AdRx contains multiple decades of advising notes that have been imported into the system from other advising notes systems; these old notes were entered without the use of centralized guidelines. However, they were written in accordance with then-existing office, school, or campus-wide guidelines regarding advising records. The following guidelines should apply to any new AdRx notes, entered by any authorized user.
Advising Records (AdRx) is the enterprise-level system that officially documents academic advising meetings and communications with and about students at IU. A part of a student’s educational record, AdRx gives students access to view their notes and allows advisors and other authorized users to share information about students. Effective use of this advising system improves advising as a practice, facilitates strengthened relationships with students, and reduces confusion and mistakes in the management of academic affairs. Furthermore, AdRx is designed to promote efficiency for professional and faculty advisors who can use AdRx to reach all pertinent advising resources from one place.
The records in AdRx are confidential and covered by federal privacy laws such as FERPA, state data privacy laws, and institutional policies regarding the sharing of student data. ALL notes are discoverable through student, court, or public records requests. However, advisors control which parties have immediate access to the notes, by selecting one of these tabs:
- Advising Comments: any authorized AdRx user – and students – can see these notes immediately; this should be the default choice for most notes
- Internal Notes: any authorized AdRx user can see these notes immediately
- Advisor Only Notes: AdRx users in the roles of Academic Advisor, Faculty Advisor, and Advising or Faculty Administrator can see these notes immediately
- Role Notes: AdRx users in other specific roles (e.g., tutors or athletics advisors) can see these notes immediately. Advisor Only Notes are the Role notes for the advising role.
When entering notes, it is wise for advisors to not only carefully select the appropriate tab for the comments but to also consider how their comments might be interpreted by anyone else. They should refrain from judgmental language, opinions, diagnoses, or characterizations. Instead, they should focus on writing comments that are written clearly in standard English, contain detailed, factual descriptions, and are professional in tone. See the following examples:
Permission granted for ECON-E 201 in fall 2017
NOT: permission granted for micro
I referred Joe to Financial Aid Counselor, Brenda DiMaggio
NOT: I sent Joe to Brenda
I told Joe that he would probably hear back from the committee by Friday but that the timeline and results are not certain
NOT: I told Joe that the committee was sure to approve and that he’d hear by Friday
It is a strongly preferred professional best practice for Advising Notes to be entered on the day of the interaction – and as soon as possible after the interaction. This allows students or other staff to immediately see, and follow up, on the notes. In a case where a student sees another advisor but earlier AdRx notes are missing, both the advisor and student can be hampered in getting or giving clear information. If a delay is unavoidable, advisors should start a “draft” note so that it will be dated on the day of the interaction and then save the draft. They should complete the draft as soon as possible.
You may occasionally come across an AdRx note that contains abbreviations for programs or offices on campus. This document of common abbreviations and acronyms can help you interpret these notes.
FERPA Protected Information
If an advisor discusses FERPA-protected information with a third party, the advisor MUST document this conversation in AdRx. Specifically, an advisor should make it clear that a Release of Information was checked and that FERPA confidentiality was discussed and implemented.
Information Relevant to a Student’s Success
Advisors should focus their notes on the information that has relevance and impact for an individual student’s academic or career success. This information could include, but is not limited to, significant interactions and topics such as:
- Academic and career planning
- Academic success
- Involvement on campus and in the community
- Information about students such as summary of interest inventories, placement scores, etc.
- Interactions with parents about a student
- Interactions with campus partners (e.g., faculty, admissions, financial aid, etc.) about a student
- Missed student appointments (no-shows)
- Referrals to other offices including academic support services, adaptive educational services, counseling and psychological services, health services, victims’ assistance services, study abroad, career services, etc.
- Cancelled appointments with reason for cancellation
Information Related to Academic and Policy Decisions
Academic information and policy decisions should be included in AdRx notes. These could take the form of the following, but are not limited to these examples:
- Electronic forms such as program applications, scholarship applications, or FERPA release forms
- Student Registration Plans/Enrollment Plans
- Petition decisions (but not necessarily the content of the petition or supporting documents) when the information is pertinent to advising and is not available in other systems
- Transfer credit articulation decisions
- School-level exception decisions
Information in the Form of a Document
When students provide documents to advisors, the advisor should make a determination about whether to actually attach the document or simply make a reference to it within an Advising Comment.
Examples of Appropriate Documents to Attach to AdRx
- Dated screen shots of iGPS plans that advisor and student have confirmed
- Other planning sheets
- Signed probation contracts or other agreements
- Petitions or applications associated with a program
- Copies of paper surveys, inventories, or questionnaires
Examples of Inappropriate Documents for Advisors to Attach to AdRx Records
- Medical or Mental Health documentation.
- Transcripts: these should be sent to the appropriate office to be added to the SIS
- Immunization Records: these should be processed online and/or by appropriate staff
Mass Comments
AdRx has the capacity to record “mass comments” by populating multiple records with the same advising note. These can be in the form of:
- A single email that is sent to a group of students
- A specific note that is added to the record of multiple students without being sent to the students
Because of this capability, it can be tempting to simply record all communications with all students in AdRx. However, there are many instances in which a mass email is really just informational and not specific to a given group of students. Targeted emails/comments that are truly aimed at a particular subset of students should be appropriately added as mass comments. Generic emails should not. For example:
- Do document outreach to “freshmen with GPAs above 3.5 who might be interested in applying to the Honors program”
- Do NOT document outreach to “all students in the school, announcing a welcome back picnic”
When writing notes, advisors should use their professional discretion as to the level of detail to include around sensitive topics and place those notes in Internal Notes or Advisor Only Notes. However, all units or campuses might not fully agree on what makes something sensitive or how to handle it. Following are some examples that have been approved for all of IU. Individual units or campuses might choose to adopt stricter guidelines but should not adopt looser guidelines.
Medical record or health information that the student has disclosed to the advisor
Usually, medical/health information, that is self-disclosed, is not considered to be HIPAA-protected. Such information can be submitted to AdRx, especially when the advisor believes it may prove useful in assisting the student. However, if medical info actually relates to a disability, in that it substantially/permanently limits one or more major life activities, people should follow the disability guidelines. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and follow the disability guidelines.
Disability information that the student has disclosed to the advisor:
Disabilities limit one or more major life activities. If students indicate to you that they have disabilities, you are NOT allowed to share this information with other employees of the university unless the other employees have a compelling need to know that information in order to perform their professional duties or you have reason to be concerned that a student may be a danger to themselves or others. It is appropriate to document referrals to Disability Services and Counseling services and to note that a student has been approved for accommodations by Disability Services but you should not enter any specific information about the nature of the student’s disability into the AdRx system. Information about a student's disability should be treated as highly confidential and discussion of such information should take place only in a private setting. Also, keep in mind that the law can change with regard to what is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
NOTE: Pregnancy or broken limbs are not seen as disabilities – since one is expected to “recover” completely. However, complications of pregnancy, can be disabilities. When it doubt, err on the side of caution.
Referrals to the Behavioral Consultation Team
In the case of a referral to a behavioral consultant, the fact of the referral can be entered without adding specific details about the reason for the referral. Advisors can write something general, such as “I referred Susan to Counseling Services to get some support for personal issues.”
Financial or tax information.
Specific financial or tax information should not be included in AdRx. Advisors can write something general, such as “Sam is facing some financial challenges that are affecting his ability to continue to enroll.”
Students of Concern is a resource developed by OCSS that provides real-world examples of troubling/troubled student behavior along with tips on how an academic advisor can appropriately respond, and guidelines for how this interaction can be documented in an Advising Note without compromise to professional integrity and student confidentiality. The entire resource is available on the OCSS website.
Notes entered by users of AdRx can only be inactivated by designated enterprise super-users (staff of OCSS, with UITS Advising team serving as backup). Campus AdRx users notify OCSS by email [ocss@iu.edu)] when an incorrect note is left on a student record. The email should include the name and UID of the incorrect student along with the Contact ID# or date/time/submitter of the incorrect note. If an inappropriate or inaccurate Advising Note has been identified, OCSS will check to see if FERPA has been violated and follow up with the advisor or Director of Advising as needed.
All academic advisors should receive training specific to their school/college/unit or from sessions coordinated by the campus unit or employee responsible for training or their campus advising director (or her/his designee). It is the responsibility of the campus advising director(s) that all AdRx users are initially trained and periodically updated on new features and enhancements of AdRx. Directors may evaluate advisors on the appropriateness, timeliness, and completeness of their student advising records and may recommend they receive additional training if necessary.
The College of Arts + Sciences