For Academic Advisors ·
What you'll accomplish
Otter.ai set up on your phone or computer to automatically transcribe and summarize your in-person and virtual advising appointments. Instead of writing notes from memory after each session, you'll have an AI-generated summary to review, edit lightly, and paste into Navigate in about 2 minutes instead of 10–15.
What you'll need
What you should see: You'll land on the Otter home screen showing "My Conversations," currently empty. No errors. Troubleshooting: If you're blocked from creating an account on a work device, use a personal device. Otter is a personal tool you own, not an institutional system.
Before recording any student, you need their consent. This is both ethically required and good practice under FERPA.
Option A: Verbal consent at the start of each appointment: "I use a transcription app to help me take notes so I can be fully present in our conversation. Is that okay with you? The transcript is private and just used for my advising records."
Option B: Add a consent line to your appointment confirmation email: "I use Otter.ai to transcribe our conversation to help me keep accurate advising notes. If you prefer I don't use it, just let me know and I'll take notes manually instead."
Most students say yes. If any student says no, simply don't record that session. Your judgment about the relationship matters more than the tool.
What you should see: The recording screen shows a waveform and real-time transcription text appearing as words are spoken.
(After appointment, in Navigate notes field, paste Otter summary and add context:)
[Paste Otter AI Summary here]
Additional context: [Any notes on tone, concerns, or sensitive context not appropriate for transcript]
Referrals made: [List any services the student was referred to]
Follow-up scheduled: [Yes/No, date if applicable]