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Advising notes tips
- What to write: Before writing any advising notes, please review the Advising Notes Guidelines for writing appropriate advising notes.
- Save early and often: avoid losing your work to time-outs! SPIRE can time out the Advising Notes pages after only 15 minutes and with no warning. While you are writing your note, save your work often, at least once every 10 minutes. When you click the Save button, expect to see a gray spiral processing symbol at the upper right. SPIRE confirms that the data is saved by replacing that processing symbol with the word Saved, which appears only briefly.
- Another strategy: To avoid the time-out problem altogether, consider using text editing software such as Notepad or TextEdit to type your note before you open the Add or Update Advising Note page. Then simply copy, paste, and save your text. Avoid using Microsoft Word, as some characters, e.g., apostrophes and quotation marks, may not appear correctly in SPIRE.
- Update later (within three days): When you write an advising note, you can save it as often as you like before you leave the Add or Update Advising Note page. After you leave the page, you can still update the note as long as it is within three calendar days after you first saved it. After that time, the note becomes part of the student's permanent record and you cannot make any changes. For details of the update process, see Step 4: Update your advising note (within three days only) below.
- Email Your Dean: To send an email automatically to your academic dean to request that they review an advising note, use the Attn. Acad. Dean field when you add that note.
- Email the Student or Yourself: You can email a copy of the note to the student after you save it. Navigate to Main Menu > Advisee Information > Read Advising Notes to look up the note. Click the Email to Student cc to You button or the Email to Yourself Only button, just below the Comments box. For further details, see Read Advising Notes.
Step 1: Select a student & begin a new note
- In SPIRE, select the Advisor Center tile. Select the Add/Update Advising Notes page. The Add/Update Advising Notes page opens to the Add a New Value tab.
- Enter a Student ID (8-digit SPIRE ID) if you know it. If you don't know the Student ID, click the magnifying glass () to look it up. In the Look Up Student ID search window, enter the student's last name and first name and click the Look Up button. You may need to scroll down to view your search results. Click any link, such as the student's name, in the row for the student you wish to select. Make sure to select the correct student from the list if they have a common name! Once you select a student, the Student ID fills in with the correct number on the Add or Update Advising Notes page.
Note: Search results from the Look Up appear in order of Student ID. Click another column heading to change the sort order, e.g., by Name. Click the same heading again to change the order from ascending to descending. - If you are adding a note for a previous day, change the Contact Date to the correct date.
- Click the Add button. The Add or Update Advising Note page opens.
On the Add or Update Advising Note page, the student's current information displays at the top of the page. Up to four academic plans display, with up to three sub-plans per plan. The test scores FMATO, FWRIT, and FLANG display, if applicable.
A FERPA flag displays near the page title if the student has requested extra privacy protection. Click the FERPA flag () to view the student's FERPA details.
A Negative Service Indicator, or hold, icon displays near the page title if the student has a hold on their record. Click the hold icon () to view the student's hold details.
Meeting information displays at the top right, comprised of Author Name, Contact Date, Sequence number, and Author ID. The Sequence number defaults to 1 unless you already created a note for the same student on the same date.
Step 2: Enter advising note information
- Select the appropriate check boxes as applicable. Note: In the future, it will be possible to have different sections and choices for different departments.
- Enter your comments at the bottom of the page in the Comments text entry box. Comments is a required field, so you must provide a comment in order to save an advising note.
- Click Save at least every 10 minutes to prevent timing out.
- Carefully review your note in progress and make any needed corrections. Click the Save button if you have not done so since your last change. Note: After saving, you have a maximum of three days to make any changes or corrections to the note. See Step 4: Update your advising note below for further information on how to find your note to make changes later.
Step 3: Notify an academic dean
You can choose to send an email to the attention of an academic dean, requesting that he or she view an advising note. The email is sent the first time you save a note after selecting a dean, as described below.
To notify an Academic Dean:
- Click the magnifying glass icon () to the right of the Attn. Acad. Dean field. The Look Up Attn. Acad. Dean search window opens.
- On the Look Up Attn. Acad. Dean search window, click the Look Up button. The search results appear at the bottom of the window. Only deans who have been set up to receive messages appear in the list.
- Click any link, such as the dean's name, in the row for the dean whom you want to notify. The Add or Update Advising Note page reappears, with new text added to the Comments box: Sent to the attention of: <name of academic dean> <email address of academic dean>. The dean's ID appears in the Attn. Acad. Dean field.
- An email titled Advising Note Alert and containing the following message is sent to the dean the first time you save the note:
Hello:
Advisor <your name>, <your ID>, has sent you an alert to review the notes of an advising session with <student's name>, <ID>, on <date>.
Thank You
Step 4: Update your advising note (within three days only)
After you save an advising note and leave the Add or Update Advising Note page, you can still come back later to update it, as long as it is within three calendar days after you first saved the note.
- In SPIRE, use the Advisor Center tile to navigate to Add/Update Advising Notes. The Add/Update Advising Notes page opens to the Add a New Value tab.
- Click the Find an Existing Value tab to locate your saved note.
- Enter as search criteria any of the following: Student ID (8-digit SPIRE ID), Contact Date, Last Name, or First Name. The name fields refer to the student's last name and first name. Your ID appears in the Author ID field. You can only update notes that you wrote.
- Click the Search button. If more than one note matches the search criteria, the search results will appear below the search criteria. Click any link, such as the student's name, in the row of search results for the note you want to update. The Add/Update Advising Note page opens to your saved note. If only one note matches the criteria, the Add or Update Advising Note page opens immediately for the note you specified.
- Update the note as you want. Be aware that others, including the student (if you emailed the note to him or her), may have read or printed the earlier version of the note. Remember to click Save at least every 10 minutes to prevent timing out. When you are finished updating, click Save a final time.