Event Ideas and Resources for Academic Advisors

Are you interested in creating an event or program to build community for your students population? 

There are a variety of ways to actively connect with your students and foster a sense of community. In this article, explore programming ideas and additional tools that can assist. 

Event and program ideas:

• Information sessions on important curriculum information
• Career/alumni panels
• “Creating Your Next Semester Schedule” workshop
• Webinar on locating co-curricular opportunities
• Study skills workshop
• Navigating test anxiety discussion with representative from CAPS
• Group advising for first year students
• Graduate/professional school preparation seminars
• Registered Student Organization fair that relate to a specific topic
• Study spaces during mid-terms and finals week
• Semester kick-off and end-of-year celebration

There are free resources available to MSU staff and faculty to support your events and programs. These include:

• MSU Brand Studio provides a variety of tools and downloads that adheres to MSU branding guidelines. This includes color palettes, typography, logos, signatures and office toolkits, flyers, manuals, facts sheets, and more. 

• 25LivePro is MSU’s room reservation system. If hosting an event on-campus, check 25Live for open classrooms.
  • A job aid for using 25LivePro is available here(this link downloads a file).

• Zoom is an excellent tool to host virtual meetings and webinars. You can also record and share sessions in Zoom for anyone that was not able to attend the live session. 

• Kaltura MediaSpace is MSU’s media hub designed to store and share media collections. For video recordings that you wish to share, upload to Kaltura MediaSpace to create a shareable link or embed code, and add closed captioning. A video tutorial for using Kaltura MediaSpace is available here.

• Canva is a versatile design tool that offers many free templates for flyers, infographics, worksheets, and so much more. 

• Camtasia provides faculty with the ability to create, edit, and upload their screen recordings or presentations. This helps students navigate their online courses, provide assignment feedback, and more. This program is offered free through MSU IT Services. 

• TechSmith SnagIt allows faculty, staff and students to create beautiful documentation, images, screen captures, diagrams, and other media that can be used along with D2L. This is also free through MSU IT Services.