Using an Expert System to Support Academic Advising

There are widespread perceptions that academic advising is not done well in public higher education. Computer-assisted advising is a delivery system that has been used effectively in support of the conventional advising process. Computer-assisted advising is an especially suitable application area for expert systems. Using a shell-based expert system, computer-assisted advising is not difficult or costly to implement. By placing the responsibility for maintaining student data on the students, but providing features to reduce the associated burden, it is possible to implement such a system without having automated student records. Experience with the Expert System for Advising Undergraduates (ESAU), a system developed and employed in the management department at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, is used to illustrate the approach.