intervals. To encourage participation respondents are eligible to receive tuition credit to be used towards any future course enrollment at Nexford.

Course Advisors

Assistant Professors provide learners with course-based advising, answering questions about course materials. They also assist learners in planning their capstone projects, providing them with timely and substantive feedback. Associate Professors evaluate capstone projects, assessing the level of learners’ overall learning in each course, and assisting learners whose work does not meet passing standards to close any learning gaps. Teaching Assistants also provide additional grading and advising support in certain courses.

Disability Resource Advisors

Nexford University provides equal access to learners with documented disabilities, in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. Nexford prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of disability, and takes action to prevent such discrimination by providing reasonable accommodations to learners with documented disabilities. Nexford does not actively solicit disability information from prospective or enrolled learners.

The university understands that the decision to disclose a disability is a highly personal one, and respects the right of learners not to disclose. Nonetheless, we strongly encourage learners with documented disabilities to consider discussing any concerns with Nexford’s Disability Resource Services so that they can learn about their options and, should they so decide, to submit any necessary documentation. The university provides qualifying learners with the accommodations they are entitled to. Disability Resource Services assists qualifying learners.

In securing reasonable accommodations to meet their needs. The Director of Learner Success administers these services.