Student Academic Advisement Augmented by Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Technology, Jamaica

In this paper we examine the possibility of using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve academic advisement of students within the School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) at the University of Technology, Jamaica (Utech). Described as one of the important challenges facing academics [1], academic advisement plays a vital role in student completion. All students at Utech are assigned academic advisors and encouraged to access advisors for advisement. Each faculty manages the process internally. Students are not mandated to seek advisement but are strongly encouraged to do so to allow them to make informed choices related to module selection, academic probation, grade forgiveness, etc. Within SCIT the rate of take up is less than desired resulting in some students going on academic probation, having to switch programs in some cases or failing out of their program. We will explore the automation of the academic advisement process by using AI to push relevant information to students related to their performance. The system will be coded to recognize common situations and contact the students providing information relevant to the situation and schedule an advisement session with the academic advisor (AA).