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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789

Date Available

6-11-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

College

Social Work

Department/School/Program

Social Work

Faculty

Dr. Laura Escobar-Ratliff

Abstract

This Doctor of Social Work (DSW) capstone project examines how academic advising can be leveraged as a resilience-informed intervention to support persistence among online social work students in the Appalachian region. Although online education has expanded access to higher education, Appalachian students continue to face significant structural, technological, and cultural barriers, including limited broadband access, financial instability, geographic isolation, and norms that emphasize self-reliance. These challenges contribute to lower retention and degree-completion rates, highlighting the need for intentional, context-responsive support strategies. This project integrates three scholarly products: a systematic literature review (SLR), a conceptual paper, and a practice application paper. The SLR synthesizes findings from fourteen peer-reviewed studies and identifies three key themes: the importance of community and connection, and the role of academic advising as a relational and holistic practice in a value-based, profession-grounded learning environment. Findings indicate that academic advising serves as a critical mechanism for enhancing belonging, engagement, and persistence among online learners, particularly those in rural and underserved areas. Based on these findings, the conceptual paper introduces a resilience-informed academic advising framework that is grounded in resilience theory. This framework conceptualizes academic advising as a protective relational intervention that strengthens students' self-efficacy, coping capacity, and sense of belonging. The framework integrates culturally responsive practices within Appalachian contexts, emphasizing academic advising as a pedagogical and social work-informed process rather than merely a transactional service. The practice application paper advances this framework through a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) intervention: a structured, resilience-informed advising checklist. This tool operationalizes relational advising practices across key domains, which include academic planning, technological readiness, cultural context, financial stability mental health, and career development. Designed for implementation within existing advising structures, the intervention promotes consistent, student-centered, and strengths-based advising interactions to enhance student persistence and engagement. Collectively, the findings across all three components demonstrate that resilience-informed academic advising functions as a scalable, equity-oriented strategy for addressing both structural and psychosocial barriers to student success. This project contributes to social work education by positioning academic advising as a form of professional intervention that advances a theoretically grounded, practice-informed model supporting student persistence in online learning environments. The implications for practice, policy, and research include the need for culturally responsive advising models, institutional investment, and relational support strategies in further SoTL research to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions across diverse educational settings.,

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