Academic advising via Facebook: Examining student help seeking

Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16

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Internet and Higher Education

Academic advising via Facebook: Examining student help seeking Paul Amador ⁎, Julie Amador 1 University of Idaho, 1031 North Academic Way, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Accepted 17 October 2013 Available online 24 October 2013 Keywords: Academic advising Help seeking Facebook Student support

a b s t r a c t The influx of technology into institutions of higher education has demanded changes to the traditional support structures at colleges and universities. Higher education students are using technology as a means to communicate with, and seek help from, university personnel, including academic advisors. This study focuses on how six university students used and understood an electronic social network to seek help from an academic advisor. Results indicate that participants used the social network site to seek prescriptive academic advising help and acquire information about university academic matters. Findings indicate that participants considered use of the electronic social network beneficial for seeking help and were receptive to interacting with higher education personnel electronically. Published by Elsevier Inc.

1. Introduction 1.1. Demands for technology Recent increases in technology integration in institutions of higher education have demanded changes in the practices, implementation, and organization of student support services (Junco, 2010; Schwebel, Walburn, Klyce, & Jerrolds, 2012). Current higher education student populations “have grown up with instant messaging, text messaging, blogging, and using electronic social network sites,” leading them to expect increased uses of technology from higher education institutions (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007, p. 37). As higher education institutions work to meet increased technology demands, they have been encouraged by legislators, researchers, students, and the public to increase their focus and effort to provide additional resources to improve retention and success rates (Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE), 2009; Junco, 2010; Montag, Campo, Weissman, Walmsley, & Snell, 2012; Schwebel et al., 2012). As a result, higher education institutions have worked to make changes and provide support structures through academic and student affairs initiatives that encourage student success by fostering relationships between students and support staff through repeated interactions (Hollins, 2009; Nevarez & Wood, 2010). Academic advisors have commonly been charged with cultivating these repeated interactions because they function in a role that promotes sustained relationships, which often encourages students to seek academic help when needed. Traditionally, academic advising has centered ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 208 292 2536. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Amador), [email protected] (J. Amador). 1 Tel.: +1 208 664 7010. 1096-7516/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2013.10.003

on in-person advising appointments; however, in recent years student demand for repeated interactions through interactive mediums has increased. In fact, Junco (2010) argues that these relationships can materialize in person, through social media, or through online communicatory sources. Likewise, “to support and communicate well with college students, student affairs staff must embrace and explore new technologies,” thus highlighting the need for increased technology use for academic advising (Herberger & Harper, 2008, p. 32; Montag et al., 2012). 1.2. Integrating advising and Facebook Despite the demand to infuse technology into academic and student affairs initiatives, such as academic advising, few studies have examined the intersection of academic advising in higher education institutions and the use of electronic social networks, such as Facebook, for delivering advising. Many studies have focused on the relationships between students and faculty and their uses of the Internet (i.e. Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010; Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013), but the link between electronic social network use and academic advising for seeking support has been understudied. As a result, the intersection among higher education students, electronic social networks, and academic advising is important for understanding how higher education students seek academic help using the Internet. As a result, the purpose of this study is to understand how and why higher education students use Facebook to seek help from an academic advisor. Understanding how and why students use the electronic social network is important for understanding how to build and maintain relationships with students to increase retention and success. As a result, this study focuses on the following questions: 1) How do students use and understand Facebook to seek help from an academic advisor? 2) Why do students use Facebook to seek help from an academic advisor?

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2. Theoretical framework

3.2. Academic advising and Facebook

This study is guided by the theoretical framework of help seeking, which purports that individuals who seek help are active agents in the process of learning (Alexitch, 2006; Karabenick, 2004; Nelson-Le Gall, 1981). Originally, the notion of help seeking was considered to be admittance of failure on the part of the person asking for assistance, casting a passive persona on those needing assistance (Winterbottom, 1958). In a seminal study, Nelson-Le Gall (1981) transformed the theory of help seeking through a paradigm shift refocusing the help seeker as an active participant in the help seeking transaction. Following this shift, “help-seeking is conceptualized as an achievement behavior involving the search for and employment of a strategy to obtain success” (p. 1654). Prototypical instances of help seeking involve an individual with a defined need, which could be eliminated if the person sought assistance from other individuals (White & Bembenutty, 2013). In the process of seeking formal and informal help, students search for people who can relate to their situations and offer assistance through community support structures (Newman, 2012; White & Bembenutty, 2013). Essentially, the post-paradigm theory of help seeking is used to situate the help seeker as an active agent in the learning process.

In an effort to encourage help seeking behaviors, and reduce cost, time, and improve feasibility of delivery, higher education institutions have increased the quantity and quality of communication through electronic delivery (Junco, 2010; Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008; Montag et al., 2012). “If advisors want to engage students, to build meaningful relationships with them, then they must come to understand the methods of communication that students naturally find engaging” (Lipschultz & Musser, 2007, p. 1). Higher education institutions are realizing that traditional forms of advising are no longer the only methods institutions can employ for service delivery to retain students (Junco, 2010; Montag et al., 2012). The benefit of electronic delivery for advising is that the process permits distance advising, has less time constraints, and is not as constrained by staff availability (Multari, 2004). However, the means through which electronic advising delivery occurs has received little attention in recent research studies. Electronic social network sites, such as Facebook, are one venue for providing electronic delivery of academic advising services to students in higher education settings. Through electronic social networks, advisors have the capability to inform and educate students and form relationships with and among them (Esposito, 2007; Junco, 2010; Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007; Traxler, 2007). Traxler (2007) found that students responded more quickly to Facebook messages than the email because students check Facebook more frequently than they check their email. Advising through electronic social network sites, such as Facebook, can also provide the advisor with information about the advisee (Esposito, 2007; Traxler, 2007). “One new student posted a status update saying she was feeling overwhelmed by college, so I [an academic advisor] wrote on her wall to ask how things were going. We continued the conversation face-to-face, but Facebook had given me access to information about her feelings, an easy way to connect” (Traxler, 2007, p. 7). The student was able to further her academic relationship with the advisor as a result of the electronic social network for advising. Electronic social network sites commonly have a visible user profiles in which members of the site can “type oneself into being” and upload files, pictures, videos, and additional demographic and interest information to a profile (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008; Sunden, 2003, p.3; Traxler, 2007). In addition to creating profiles, users are able to perform functions such as messaging and instant messaging, are able to post notes or comments to the wall or profile page of others, and are able to view their own walls, similar to a physical bulletin board (Selwyn, 2009; Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). Users of the sites can create groups or post information and announcements to various groups to improve communication and correspondence with others, thus exposing multiple communication avenues for advising through electronic social networks (Lou, 2010).

3. Relevant literature 3.1. Academic advising and help seeking In an effort to promote student success and retention, higher education institutions have attempted to provide guidance to students by employing academic advisors to provide assistance (Schwebel et al., 2012). Advising can be defined as a process that falls along a continuum from prescriptive advising, involving course selection assistance, to developmental advising on the other extreme (Kuhn, Gordon, & Webber, 2006). Prescriptive academic advising encompasses routine academic advising conversations that are less personal and focus on course selection and institutional policies and procedures. In contrast, developmental advising encompasses more personal advising, mirroring the more in-depth conversations that may occur during counseling sessions. This type of advising is focused on personal issues, such as life decisions or career choice, to a much greater extent than prescriptive advising. Despite the type of advising, “academic advising is conceived as the collaborative process in which advisors help students to develop and realize their educational, career, and personal goals” (Kuhn et al., 2006, p. 24). As students meet with academic advisors, their help seeking tendencies are influenced by expectations, advisor availability, personal and academic background, and motivational orientation (Alexitch, 2006). Together, these influences mold the help seeking characteristics of students and influence their preferred advising styles. As students consider meeting with an academic advisor, preconceived ideas about the advising process coupled with their own backgrounds influence the help seeking process (Alexitch, 2006; White & Bembenutty, 2013). Commonly, students are hesitant that the process may not afford personal relationships and arranging an appointment may be difficult and timely without leading to any viable solutions for assistance. Specifically, culture, gender, and age affect help seeking and may lead to detouring students when help is needed (Alexitch, 2006; Gloria, Hird, & Navarro, 2001). Additionally, students' motivational orientations constitute a significant role in advising preferences (Alexitch, 1997; White & Bembenutty, 2013). Alexitch (1997) found that highly motivated students met more frequently with advisors, and for longer periods of time, than those who were less motivated. The “educational orientation [of students] predicted help-seeking behavioral tendencies and perceived threat from help-seeking,” indicating that students who were the most in need of help were the least likely to seek help (Alexitch, 2002, p. 15). As a result, there is a need for higher education institutions to provide help to students through convenient and welcoming methods.

3.3. Facebook in higher education Facebook use among faculty as well as students is common in higher education institutions (Hampton, Goulet, Rainie, & Purcell, 2011). In fact, 39% of adults ages thirty and beyond who use the Internet visit a social network site on a typical day. Related studies suggest that some faculty members find value in social network sites, while other studies claim that faculty may perceive social network sites to be more social than educational (Roblyer et al., 2010; Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013). Veletsianos and Kimmons (2013) studied the personal professional tensions among faculty members using social networks for communication with students. Results found both “synergies and tensions between online social networks and faculty identity” (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013, p. 43), meaning that faculty often struggle with the boundaries between social network use for personal versus professional reasons. From the student perspective, social networks, such as Facebook, have academic value (Roblyer et al., 2010). In recent years, the academic importance of social network sites has been studied through the

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relationship among students and faculty, with the purpose of explaining instructional value (Arnold & Paulus, 2010). These studies have focused on the use of social network sites, such as Facebook, between students and faculty for instructional purposes, without fully exploring the relationship between Facebook and student support services personnel, such as academic advisors. As higher education institutions work to infuse technology into practice, students' help seeking relationships with academic affairs professionals, such as advisors, may be influenced by available technologies. Students as active help seekers may have preconceived notions about seeking academic assistance, but advancing technologies are providing new means for communication between personnel at higher education institutions and students. Knowing more about how students use and understand Facebook for seeking advising help is important for understanding how to support students academically. As a result, this study aims to provide clarity with respect to help seeking, academic advising, and the electronic social network, Facebook.

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level users of technology would find the approach worthwhile for seeking help. Therefore, the purpose was not to select participants to represent the entire group of students, but was to purposefully focus on those users with high levels of Facebook use for advising. Likewise, the intent of the study was not to compare higher level users with lower level users, but rather to understand how those who were higher level users sought help through the use of Facebook. The emphasis here being on the relationship between the use of Facebook and the help seeking behaviors; not on comparing the practices of those with different levels of Facebook use. Following participant selection, the six selected participants were recruited through Facebook and all agreed to participate in the study. Participants included three male and three female students, all between the ages of 19 and 22. Pseudonyms are used for all participants in the study. Participants in the study took part in professional academic advising services for an entire year before they were approached about participating in the study, therefore eliminating the likelihood of their knowledge about the study influencing their Facebook practices.

4. Method 4.3. Data and measures A case study was purposely used for data collection to allow a comprehensive analysis of six university students' use and understandings of an electronic social network for help seeking for academic advising (Yin, 2009). Yin (2009) provides a rationale for this design by stating that case studies are best suited for situations that: (1) represent a unique case, and (2) capture circumstances and conditions that will provide information about the experiences of people. 4.1. Context The participants in this study took part in an academic advising program using Facebook at a medium to large land-grant university in a western state of the United States of America. Over the course of one academic year, an academic advisor implemented an electronic advising program, using Facebook to communicate with students who were already being advised in person in an Academic Advising Center. To implement the electronic advising, the advisor created a Facebook profile for himself, separate from his personal Facebook profile or from the general page representing the Academic Advising Center. Throughout the time of using Facebook for advising, the advisor posted messages about events, such as, “Fall registration begins Monday, meet with your advisor soon,” provided academic advising assistance, and networked with students. Approximately 440 students became friends with the academic advisor on Facebook throughout the one year period. It should be clarified that one author of this paper was the academic advisor involved in the study; at the time of data collection and analysis the researcher was no longer employed by the university where the study took place, but worked in academic advising at another institution. Additionally, another individual, outside of the academic advising field, collaborated with the advisor to negate bias during the research process. 4.2. Participants To select participants for the case study, purposeful sampling was used to understand how students who used the electronic social network site for advising sought help from their academic advisor (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). To initially select participants, we intentionally selected high level Facebook advising users, defined as those who made regular academic posts on Facebook and messaged the advisor via Facebook most frequently. Based on Yin (2009) the participants in this case study were purposely selected because of these specific criteria. The intent was not to provide a representative sample of larger population, but rather to understand if the highest level of users of Facebook for academic advising found the process advantageous for seeking help. If these students, being those who were heavier technology users, were not using Facebook to seek help, it was unlikely that lower

Data were collected through audio-recorded semi-structured InDepth Interviews, audio-recorded Behavioral Interviews, Facebook screenshots, and through written records from the participants' academic advising office files, with the purpose of data triangulation (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Stake, 2005; Yin, 2009). The In-Depth Interviews were semi-structured and approximately 60 to 90 min in length for each participant. The protocol for the In-Depth Interview was developed by the researcher, based on protocols from an NSF funded grant focusing on learning organizations (Cobb & Smith, 2006). Additionally, because of their long-standing presence in the field, questions used by Karabenick and Knapp (1991) focused on help seeking were used to guide the question writing process for the interviews, which followed recommendations of Yin (2009) to focus on specific elements of the research purpose. For example, participants were asked specific questions about daily use of Facebook for academic correspondence. To ensure protocol validity, the initial protocol was written and field tested with two Facebook users who were not part of the study to determine the quality of the interview responses that would be elicited from the questions. Following these field tests, the interview questions were revised to more accurately align the participant responses with the purpose of the study. Questions that were deemed unnecessary for the purpose of the study were removed from the protocol and other questions were revised to increase the validity of the protocol. The following are example questions from the protocol: On Facebook, who do you communicate with about your academics? Why do you communicate with those people? How do you communicate with them? The Behavioral Interviews were focused on understanding the academic Facebook behaviors, and decisions regarding Facebook actions of the participants. To prepare for each of these interviews, the researchers printed out all Facebook activity for each participant, with dates from August of one year through July of the next year, as well as the advisor's Facebook activity for the year of academic advising. During the interviews, each participant was questioned about actual academic posts to understand the behavior that led to the post and the participant thinking regarding the post. The participants were also asked about their experiences reading the posts of the academic advisor and were asked about specific posts the academic advisor had made to Facebook. Both interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for data analysis (Yin, 2009). Additionally, any academic correspondence or comments initiated by either the advisor or the participant on Facebook were captured through screenshots to ensure data were analyzed in the context in which they were written on the social network site. The written academic advising files of the participants from the Academic Advising Center were also analyzed to provide context for the Facebook communication. This resulted

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in four data sources per participant: In-Depth Interview, Behavior Interview, Facebook Screenshot Documentation, and Academic Advising Paper Files. 4.4. Data analyses Data were analyzed following constant comparative methods to generate, develop, and verify concepts from themes (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). First, the data from all four sources were read without coding for familiarity with the data set (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Following this, data from the In-Depth Interviews and Behavioral Interviews were coded individually by each researcher with initial categories based on the research questions. Themes from the interviews included: Life Integration, Academic Task Completion, Emotions/Self-Gratification, Facebook Navigation, Community/ Friends/Relate/Students, and Timeline/Self-Communication. Table 1 provides descriptions for the codes. The following is an example of the interview with Abby that was coded as Emotions/Self-Gratification because Abby discusses her need to share her success with others: Researcher: Why do you think in a general sense that you use Facebook?Abby: (laugh) Oh, mmm, I would say most, probably attention.Researcher: Attention?Abby: Yeah, posting posts. I think that is why, kind of attention, talking, getting people to talk to me, or that kind of stuff.Researcher: I guess the question is, why post the celebration… an academic success on there. What's the reason?Abby: 'Cause I wanted to share my excitement with everyone and say I could possibly be a writer one day or something. Or my teacher actually likes what I did for him, or you know, what I wrote and it felt really good to have that kind of feedback from a teacher and, so I wanted to share it with all my friends. Following initial coding of all interview data, the researchers met to define initial categories and reconcile any differences in categories. After the initial categories had been assigned, the data were reviewed again and subcategories were used to differentiate responses in the interview data. Once all data were coded, the types of codes and content were further analyzed, which involved extensive data reflection and memo writing. This writing and reflection resulted in themes in the data and concept formation through the unification of codes to determine the overarching concepts across the cases. Simultaneously, all Facebook Screenshot Documentation from each of the six participants in the study were reviewed, totaling 3085 Facebook posts. A post was defined as the complete thought that was entered into Facebook at a given time and given a timestamp by Facebook. Many of the participants had multiple posts in a given day. These were initially coded in broad themes, based on the type of post. These included: academic, academic/personal, personal, game, and Table 1 Themes and meaning for interviews. Themes

Meaning

Life Integration

Facebook was used multiple times a day in multiple locations Facebook was used to complete academic tasks; for example, participants would ask others about class assignments Facebook was used as a place to express emotions to others and build self-worth Participants commented about different Facebook features, i.e. wall posts versus messages Facebook was considered a means to relate and communicate with a community of friends, many who were also students Facebook was considered a place to record a timeline of the past and things to be done in the future

Academic Task Completion Emotions/SelfGratification Facebook Navigation Community/Friends/ Relate/Students Timeline/SelfCommunication

video/photo/music. Following this, all posts coded as either academic or academic/personal were open coded, resulting in nine subthemes: celebration, homework, studying, academic itinerary, emotion, communication, help seeking, anxiety, and other. The theme of other included: general academic stress, study assistance, academic assistance, professor frustration, program selection, and assignment clarity. The other eight subthemes also were coded again for tertiary themes. The researchers met to reconcile any differences in the coded data and reached a consensus for each data item coded as academic or academic/personal. Table 2 provides descriptions for the secondary codes (those that were originally academic or academic/personal). This same process was repeated for all data sources, including the aforementioned transcribed interview data and the Academic Advising Paper Files, resulting in different categories and subcategories. Each data type was compared with the other data types and coded to identify themes; concepts that were explanatory in nature were united into higher order groupings that were more abstract (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Written memos through data analysis were refined through questioning and comparisons and the process of combining concepts continued as the data were analyzed. Questioning and modification of categories continued until sufficient data were present for each category and conceptual saturation was reached (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Yin, 2009). For example, from the interviews, the themes of Emotions and Self-Gratification were joined with data from the Facebook Screenshot Document that were coded as Emotion and Anxiety because of the related nature of the themes. After data saturation was achieved and the categories were determined, the categories were integrated to formulate the findings (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). In this process, categories were linked around core categories through refinement for final integration. This process “requires sifting and sorting through all the memos and looking for clues on how all the categories might fit together” (Corbin & Strauss, 2008, p. 274). Once this occurred, final integration took place by uniting categories around core categories to formulate the findings. The results from the analysis explain the participants' use of an electronic social network for seeking help from an academic advisor.

5. Results The following results are presented by theme to clarify how students used and understood Facebook to seek help from an academic advisor. The findings also provide evidence for why the students used Facebook for seeking academic advising assistance. As previously mentioned, the interviewer was the academic advisor, so the advisees refer to the academic advisor as “you” because they are speaker to the advisor who used Facebook for academic advising.

Table 2 Themes and meaning for Facebook screenshots. Code

Meaning

Celebration

These posts focused on the celebration of something positive that had happened These posts discussed the content or amount of homework These posts discussed the process of, need for, or other component related to studying These posts outlined a timeline of academic progress

Homework Studying

Academic itinerary Emotion These posts were a place for participants to share their feelings Communication These posts were intended to communicate with others, such as asking anyone if they know when an assignment is due Help seeking These posts explicitly stated that help was needed for something academic Anxiety These posts expressed nervousness or anxiety Other These posts included those that did not fit in aforementioned category

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5.1. Line of demarcation

5.2. Prescriptive advising

To understand how and why the participants used Facebook for seeking help from an academic advisor, it is important to understand how they perceived their electronic relationship with the advisor. As the participants sought academic advising help from the advisor on Facebook, each participant had self-defined what they believed was acceptable and unacceptable for an academic advisor to access and communicate about through Facebook—thus, they all established a line of demarcation, separating appropriate from inappropriate. For the six participants, the initial line of demarcation was set with their gesture to accept the academic advisor as a friend on Facebook. Their acceptance granted the advisor permission to interact with them using the electronic social network. The participants considered Facebook to be a tool to develop and broaden the relationship they had with their academic advisor and a way to contact the advisor if they had a question. Because the participants were already comfortable with their inperson relationships with their academic advisor, they were more willing to be friends with their advisor on Facebook. Kate was comfortable becoming friends with her academic advisor on Facebook because she already had a positive relationship with the advisor outside of Facebook. When asked about her reasons for becoming friends with the academic advisor on Facebook, she said, “Well, it was right in the middle of all of that Future Educator's Club stuff and we were communicating here as well, so I considered you a friend. So, why not be a friend on Facebook?” Kate was comfortable with the advisor communicating with her on Facebook and having access to personal information. At one point, she posted, “Time to write a lesson plan. Are you feeling my excitement?” The advisor responded, “I know you'll do great,” which led to Kate's response, “Thanks Jared. I appreciate your faith in me. It actually is going pretty smoothly.” When asked about her reaction to this communication and her perception of personal comments, she said, “If I felt creeped then you would have been gone a long time ago,” indicating her acceptability with the comments and describing her perceived line of demarcation between herself and the advisor. Kate believed that the advisor genuinely cared about her academic performance and success and she appreciated the support he provided when she expressed her distress about a homework assignment. Timothy also valued his electronic relationship with the advisor and considered the advisor to have the same rights and privileges on his Facebook page as any of his other friends. He considered his act of accepting the advisor as a friend as a signal that Facebook communication was acceptable. When asked about how he felt if an advisor posted on his wall, he indicated:

The participants used Facebook as a tool to seek help from their advisor about degree selection, as well as other academic questions. The relationship the participants had with their advisor made them comfortable contacting him on Facebook with questions regarding registration and course selection, which are elements of prescriptive advising. The participants considered the advisor to be able to answer their questions and did not hesitate sending a private message through Facebook to seek help regarding academics. In this way, the help they sought was commonly quick answer types of academic questions. The participants used Facebook so continuously in their lives that they considered it a way to get immediate responses from many people. Anthony had so extensively integrated Facebook into his life that he would have preferred if his academic advisor was accessible on Facebook at all times of the day. At one point, he had an advising question and posted an announcement on his wall about having difficulty registering for a class. He eventually called the Academic Advising Center for assistance, but noted that his first instinct was to post his feelings to Facebook, rather than calling or emailing an academic advisor. He stated that he would have preferred if his advisor was available on Facebook continually to respond to his needs immediately. Like Anthony, Kate also turned to Facebook for simple advising questions as opposed to calling or meeting with her advisor in person because she was more comfortable communicating with her advisor via Facebook. She commented, “I freeze up when I am talking to people in person or on the phone, so I can just get out what I want to say on Facebook, without feeling that pressure. I don't know. Is that weird to be pressured when I am talking to someone in person?” By relying on Facebook for academic assistance, Kate avoided having in-depth discussions with the advisor and preferred quick answers to her questions. She utilized Facebook to seek help for simple task-related activities such as course registration questions directed toward her academic advisor. Similar to the other participants, Ziva considered Facebook to be a way to seek help for quick questions; for help that she considered more serious, she preferred to seek assistance in person. When asked about her feelings toward advising via Facebook, she commented:

I would be alright with it. It could be about anything. You know, you are already on my friends list. I obviously know you at least that much, so posting on my wall, is just posting on my wall. I mean, if you are a complete stranger I may have a problem with that. You know, you are on my friend list, so a post on my wall is a post on my wall. I will see it, deem it okay, it needs immediate response, it needs a comment, you know, something like that. Timothy considered the advisor to be a Facebook friend, and with that came all of the perceived freedoms that he granted to any other Facebook friend. To Timothy, being Facebook friends with an advisor was an acceptable practice and he was comfortable with this communication. Ultimately, the participants considered the advisor to be a Facebook friend, so they accepted his involvement in their academic posts. They established a line of demarcation when they became friends with the advisor. All six participants indicated that friend acceptance on Facebook meant that it was acceptable for the advisor to interact with them in the electronic domain. In instances such as the lesson plan comment with Kate, the students appreciated the support the advisor provided. They considered his friendship to be professional in nature and accepted communication via the electronic social network.

I think, I wouldn't, I don't actually see a problem with it. I think as far as scheduling an appointment and stuff, I would be okay, but if I actually just need help, like the simple, myWesternU [registration software] question, I would feel fine [using Facebook]. It is seeking out the help that you need, so unless, you know, it was something like, “Oh, I am failing this class and I need another course,” that would be something different. It would be more private, but as far as just this call number, or this class that I need, simple questions like that, I think it [Facebook] would be actually quite helpful. Ziva perceived Facebook to be an assistive tool for seeking help with simple prescriptive questions related to academic advising. If she was struggling or had something serious to talk about, she preferred to meet in person, but she looked favorably on the use of Facebook to seek help for questions that were prescriptive based advising concerns. Each of the participants used Facebook mainly for prescriptive advising related matters such as questions regarding course numbers or scheduling. For advising information that was more detailed, and often personalized, they commonly preferred to seek in-person academic advising assistance. Ultimately, they found the electronic social network to afford opportunities for quick and simple questions to be answered. 5.3. Information acceptance The participants all commented that they had read posts from the advisor that were posted to the advisor's wall with academic advising related information—these commonly were present on their Facebook

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newsfeed. As the participants reflected on these posts made by the advisor, they could recall specific details of the content of the posts even though they were from the past. These posts commonly alerted the participants to upcoming events, such as registration, and helped them keep track of their academics and academic success. Like all of the participants, Anthony valued the advisor's postings of academic advising related information. He stated that these posts provided help that might have been applicable to his current situation. For example, one post from the advisor stated, “Friday March 19th is the final day to drop a course and receive a W on your transcript.” When asked about this post, Anthony said: That is also helpful. It is an important post to people, like, who go to Western University because a lot of people don't know when the deadlines are for to withdraw, so they end up taking the whole class and failing it at the end, so I think that would be helpful to a lot of students. Anthony found the posts by the advisor to be helpful; he sought help by reading the posts and keeping up-to-date on current academic events. He was willing to accept information from the advisor and valued the assistance. With respect to help seeking, he did not seek out these posts, but he read them and considered them as they appeared on his timeline. Kate also utilized the information posted by the academic advisor to Facebook to help monitor her academic progression. One post from the advisor stated: Elementary and dual students, we just received notification that Geography 109 will no longer be offered in the spring semester but will be offered in the summer. If you need Geography 109 soon, we encourage you to register for this summer. When questioned regarding the post, Kate stated, “Oh yeah, posts like that would be really helpful. Because especially, like me, if I had how many semesters planned out I was going to take, yeah, that would be really helpful.” She considered Facebook to be a positive venue for obtaining academic advising related information. She read the posts from the advisor, considered the information's applicability to her situation, and then made a decision based on that information. Kate valued academic advising related posts because they helped her ensure she was keeping abreast of academic deadlines. Again, while she did not visit the Facebook page of the advisor often, she did read his posts as they appeared in her newsfeed. Ziva's perceptions of the advisor's posts were similar to Kate's because she was receptive to seeking help by reading wall posts from the academic advisor. Ziva appreciated the detailed information in the posts because it often made a process, such as registration, simpler for her to accomplish. At one point during the semester, the advisor posted a message about upcoming registration dates and also provided links to the schedule of courses and the registration website. When asked about this, Ziva commented that the inclusion of details in posts was helpful. I really like that type of post because it does; it provides the link and that is helpful. Then we don't have to like search for it, you know. Sometimes it is not that easy to do, or not easy, but it is more complicated to do through E-Register, but this is here, I could figure out what classes I need. You know, the call number and it also lets you know when you have to do it by and it is up, so you don't have to keep checking. Ziva found it helpful to have the advisor provide specific information she could access on Facebook. She sought assistance by following the links and considered this to be a helpful way to obtain information about advising related matters. Commonly, the participants sought help through Facebook by reading the posts on the advisor's wall that were present on their newsfeed.

They consciously made the decision to read the posts of the advisor, whether or not they were experiencing any specific problems. At that point, they considered if the information was applicable to their individual situation and they acted on the post and did whatever was necessary to seek help from the advisor. At times, this meant registering for classes, or scheduling an appointment to meet with the academic advisor. The participants considered themselves to be informed by these posts and all six of them indicated that they thought the posts were helpful for their academic progress. 6. Discussion 6.1. Use and understanding As the participants interacted with the advisor, they wrote messages to the advisor, posted on his wall, and posted questions about advising on their own walls. In this process, they sought academic advising help from the advisor about prescriptive advising topics (Kuhn et al., 2006). The participants did not consider Facebook to be a venue for advising questions that focused on topics with larger life implications, such as career choice and degree selection. The participants considered the electronic social network to be a mechanism for answering some of their advising questions, but were not interested in solely relying on Facebook for all academic advising needs. This indicates that while Facebook is a tool for academic advising, the help seeking occurring through Facebook was not the only form of advising help seeking taking place. In addition to the participants posting their own comments or questions, they valued the posts of the academic advisor. The advisor commonly posted when there were registration deadlines, upcoming advising events or announcements, or provided general academic information. The participants found this to be helpful and occasionally took action based on these posts. In this way, the participants' help seeking may initially appear to be passive; however, from the post-paradigm help seeking perspective, this action is considered active because the individual chose to read what the advisor wrote and took action mentally to internalize the posts and decide how to respond (Nelson-Le Gall, 1981; Winterbottom, 1958). Therefore, the participants sought help from the academic advisor by reading the posts on the academic advisor's wall that were also displayed on their newsfeeds. In addition to using Facebook to seek answers for advising questions, the participants used the site to extend their in-person relationships with the advisor. As each participant agreed to friend the academic advisor, he or she granted permission to the academic advisor to read all posts and related pages. Through this act, each participant subscribed to the electronic help seeking process as he or she agreed to befriend the advisor; participants consciously agreed to reading what the advisor had to say by accepting the friend request. They understood that accepting the friend request may promote their academic achievement because they would have increased contact with the academic advisor. 6.2. Reason for use As the participants engaged in seeking help through Facebook, they considered the process to be beneficial for their academic careers. By using Facebook, they had multiple avenues through which they could communicate with the advisor: they could write a comment on his wall, send a message, or read the advisor's posts. All three of these mechanisms gave way for help seeking through means that were quicker than in-person appointments. This is significant because advising through Facebook supported students academically in a way that students had not previously received support (Hughes, Thomas, & Scharber, 2006). The process provided a student support network that was new and innovative that met the needs and communicatory style of the participants. Essentially, they found value in using the site to

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seek help because it was one additional way to ensure they were progressing academically. An additional reason help seeking through Facebook was so valued by the participants was because of the relationship the academic advisor had with the participants before the use of the electronic social network for academic advising. Many of the participants commented that they considered themselves to be connected to the advisor prior to the implementation of the Facebook advising, so they considered Facebook to be a mechanism to extend this friendship and relationship. Once the participants became friends with the advisor on Facebook, they commented that their relationship improved with the advisor and that the use of the electronic social network site helped them become more connected to the university and the advisor. While these findings may initially seem obvious, the findings indicate that the use of Facebook enhanced this relationship and provided an electronic avenue through which participants could seek help, beyond the traditional in person advising. Research purports that the act of using technology does not insure a value added component to a process (Hughes et al., 2006); therefore, while many may have considered these findings to align with their initial hypothesis, it is important to understand that these participants did find added value in this process of using Facebook for advising. However, it should be clarified that these findings are not intended to be representative of all students using Facebook for advising. Instead, these findings are to provide evidence that these six students were able to use Facebook to seek help; again, highlighting that the intent was not provide a generalizable conclusions, but to gain a deep understanding about the practices of a purposefully selected few (Yin, 2009). 6.3. Electronic social networks in higher education institutions Findings from this study indicate that higher education students sought prescriptive advising help through the use of Facebook as a medium for academic advising (Kuhn et al., 2006). In this process, the participants considered Facebook to be a useful tool for advising and they appreciated being able to send the advisor messages, have him respond to posts, and to send him messages. The participants found that the use of the technology enhanced their advising experience as they were able to seek help through Facebook in active ways (Nelson-Le Gall, 1981). In this process, the participants' help seeking tendencies were influenced by the ease of communication through Facebook (Alexitch, 2006). In fact, one participant preferred to communicate with the advisor via Facebook as compared with calling or going in for an in-person meeting. Previous studies, on the use of electronic social networks have focused on interactions between faculty members and students (Arnold & Paulus, 2010; Roblyer et al., 2010; Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013). These studies have found the use of electronic social network sites to positively influence both students and faculty through intended and unintended outcomes. The present study builds on this research by examining the use of an electronic social network in a context beyond a classroom and the student–teacher relationship, but still in an academic domain. With Facebook, students chose to interact with the academic advisor and sought help on their own. In this active process, the electronic social network site provided a context for interactions between the participants and the advisor and allowed participants to seek help when needed, without having to schedule an in-person appointment. The findings from this study further add to the body of literature about the benefits of using an electronic social network, such as Facebook, in institutions of higher education. As institutions work to retain students and focus on improving student affairs and academic affairs initiatives, incorporating technology into everyday student life is essential (Herberger & Harper, 2008). As the students in the study used Facebook in their everyday lives, they were also focused on academics and appreciated the integration of the technology with academics. In an era of institutions working to meet students' technology demands, it is essential that higher education institutions consider

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means of providing help through technological venues (Junco, 2010). Facebook is one venue for this type of communication, providing a help seeking mechanism for students. 6.4. Limitations Similar to the work of Traxler (2007) the use of Facebook for advising permitted interactions that otherwise might not have occurred. Due to the nature of an electronic social network, it is possible that use of Facebook for advising may have negatively affected some participants; while the data do not provide evidence of this, it is important to know that the possibility exists. For example, Ziva found Facebook to be beneficial for prescriptive advising, but the data does not provide evidence about whether or not Facebook deterred her from seeking developmental advising electronically (Kuhn et al., 2006). All participants indicated that they found the advising process via Facebook useful. Additionally, even though measuring the need of help seeking versus the actual help sought was outside the purview of this work, using an electronic social network to provide support for students who need help may be a viable tool for reaching students who otherwise would not ask for help. Students who commonly need the most help are those who do not seek the help (Newman, 2012). It is unclear if any of the participants in this study would identify with the category of those who needed the most help, but it should be noted that all participants in this study, irrespective of how much help they needed, all engaged in help seeking through Facebook. An additional limitation of the study is that focusing on a case study of six participants does not permit generalizability of findings to other contexts or populations; however, it is important to understand this decision was purposeful, in an attempt to provide an in-depth understanding of the help-seeking of these students. Likewise, there was only one advisor who participated in this process. This is yet another limitation; however, again the intent is not to generalize, but to understand how help-seeking materialized through this one process. Likewise, the purpose was not to compare advising styles from one advisor to another advisor, so for the purpose of this study the limitation of one advisor did not impede the intent of the research. At the same time, the students in the study did know the advisor before beginning advising via Facebook; however, they did not know they would participate in research when they took part in this advising. Additionally, at the time when the research was conducted, the students no longer had an advising relationship with the advisor and the advisor was working at a different institution. 6.5. Future research In this study, the academic advisor was able to increase the communication between an academic affairs staff member of an institution of higher education and students (Carter, 2007; Junco, 2010). The participants commented that they were able to engage in conversations with the advisor and further their preexisting relationships (Lipschultz & Musser, 2007). It would be interesting to know how the help students sought may have been different if they had not already known the advisor outside of the Facebook context. Would they have friended the advisor or would that line of demarcation have kept students from becoming friends with the advisor? Therefore, further studies should explore the essentialism of the existence of in-person relationships before online relationships between students and support personnel at institutions of higher education. 7. Conclusion Data from this study show that six students from a higher education institution used Facebook to seek help for academic advising related matters. They sent messages to their advisor, wrote on his wall, and read the advisor's posts in the newsfeed. They understood Facebook to

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