Designing Effective Online Orientation Programs for First-Year University Students

While asynchronous, self-paced online orientation programs are not brand new in the field of orientation, transition and retention, COVID-19 forced many institutions to rapidly create a program for the first time to help welcome fall 2020 students. Using the community of inquiry model as a framework, this literature review explores the research related to orientation and online learning in an effort to identify the principles, practices and processes that can help a student affairs professional to design an effective and engaging online orientation program, or enhance an existing program.

Realizing the Full Potential of Orientation as a Process

The COVID-19 pandemic forced our institution to question how we deliver information to new students. Prior to the pandemic, our students attended an in-person, day-and-a-half orientation program in the summer before their first semester. With the transition to a virtual program format, our institution identified the most critical information delivered in our single-event model and converted that one event to a more purposeful process, complete with pre-orientation modules, a live virtual event, and post-orientation modules. This article shares specific details about the steps taken in the transition to a three-phased orientation experience, outlines the final product of each phase, and discusses future implications for our practice. Specific emphasis is placed on individualized program elements for students, new family and guest programming, and the work of student leaders in a virtual format. Finally, we share advice for professionals and lessons learned that will impact how we approach orientation in the future as we establish a philosophy of orientation as a process, not a program.

Preserving Engagement: Orientation amidst a Global Pandemic

When we met in November of 2019 to hold our annual orientation brainstorming session, our New Student & Family Programs (NSFP) staff dreamed of additional small groups, affinity group spaces, revamped evening programming, and increased opportunities for student connections. Four short months and many hours of planning/training later, we found ourselves in a similar brainstorming session. Except this time, it was late March, we were facing a global pandemic, and we had just shifted our orientation season completely online in response to COVID-19. Like most orientation, transition, and retention professionals around the world, we found ourselves devastated and overwhelmed. We had a very short turnaround time (18 days), but one thing was essential for us—we would preserve as much student/family engagement and interaction as possible. In this article, we explore the decision-making process, methods, action steps, and considerations for implementing a virtual orientation that embraced student and familial engagement despite the global pandemic.

Transitioning a Marquee Orientation and Transition Program for Increased New Student Engagement and Retention Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

One mid-sized public flagship institution in the Mountain West was forced to abandon a brand-new marquee orientation and transition program, which had contributed to the first increase in first-time student retention numbers in a decade. As educators around the world were faced with similar challenges, three main concerns arose for this school: cancellation of all in-person instruction and events indefinitely in March 2020, a long-term downward trend in enrollment and retention, and a lack of adequate space to host in-person orientation activities. This paper seeks to discuss the ways in which these obstacles were overcome, and share the important lessons learned for consideration as colleges and universities continue to grapple with the uncertainty of onboarding our next cohort of students in fall 2021.

Reimagining OTR during COVID-19 through Transformative Practices

COVID-19 was a catalyst that provided orientation professionals the opportunity to reimagine their programs and challenge the status quo. AUTHOR INSTITUTION utilized Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning framework and concepts from Davies’s (2017) work on transitional justice in education to make impactful programmatic changes. Through the process of truth telling, critical reflection, and addressing failures, this article provides an example of applying scholarly frameworks to in-person and virtual orientation programs over the course of three orientation cycles to ensure each program is more equitable and student centered than the past.

ROARing 20’s: Cultivating Responsible, Optimal, Authentic, and Resilient Students

COVID-19 exacerbated a multitude of challenges facing institutions of higher education. The abrupt transition to virtual programming and support services substantially impacted how students lived, learned, and stayed connected to their campus environments. With this shift, one institution reimagined their orientation programming to prioritize advancing community well-being through a student-centered and equity-minded approach. These frameworks informed the strategy for helping students understand the interconnectedness of health and well-being topics as they matriculate into, and engage with, the campus community. This initiative increased students’ knowledge, confidence, and intention to support themselves and their peers as they transition to the college environment.

Belonging and Mattering in the First-Year Welcome Experience: A Comparison Study Before and During COVID-19.

Institutions value knowledge about programs and services that are most effective at enhancing the collegiate experience, particularly sense of belonging and mattering for their students. The knowledge has become more pivotal due to the COVID-19 pandemic impact and as a result, the transitioning of most programs and services to a virtual environment. This study employs machine learning methods to analyze Fall Welcome survey data from Fall 2019 and Fall 2020. The purposes are threefold: 1) identify, rank, and contrast the top contributors to sense of belonging and mattering; 2) to understand quantitatively the impact of the pandemic on students’ welcoming experience; 3) to introduce and review an AI leveraged analytical visualization tool for key influencer analysis. Results indicated there has been a sharp decline in students’ connection, belonging, and mattering from fall 2019 to fall 2020 due to the pandemic. The opportunities to build connections, have an overall positive move-in experience and welcome experience are the three most common and significant contributors to students’ high level of belonging and mattering.

Bridging Systems, Building a Coalition, and Centering Students: A Collaborative Multi-Campus Approach to Orientation in the Time of COVID-19

This manuscript tells the story of how a multi-campus, public, Research I institution in the Mid-Atlantic pivoted from in-person orientation to a Virtual Orientation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We share how our university came together to offer a Virtual Orientation for twenty undergraduate campuses and 17,000 students in less than 100 days, review lessons learned, and offer insight into how planning for future orientation programs will be influenced because of this unusual year.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Engagement

While family engagement professionals are accustomed to engaging a remote population with high expectations, the COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges, opportunities for innovation, and even higher expectations from families. This article is a collection of experiences from four family engagement colleagues in which the authors spotlight the experiences of families throughout the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on family engagement, and how this period of time may impact institutional approach to family engagement going forward.

Converting a Dynamic in-Person Experience to Remote Life

This paper explores the work the Student Transitions and Family Engagement (STFE) team did to convert dynamic in-person experiences into virtual programs, advising, and courses. These opportunities were framed through the lenses of Academic and Social Integration (Tinto, 1975; Braxton et al., 2004), Belonging (Strayhorn, 2019), and Transition Theory (Schlossberg, 1981). The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions in every sector of business and higher education and student affairs was not immune to these effects. The unprecedented disturbances to business-as-normal forced student affairs professionals to find innovative ways to welcome new students into their universities. This article details the monumental programmatic changes employed, as well as the challenges faced and lessons learned by the New Student Orientation and First-Year Experiences teams at the University of Colorado Denver. While catalyzed by unfortunate circumstances and necessity, many of the new ideas and methods developed during 2020 will be adopted as mainstays in STFE’s suite of operations and programmatic offerings.