Our school is mainly online continuing education courses. Our orientation is also provided online at the beginning of each course a student takes. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to make an online environment as successful as a brick and mortar school when it comes to the orientation process?
I think our orientation program needs to include more information about transitioning into a student. We need to discuss backup plans. Child-care, transportation, finances, work schedule...
The first week of school the students attend Professional Development. During that time the instructors focus on helping the students develop a good work ethic, attitude, conflict resolution and identifying their transferable and job related skills and self management traits. We also teach them how to develop good study habits and time management. We also review math such as decimals, fractions and some basic algebra. We offer tutoring for the students that struggle in those areas. The students seem to utilize the tutoring sessions which is offered to them during their lunch break or after school.
Hi Elizabeth,
It is such a good idea to have current and former graduates/students talk about their experiences. Question - what do you do to help student to remove learning barriers? Is the orientation geared to student success? Remember, 96% of your students do not want to study. What do they want? "The job." So, your orientation ought to be focused on career themes and how the school is geared to help students to acquire knowledge that they can use to get "the job." Does this make sense?
Dr. Banks
We provide our orientation prior to the first week of school. During that time the students are introduced to their instructors and given a tour of the school so they will know where to report on their first day. We also invite former and current students to talk to the class about their experiences and to answer questions. It seems to ease the new students fear and they leave with a sense of belonging.
Thanks, Aimee, orientation sets the initial stage for an adult student's relationship with the school and is one of the foundational components of the new learning experience. Agreed, it is so important to not rush through the process - otherwise it just becomes a presentation of "let me tell you what you need to know about the school," and not a real introduction to all aspects of the student's education.
Jay
RT103
This is good exposure for all directors and allows for connections during orientation. I have found with our orientation is that we tend to rush students thru orientation. I don't think this is serving us well to rush our students and not helping them prepare for college.
Since our program is completely online, we have students submit an online orientation when they begin and then we assign career counselors to students depending on their course. The counselors keep in contact and help the student as they are working to start preparing for job placement.
Our orientation is pretty well structured already but I did like the idea of having formal student mentors to help new or re-entering students out. In addition to our formal orientation we have a plan in place to make sure our new students are successful. Each director will visit certain classes at break time to just chat and see if there are any issues. In addition, our professional clubs will also meet with the new students. this allows for the new students to establish an on-site support group.
New students usually don’t know what the rigors of student life will really be like. Therefore they make few preparations for the transition from what they were doing to becoming a student. An effective orientation program can help transition students. Ideally admissions personnel will provide a list of tasks a new student needs to do prior to the first day of class.
We have a very good orientation program but it does lack a mentoring program. Although our professors do a very good job of spontaneous mentoring in the class room. I think our students would benefit from the informal mentoring mentioned in the discussion.
Our orientation is very comprehensive and it is held a few days before class starts. We have each director speak so that the students know who we are and learn a little about each department. We do a few activities that gets them out of their chairs and forces them to interact with each other and have fun. We ask questions throughout the orientation on the information that was recently presented and give out small prizes for correct answers and of course we serve refreshments.
As I mentioned in the first module's discussion, we also have a formal review process which is like a mini orientation facilitated by our DOA. The DOA discusses expectations of the students while they are in school, readdresses common issues such as child care, transportation, work scheduling conflicts, etc...so that when it is brought up at orientation, it is at least the third time they were advised to handle such issues.
The orientation process that is in place currently engages the student. The focus is solely on the student not the fundamental processes and academis requirements that ordinarily orientations are about. The orientation is designed to help the student focus on the life changing decision that he/she has made. It is also a forum for our team to express to them "We are your partners, we are here to ensure your success.
Our current Orientation program involves all of the managers in the college introducing themselves to each and every student. We discuss with the studetn the importance of attending each and every day they have class, as well as make orientation a fun environment. We also focus a lot on graduation and careers to show them what they have to look forward to, we give them lots of acheivable goals.
For my modular students, we are doing a one week orientation prior to the start date. This includes introduction of the faculty, course objectives, familiarity to the program requirements, necessary certification to get started, rules and regulations of the school, catalog overview, strategies for success and intro to computer applications.
We have discussed moving to a week-long orientation program for our modular programs due to attrition. Some of the reasons that our students leave are addressed here in this section. Reading this confirms for me the idea that some sort of extended orientation program could be a very effective tool in increasing our retention
Our school has a good orientation process currently; however, I feel there is always room for improvement. I think the best way to improve it will be to obtain feedback from the members involved and students who have succeeded and then make adjustments.
Our current orientation takes place the week before classes start. Admissions does a good job of setting this up, but I believe that we need to get the Acedemic Advisors and the Instructors more involved. We presently introduce these people but do not involve them in the orientation.
We currently have a comprehensive orientation program. However, after covering the lesson I can see where we could benefit possibly by having a few more touch points and lesson during orientation where the students could use a calendar to plan what their days may look like as a student.
Howard, That is a good idea and something that sounds very practical.
