Online Orientation Sets Students Up for Success

Ashley Robinson of Harrison, Arkansas, has an associate’s degree from Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri, and now she’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree delivered online by the University of Arkansas.

Jimena Ramirez of San Antonio, Texas, also has an associate’s degree. She earned it online from the University of Massachusetts and now she’s going for a bachelor’s degree also delivered online by the U of A. Her degree is funded through her employer, Walmart, in a partnership with Guild Education, a public benefits corporation.

The Global Campus at the U of A reported that 73% of undergraduate students in online degree programs voluntarily enrolled in online orientation this fall. Robinson and Ramirez are two of those students, and both said they are glad they took advantage of the opportunity.

The recruitment team at the Global Campus created an online orientation in 2021 for undergraduate students pursuing online degrees. Academic colleges at the University of Arkansas offer more than 90 degree and licensure programs delivered online. An online orientation for students in graduate degree programs delivered online is under development.

Online orientation occurs as a non-credit course taken in the two weeks preceding each fall and spring semester to give new students in online degree programs a head start on what they need to know and do to be successful. And, it’s all available online.

Robinson is studying online for a Bachelor of Science in human development and family sciences from the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. She plans to go further and pursue a master’s degree in counseling and to specialize in grief counseling as a career. She found the bachelor’s degree program through a Google search, she said.

“I had been out of school for a decade, and I know things have changed as far as online courses,” Robinson said. “I felt like the orientation would be handy.”

She liked the way orientation was organized like an actual academic course, Robinson said, although students don’t receive a letter grade.

“It also gave you practice with deadlines,” she said. “When you haven’t been online, it’s hard to keep up with those things. There was also a scheduling tool that helped me set expectations for the time to set aside each week for classes. I feel like you underestimate that.”

Ramirez is working on a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in marketing from the Sam M. Walton College of Business. She said it’s possible she may want to pursue a career in marketing or a management position with Walmart.

The orientation’s proximity in time to the start of the semester was especially helpful, Ramirez said.

“If it had been longer before the semester started, I wouldn’t have been able to remember what I needed as easily,” she said. “It got me started smoothly. I was already familiar with Blackboard because Massachusetts used it, also, but the U of A was more resourceful. In the first two weeks of my finite math class, I went back into the online orientation and went through resources they had posted, including private tutoring through Pear. It was easier to find things there than to go back to the U of A website to look for them.”

Pear Deck Tutor is a 24/7/365 online tutoring service available through Blackboard, the U of A’s online learning management system.

Ramirez said she also received helpful communication from the U of A through orientation, including emails with links she needed so she didn’t have to navigate the U of A website to find resources.

“I would tell other online students to take the orientation,” she said. “It wasn’t anything complicated and by navigating through lessons and reading through articles related to the semester coming up, it was helpful getting in the pattern of being in school, knowing what to expect and how to find things.”

Supported by a student fee, the non-credit course is designed to facilitate a smooth transition to university life and enhance student success. The Global Campus reported that, of 575 undergraduates admitted to online degree programs this fall, 422 of those, or 73%, signed up for orientation. That’s compared to 278 students in the spring and 285 students last fall.

A team of 16 faculty and staff members led 26 orientation sessions for students in the Bumpers college; the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; the Walton college; and the College of Education and Health Professions.