Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

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 a b s t r a c t

Article history: The influx of technology into institutions of higher education has demanded changes to the traditional support
Accepted 17 October 2013 structures at colleges and universities. Higher education students are using technology as a means to communi-
Available online 24 October 2013 cate 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.
Keywords:
Results indicate that participants used the social network site to seek prescriptive academic advising help and
Academic advising
Help seeking
acquire information about university academic matters. Findings indicate that participants considered use of
Facebook the electronic social network beneficial for seeking help and were receptive to interacting with higher education
Student support personnel electronically.
Published by Elsevier Inc.

1. Introduction on in-person advising appointments; however, in recent years student

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 suc-
cess 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 institu-
tions 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 aca-
demic help when needed. Traditionally, academic advising has centered
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 208 292 2536.
E-mail addresses: pamador@uidaho.edu (P. Amador), jamador@uidaho.edu
(J. Amador).
1
Tel.: +1 208 664 7010.
demand for repeated interactions through interactive mediums has in-
creased. In fact, Junco (2010) argues that these relationships can materi-
alize in person, through social media, or through online communicatory
sources. Likewise, “to support and communicate well with college stu-
dents, student affairs staff must embrace and explore new technologies,”
thus highlighting the need for increased technology use for academic ad-
vising (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 deliver-
ing 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 in-
tersection among higher education students, electronic social networks,
and academic advising is important for understanding how higher edu-
cation 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. Under-
standing how and why students use the electronic social network is im-
portant 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?

1096-7516/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Inc.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2013.10.003
10 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
2. Theoretical framework
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 ad-
mittance of failure on the part of the person asking for assistance, cast-
ing 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 in-
volving 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 as-
sistance 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 commu-
nity 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.
3. Relevant literature
3.1. Academic advising and help seeking
In an effort to promote student success and retention, higher educa-
tion 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 de-
velopmental 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 selec-
tion and institutional policies and procedures. In contrast, developmen-
tal 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 col-
laborative process in which advisors help students to develop and real-
ize their educational, career, and personal goals” (Kuhn et al., 2006, p.
24). As students meet with academic advisors, their help seeking ten-
dencies 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 in-
fluence 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. Specif-
ically, 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 consti-
tute a significant role in advising preferences (Alexitch, 1997; White &
Bembenutty, 2013). Alexitch (1997) found that highly motivated stu-
dents 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.
3.2. Academic advising and Facebook
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 real-
izing 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 advis-
ing is that the process permits distance advising, has less time con-
straints, 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, advi-
sors have the capability to inform and educate students and form rela-
tionships 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 con-
versation face-to-face, but Facebook had given me access to information
about her feelings, an easy way to connect” (Traxler, 2007, p. 7). The stu-
dent 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 informa-
tion 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 announce-
ments to various groups to improve communication and correspondence
with others, thus exposing multiple communication avenues for advising
through electronic social networks (Lou, 2010).
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 ten-
sions among faculty members using social networks for communication
with students. Results found both “synergies and tensions between on-
line 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
 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
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 rela-
tionship between Facebook and student support services personnel,
such as academic advisors.
As higher education institutions work to infuse technology into prac-
tice, students' help seeking relationships with academic affairs profes-
sionals, 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 under-
standing 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.
4. Method
A case study was purposely used for data collection to allow a com-
prehensive 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 pro-
gram 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 ac-
ademic year, an academic advisor implemented an electronic advising
program, using Facebook to communicate with students who were al-
ready being advised in person in an Academic Advising Center. To imple-
ment 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 popula-
tion, 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
11
level users of technology would find the approach worthwhile for seek-
ing help. Therefore, the purpose was not to select participants to repre-
sent 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 differ-
ent 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 ad-
vising 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.
4.3. Data and measures
Data were collected through audio-recorded semi-structured In-
Depth Interviews, audio-recorded Behavioral Interviews, Facebook
screenshots, and through written records from the participants' aca-
demic advising office files, with the purpose of data triangulation
(Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Stake, 2005; Yin, 2009). The In-Depth Inter-
views were semi-structured and approximately 60 to 90 min in length
for each participant. The protocol for the In-Depth Interview was devel-
oped by the researcher, based on protocols from an NSF funded grant fo-
cusing 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 re-
search 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 ques-
tions. 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 com-
municate 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 aca-
demic Facebook behaviors, and decisions regarding Facebook actions
of the participants. To prepare for each of these interviews, the re-
searchers 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 an-
alyzed to provide context for the Facebook communication. This resulted
12 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
in four data sources per participant: In-Depth Interview, Behavior Inter-
view, Facebook Screenshot Documentation, and Academic Advising
Paper Files.
4.4. Data analyses
Data were analyzed following constant comparative methods to gen-
erate, 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 In-
terviews and Behavioral Interviews were coded individually by each re-
searcher with initial categories based on the research questions. Themes
from the interviews included: Life Integration, Academic Task Comple-
tion, Emotions/Self-Gratification, Facebook Navigation, Community/
Friends/Relate/Students, and Timeline/Self-Communication. Table 1 pro-
vides 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 rea-
son?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 fur-
ther analyzed, which involved extensive data reflection and memo writ-
ing. 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
Academic Task Facebook was used to complete academic tasks; for
Completion example, participants would ask others about class
assignments
Emotions/Self- Facebook was used as a place to express emotions
Gratification to others and build self-worth
Facebook Navigation Participants commented about different Facebook
features, i.e. wall posts versus messages
Community/Friends/ Facebook was considered a means to relate and
Relate/Students communicate with a community of friends, many
who were also students
Timeline/Self- Facebook was considered a place to record a timeline
Communication of the past and things to be done in the future
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, commu-
nication, 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 consen-
sus 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 relat-
ed nature of the themes. After data saturation was achieved and the cat-
egories 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 refine-
ment 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 par-
ticipants' 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 aca-
demic 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
Homework These posts discussed the content or amount of homework
Studying These posts discussed the process of, need for, or other component
related to studying
Academic These posts outlined a timeline of academic progress
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
 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
5.1. Line of demarcation
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 ac-
ceptable and unacceptable for an academic advisor to access and com-
municate 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 elec-
tronic social network. The participants considered Facebook to be a
tool to develop and broaden the relationship they had with their aca-
demic advisor and a way to contact the advisor if they had a question.
Because the participants were already comfortable with their in-
person relationships with their academic advisor, they were more will-
ing 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 becom-
ing 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 advi-
sor 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 com-
ments, she said, “If I felt creeped then you would have been gone a long
time ago,” indicating her acceptability with the comments and describ-
ing 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 communica-
tion was acceptable. When asked about how he felt if an advisor posted
on his wall, he indicated:
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 accept-
able 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 com-
ment with Kate, the students appreciated the support the advisor pro-
vided. They considered his friendship to be professional in nature and
accepted communication via the electronic social network.
13
5.2. Prescriptive advising
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 reg-
istration and course selection, which are elements of prescriptive advis-
ing. 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 ques-
tion 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 feel-
ings 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 ques-
tions 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 discus-
sions 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 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 ac-
tually just need help, like the simple, myWesternU [registration soft-
ware] 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 advis-
ing 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 aca-
demic 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
14 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
newsfeed. As the participants reflected on these posts made by the ad-
visor, they could recall specific details of the content of the posts even
though they were from the past. These posts commonly alerted the par-
ticipants 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 pro-
vided 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 val-
ued 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 Ge-
ography 109 will no longer be offered in the spring semester but will
be offered in the summer. If you need Geography 109 soon, we en-
courage 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 be-
cause 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 compli-
cated 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 read-
ing 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 individ-
ual situation and they acted on the post and did whatever was necessary
to seek help from the advisor. At times, this meant registering for clas-
ses, 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 ad-
vising 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 ques-
tions, they valued the posts of the academic advisor. The advisor com-
monly posted when there were registration deadlines, upcoming
advising events or announcements, or provided general academic infor-
mation. 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 in-
dividual 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 ad-
visor, 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 advis-
ing 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
 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
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 im-
plementation 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 advis-
ing. Instead, these findings are to provide evidence that these six stu-
dents 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 me-
dium for academic advising (Kuhn et al., 2006). In this process, the par-
ticipants 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 fo-
cused 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 ex-
amining 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 elec-
tronic 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 aca-
demics and appreciated the integration of the technology with aca-
demics. In an era of institutions working to meet students' technology
demands, it is essential that higher education institutions consider
15
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 advis-
ing 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 ben-
eficial for prescriptive advising, but the data does not provide evidence
about whether or not Facebook deterred her from seeking developmen-
tal 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, irre-
spective 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 de-
cision was purposeful, in an attempt to provide an in-depth understand-
ing 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 pur-
pose 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 re-
search when they took part in this advising. Additionally, at the time
when the research was conducted, the students no longer had an advis-
ing relationship with the advisor and the advisor was working at a dif-
ferent institution.
6.5. Future research
In this study, the academic advisor was able to increase the commu-
nication between an academic affairs staff member of an institution of
higher education and students (Carter, 2007; Junco, 2010). The partici-
pants 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 advi-
sor 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
16 P. Amador, J. Amador / Internet and Higher Education 21 (2014) 9–16
be a tool to extend their in-person advising relationships and preferred
use of the social network site for prescriptive advising questions. Partic-
ipants found the social network site to be convenient for seeking help
and they were active agents in the process of using Facebook for academ-
ic advising. Findings show promise for the use of Facebook for supporting
academic affairs initiatives in institutions of higher education.
References
Alexitch, L. R. (1997). Students' educational orientation and preferences for advising from
university professors. Journal of College Student Development, 38, 333–343.
Alexitch, L. R. (2002). The role of help-seeking attitudes and tendencies in students' pref-
erences for academic advising. Journal of College Student Development, 43, 5–19.
Alexitch, L. R. (2006). Help seeking and the role of academic advising in higher education.
(2005). In S. A. Karabenick, & R. S. Newman (Eds.), Help seeking in academic setting:
Goals, groups, and contexts (pp. 175–202). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Arnold, N., & Paulus, T. (2010). Using a social networking site for experiential learning:
Appropriating, lurking, modeling and community building. The Internet and Higher
Education, 13, 188–196.
Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to
theories and methods. New York: Pearson.
Boyd, D.M., & Ellison, N.B. (2008). Social network sites: Definition, history and scholar-
ship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 210–230.
Carter, J. (2007). Utilizing technology in academic advising. Retrieved December 12,
2010, from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site.
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Technology.htm#tech
Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) (2009). Making connections:
Dimensions of student engagement (2009 CCCSE Findings). Austin, TX: University of
Texas, Community College Leadership Program.
Cobb, P., & Smith, T. (2006). Designing Learning Organizations for Instructional Improve-
ment in Mathematics. : National Science Foundation, $2,408,000.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for
developing grounded theory (3rd ed.)Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Esposito, A. (2007). Saving Face(book): Engage through Facebook and retain relevance.
Academic Advising Today, 30.
Gloria, A.M., Hird, J. S., & Navarro, R. L. (2001). Relationships of cultural congruity and per-
ceptions of the university environment to help-seeking attitudes by socio race and
gender. Journal of College Student Development, 42, 545–562.
Hampton, K. N., Goulet, L. S., Rainie, L., & Purcell, K. (2011). Social networking sites and
our lies. Retried from. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-
social-networks.aspx
Herberger, G., & Harper, R. (2008). Have you Facebooked Astin lately? Using technology
to increase student involvement. In R. Junco, & D.M. Timm (Eds.), Using emerging
technologies to enhance student engagement (pp. 19–36). Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.
Hollins, E. R. (2009). Transforming practice in urban schools. Educational Leadership, 63,
48–53.
Hughes, J., Thomas, R., & Scharber, C. (2006). Assessing technology integration: The RAT—
Replacement, amplification, and transformation—framework. Society for Information
Technology & Teacher Education International Conference: Orlando, Florida.
Junco, R. (2010). Using emerging technologies to engage students and enhance their suc-
cess. Academic Advising Today, 33.
Junco, R., & Cole-Avent, G. A. (2008). An introduction to technologies commonly used
by college students. In R. Junco, & D.M. Timm (Eds.), Using emerging technologies to
enhance student engagement (pp. 3–18). Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.
Junco, R., & Mastrodicasa, J. (2007). Connecting to the net.generation. Washington, DC:
NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Karabenick, S. A. (2004). Perceived achievement goal structure and college student help
seeking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 569–581.
Karabenick, S. A., & Knapp, J. R. (1991). Relationship of academic help seeking to the use of
learning strategies and other instrumental achievement behavior in college students.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 221–230.
Kuhn, T. K., Gordon, V. N., & Webber, J. (2006). The advising and counseling continuum:
Triggers for referral. NACADA Journal, 26, 24–31.
Lipschultz, W., & Musser, T. (2007). Instant messaging: Powerful flexibility and presence.
Retrieved December 12, 2010, from the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advis-
ing Resources Website. http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/
Instant-Messaging.htm
Lou, L. (2010). Social networking websites: An exploratory study of student peer socializ-
ing in an online LIS program. Journal of Education for Library and Information, 51,
86–102.
Montag, T., Campo, J., Weissman, J., Walmsley, A., & Snell, A. (2012). In their own words:
Best practices for advising millennial students about majors. NACADA Journal, 2,
26–35.
Multari, R. J. (2004). Integrating technology into advisement services. The Mentor, 26, (Re-
trieved December 12, 2010, from http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/040107rm.htm)
Nelson-Le Gall, S. (1981). Help seeking: An understudied problem-solving skill in chil-
dren. Developmental Review, 3, 224–246.
Nevarez, C., & Wood, J. L. (2010). Community college leadership and administration: Theory,
practice, and change. New York: Peter Lang.
Newman, R. (2012). The motivational role of adaptive help seeking in
self-regulated learning. In D. Schunk, & B. Zimmerman (Eds.), Motivation
and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and application (pp. 315–338).
New York: Routledge.
Roblyer, M., McDaniel, M., Webb, M., Herman, J., & Witty, J. (2010). Findings on
Facebook in higher education: A comparison of college faculty and student uses
and perceptions of social networking sites. The Internet and Higher Education,
13, 134–140.
Schwebel, D., Walburn, N., Klyce, K., & Jerrolds, K. (2012). Efficacy of advising outreach on
student retention, academic progress and achievement, and frequency of advising
contacts: A longitudinal randomized trial. NACADA Journal, 32, 36–43.
Selwyn, N. (2009). Faceworking: Exploring students' education-related use of Facebook.
Learning, Media and Technology, 34, 157–174.
Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The
SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–466). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications.
Subrahmanyam, K., Reich, S. M., Waechter, N., & Espinoza, G. (2008). Online and offline
social networks: Use of social networking sites by emerging adults. Journal of
Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 420–433.
Sunden, J. (2003). Material virtualities. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Traxler, J. (2007). Advising without walls: An introduction to Facebook as an advising
tool. Academic Advising Today, 30(1) (Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://
www.nacada.ksu.edu/AAT/NW30_1.htm#10)
Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2013). Scholars and faculty members' lived experiences in
online social networks. The Internet and Higher Education, 16, 43–50.
White, M., & Bembenutty, H. (2013). Not all avoidance help seekers are created
equal: Individual differences in adaptive and executive help seeking. SAGE
Open, 3, 1–14.
Winterbottom, M. R. (1958). The relation of need for achievement to learning experiences
in independence and mastery. In J. W. Atkinson (Ed.), Motives in fantasy, action, and
society (pp. 453–478). Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.)Los Angeles: SAGE.