Online orientations with built-in interactive software, was a featured educational session at the 2015 NODA National Conference. Panelists addressed a variety of issues impacting online student orientation.
Panelists included
- Korrin Anderson, Associate Director of Orientation at Florida International University
- Philip Dodd, Assistant Director for Student Development at St. Johns University
- Rick Gray, Associate Director of Orientation at George Mason University
- Christy Shields, New Student Orientation Coordinator at Wake Technical Community College
Panelists identified a number of reasons for moving to an interactive online orientation
- Ability to track if students completed the college orientation
- Delivering orientation content to many students, at scale
- Impacting matriculation by engaging students earlier
- Providing information and answering questions ahead of time
- Improving the in-person orientation experience to make it more enjoyable for students
"We decided to go to an online orientation so students would have the information (included in the orientation) available to them throughout the first year," said Phillip Dodd. "We also wanted to reduce the amount of talking heads and lecture-based sessions we were having at our in-person orientation, which is still part of our orientation experience. The online orientation enables our in-person orientation to use a more active and engaging approach."
PREVIEW & REQUEST ACCESS TO THE RECORDING
To learn more about the decisions and strategies behind the development of their online orientation platforms, as well as answers to questions from session attendees, preview the session to request access to the recording.