Baruch College's Virtual Advisor, LUCY, Wins National Technology Award

During the 2011 Annual Awards Program for Academic Advising, the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) awarded Baruch College's Center for Academic Advisement the Outstanding Advising Technology Innovation Award for LUCY (Linking Undergraduate Curriculum to You). The animated, virtual, pre-orientation guide won the award based on content, clarity, creativity and interactivity.

LUCY utilizes virtual reality technology to simulate a Baruch College academic advisement orientation session. The fun and interactive LUCY environment helps students to better learn and retain information about multiple curriculum requirements; its concise and targeted information helps students determine necessary classes/requirements and recommends the order in which they should register, helpful to many new students at Baruch College who can feel overwhelmed by the core curriculum (Tiers 1-3), eligibility requirements for their intended major, and additional degree requirements. This innovative program clarifies what these courses are, what the necessary prerequisites will be and why students need to complete them. Students can then complete an online quiz to make sure they fully understood the curriculum taught by LUCY. By the time these students arrive at orientation, they have learned how to register independently, and to develop a course schedule through a systematic-but-quick (20 minute) advisement simulation, making orientation day a time to focus on learning about the College and getting to know new classmates.

LUCY was developed by Baruch College's Center for Academic Advisement in conjunction with Kognito Interactive, Inc.
Visit LUCY at: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/advisementsession/