Higher education institutions struggle in determining the best ways to provide effective academic advising for students in online degree programs. In addition, the dropout rate among online students reaches to 50%. Research on student retention reveals that lack of interaction is a key factor in a student's decision to drop out. I used a mixed-methods research design based on the prescriptive-developmental advising framework to investigate advisor interactions with students in online undergraduate-degree programs. The results indicate the need to establish practices and tools that create a more personalized and collaborative student-advisor interaction where advisors focus on providing cognitive, affective, and systemic support. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)