Breaking Barriers to Effective Online Advising in Higher Education

Academic advising can make or break a student's experience in online higher education, yet it's often undermined by the same recurring problems: limited access, communication gaps, overloaded advisors, and confusing systems that leave students feeling more lost than supported. What students need is an advising experience that feels personal, timely, and trustworthy, not another box to check. One promising solution lies in bringing faculty directly into the advising process rather than keeping it siloed in a separate office. Embedding structured micro-mentorship into coursework can turn an existing mid-course assignment into a meaningful advising touchpoint, preserving course and program outcomes while adding a practical prompt focused on career readiness or student experience. By closing the loop with a final reflection and avoiding additional grading demands, this approach gives online students consistent, built-in faculty support throughout their program. Breaking Barriers to Effective Online Advising in Higher Education presents research and theory on the process of advising online students, examining best practices, challenges, systems and structures, barriers, and the process of meaning-making. By connecting academic research with practical discussion points, this book equips higher education administrators and practitioners to engage with the realities of advising in online learning environments. Covering topics such as course-embedded advising, online micro-mentorship, and faculty-led online advising, this book is a fundamental academic resource for graduate and doctoral students, higher education administrators, academic advisors, instructional designers, online program directors, policymakers, and more.