Get Your Students Hired
Every new cohort that starts has a meet and greet session. One way to maybe improve and make it more personal is for the Program Director to meet with the individual student after being accepted into the program. This would be a time consuming process and at my facility it is recommended, but we can help facilitate this process as instructors.
Nicole,
All your programs should do this. The informal setup of a " meet and greet" puts everyone at ease.. Thanks for sharing.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Paul,
I like the program orientation happening IN CLASS. Good idea/practice.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I have started a "meet and Greet" prior to Orientation where the students come in and meet all faculty for their programs. We have some food and drinks and the student has the option to asked each instructor about their background and the profession. This has made a big difference in my retention.
We have a general orientation for all students usually a day or two before class starts. They get to meet other students entering into other classes, and get to meet all directors of different departments along with learning necessary tools to help make their career path a success.
On the first day of class, the program specific instructors go through a program orientation, on what to expect, as well as present unique tools, such as on-line sites, that have helped students in the past.
Yahaira,
Is there a general time people are to show up or does everyone have assigned times. If the latter, does everyone keep to their allotted time? No excuses but these are factors that could impact when people show up.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Orientation is very important. It is important for all Deans, Directors and Instructors to show up on time because if they don't it's already setting a bad example to our students.
Bonnie,
The "ice-breakers" are a great addition. Interactive and engaging activities. Helps build connections between students and to the school.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Bonnie,
There should be reminders or reviews of orientation two or three days or a week after school starts. Orientation is more than a one day event. Students discover new challenges or need clarifications as they begin their educational journey.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I work at a massage school amd we changed our orientation to four hours. Sounds like a long time but they meet staff and faculty.
We do 'break the ice" games with them so they can meet each other.
They meet the anatomy teachers, hands on instructors and have a short lesson on muscles in the arm and how to do a short massage on each other. It helps them get a feel of what class is going to be like.
I like the idea of "preparing" for school and giving suggestions about family, work, child care and setting up a study area. I think orientation is a great place to talk about this and not two or three days or a week after school starts. By then it could be to late.
One of the neat things we do is take a picture of new starts and this helps staff and faculty learn faces and names so we can give our students a "good morning Tom" instead of just a good morning. When you start with this the first day of class I feel the student will think "wow they know my name". It makes them feel part of the "school family" and not just a student.
Not only manage...but fulfill their expectations. Orientation is a great way to help...especially if they have no concrete expectations.
Qadar,
Has anyone done any research on the impact of your orientation towards retention? I am willing to bet the entertaining parts of orientation have more impact than the parade of people talking to them.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
We do our orientation the day before classes start. All the directors (Campus director, director of education, director of admission, director of career services, all admission reps, and the faculty) participate. We introduce ourselves to the students. We try to tell clean jokes just to make our students as comfortable as possible. We try to keep the orientation as short as possible. We also serve refreshments. So far our retention rate is over 85%. The only thing we need to implement is a game.
Stephen,
Yes, orientation is a longer process then a single day and does extend well into the student's time at school.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Our orientation is on-going, as they come into the Gen Ed cycle we keep them ramped up and excited with weekly exercises until they hit their core studies 16 weeks later- then we meet monthly as a group in a Grand Rounds learning environment to help foster our mentoring program.
we invite all of the instructors to welcome the new students and give them a brief introduction to the various terms.
Chana,
Orientation is not a single event but a process. An orientation course that starts before the 1st course/term and continues through the course/term would help. Make it mandatory to complete before the second course/term. Also provide a 1st week or 2nd week check in for students to discuss how they are feeling about the experience. Too often students confuse convenient with easy. Online requires discipline. Some students need to develop this in regards to taking an online course.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Catherine,
Yes, these topics are important. They should be integrated into the online environment and each course.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I work for an online college and we need to drastically improve our orientation program. Our orientation currently consists of a 5 minute video covering how to use the site: how to watch lectures, post on the discussion board, and check grades. We also send a document to the students covering how to use the site, what the requirements are for each of our courses, and the rubrics that our teachers use. However, we have poor retention; perhaps because our orientation is poor. Here are some ideas of how we can improve our orientations:
Require our students to attend a live class in our online classroom. During the sessions, we will review the policies and procedures for the school, our grading policies, how to use our site, our tutoring program, our overall expectations of our students, and what the time commitment is. We can also introduce the online library system that we use since it is an under utilized resource. This orientation will give our students the chance to see some of their teachers and administrators.
The challenge with requiring our students to attend a live class is that our students are in several countries, with different time zones. How can we require someone who is in a time zone 10 hours before the teachers to attend a live class?
Any other suggestions of things we can include in an orientation for an online college?