Part III: Orientation: More than a Campus Map

CHLOE10 REPORT RESPONSE (Part three of a three-part series)

By Phil Autrey, Regina Law, Kevin Phang, and Lauren Dukes, EdD

Phil Autrey, VP of University Experience

Regina Law, VP of Partnership Development, Technology

Kevin Phang, VP of Partnership Development, Marketing & Enrollment

Lauren Dukes, EdD, Managing Director of Student Support and Engagement

Concluding our series commenting on the tenth installment of the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE10), Phil Autrey, Regina Law, Kevin Phang, and Lauren Dukes, EdD, discussed the growing importance of meaningful orientation.

From CHLOE10: “During the early pandemic, requiring an online-specific orientation was considered critical for student readiness. However, this is one area where institutions appear to have regressed.” As alternate modalities become mainstream and student populations diversify, robust, meaningful orientation programs for students—and educators—are actually becoming more important. In reviewing and discussing the latest CHLOE10 data, our team agreed that orientation is more than a courtesy: it is a linchpin for retention, equity, and overall student success.

Orientation Is No Longer “Nice to Have”

With rising demand for online learning from all student populations—traditional, adult, and graduate—institutions that treat orientation as an afterthought risk losing both enrollments and student engagement. However, encouraging news from CHLOE10 reveals that, “…for those institutions that do offer one, more are requiring it, perhaps signaling recognition that preparation is essential despite assumptions that students are already digitally fluent.”

In the 2024 article “Future-Focused: Laying the Groundwork for Student Success with an Effective Orientation,” Dr. Kevin Tuohy—of Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences—notes that, “Orientation marks a pivotal phase in a student’s academic journey, serving as the gateway through which they navigate the complexities of academic life, acclimate to their new environment, and forge connections crucial for personal and academic growth. A well-designed onboarding process is vital, laying the groundwork for academic success by providing students the necessary tools, resources, and support to thrive from the start.”

During our roundtable Lauren Dukes emphasises, “Supports [are] not nice to have. They are the foundation of retention and outcomes for students. If you want your online students to be successful, you have to provide online support to them that is designed for that online learner.” 

“The assumption that students no longer need orientation mirrors earlier misconceptions about “digital natives.” CHLOE10

While most institutions (83%) now offer online-specific orientation, this rate has actually declined from previous years (93% in CHLOE6). The decline is largely attributed to the assumption that students are “digital natives” who no longer need significant onboarding. Yet as Lauren Dukes counters, “A lot of our students can edit, post, click, record, whatever, with their eyes closed, but they do struggle to apply that same knowledge to their learning environment. Offering them a required online orientation helps set them up for success.” 

Furthermore, as Phil Autrey points out, “Students are coming in with their own idea of what online learning looks like which anchors them and may prove difficult when asked to do a task using unfamiliar technology.” Without targeted orientation, new online learners can struggle with self-directed study, time management, and navigation of key technologies.

Furthermore, contending that “digital natives” no longer need orientation ignores the changing nature of human relationships. Piling hundreds of students into shared housing and offering a variety of clubs used to be all it took to help students build friendships and belonging. Today’s students are part of a generation where isolation is normalized, which may lead to difficulty connecting with peers and faculty. Orientation programs that include interaction with fellow students and staff can build an early sense of belonging that may reduce future stop-outs and drop-outs driven by emotional isolation.

Orientation is Preparation for Learning … and Teaching!

“Faculty readiness has not really improved since the pandemic, and only a quarter of universities and colleges have any type of plan if we were to be faced with another emergency pivot.” While these words from Lauren Dukes speak to emergency situations, they apply equally well to day-to-day preparedness to teach.

Phil Autrey notes that orientation for faculty is missing the target: “…from my experience, a lot of orientation is around mechanics. Like, what do I do with late work? What do I do if I suspect a student of plagiarizing? What’s required of my office hours, those kinds of things. But you can use AI to help source those answers to faculty quickly. So, if you can spend less time on what I would call logistics of orientation, you could then replace that time with talking to faculty about real teaching opportunities.”

Lauren Dukes underscores the importance of faculty orientation beyond administrative issues: “When I think about student success, we have a lot of supports for students, but if that class isn’t well designed, if that faculty member is not well suited, if they haven’t had impactful training on online pedagogy, how to engage with online students, that learning opportunity for students is just not going to be as strong.”

Issues and Challenges

• The myth of the “digital native”
  • Despite being generally tech-savvy, today’s students have varying degrees of experience using technology for academic purposes, leading to “serious gaps in understanding how to learn and succeed online”.
• Orientation requirements vary dramatically
  • CHLOE10 notes that even among institutions offering online-specific orientation, “most institutions still do not mandate orientation for online learners,” potentially leaving many students adrift.
  • Some programs embed orientation in the LMS as optional modules, while others rely on inconsistent departmental practices.
  • Of the 10 percentage point drop in institutions offering online-specific orientation, Kevin Phang points out, “…while those numbers don’t necessarily seem large, if you think about the number of students that 10% delta doesn’t serve, that’s a ton of people that are missing out on the opportunity to really be successful in these programs.”
• Compliance over quality
  • When orientation devolves into unengaging slide decks or “a set of YouTube videos that talk about how to learn online and how to use the tools, students and faculty are just gonna click through those and say, ‘Oh, I did my orientation,’” notes Phil Autrey.
  • Effective orientation programs collect feedback and respond to the actual, evolving needs of students and instructors rather than being a one-size-fits-all or one-and-done solution.
• Orientation as a support for equity and belonging
  • Meaningful orientation is especially critical for adult and non-traditional learners, first-generation students, and military/veteran populations whose backgrounds and support needs are distinct.
  • Orientation is increasingly the “moment where belonging is manufactured,” as Kevin Phang notes. Delivering a “warm handoff” between advisors, support coaches, and faculty, gives new students a sense of being seen and supported throughout their journey.
  • Collecting data about student backgrounds and goals prior to and during orientation ensures that subsequent advising, tech support, and curricular guidance can be customized and relevant.
• Orientation as a support for practical institutional goals
  • Kevin Phang observes, “Deliberate investments on the “frontend” of the student experience—orientation—pays for itself on the backend by improving retention and graduation rates, realizing tuition revenues, and reducing transactional admin work, among other things.”

Moving Forward

In her 2024 video, “How Incremental Change Will Revolutionize Higher Education,” Regina Law points out that, “Real innovation doesn’t have to be a revolution. Instead, small, incremental changes allow institutions to test, adapt, and learn over time, building confidence and support for larger shifts in the future.” To optimize the value of orientation, institutions should consider the following steps to keep the focus as much—or more—on learning the skills required to succeed rather than just making sure students can find the dining hall.

• Make orientation mandatory – Comprehensive orientation programs—in whatever form—should be required for all students and faculty, regardless of degree status, experience level, or student demographic.
• Integrate the missing skills – Use orientation to explicitly teach time management, online communication, self-motivation, and digital study skills alongside platform training and administrative policies.
• Personalize content and gather feedback – Data collected before and during orientation helps to identify student strengths, gaps, and needs, and facilitates tailored follow-up support accordingly.
• Leverage AI – Employ AI chatbots and adaptive modules to answer questions about navigation, assignments, and policies, freeing human staff to focus on personalized, higher-level support.
• Build belonging – View orientation as an opportunity to introduce support networks, connect students with cohort peers, and clarify points of contact for every possible issue—academic or personal.
• Teach the teachers – As the front lines for student questions, instructors—especially adjuncts—should be trained to support online learners and to contribute meaningfully to orientation modules. Just as importantly, new and current instructors should be provided with a similar orientation that not only helps with understanding student challenges, but can also open doors of creativity and improvement in teaching.

Conclusion: Orientation as a Strategic Imperative

As student backgrounds and program modalities become more complex, orientation must evolve from a transactional to a transitional exercise, representing the first essential step in every learner’s digital journey. As Lauren Dukes emphasizes, “If institutions don’t shore up how they present themselves as partners in this online learning space to students, if they don’t shore up orientation, faculty readiness … they are going to risk losing learners before they can succeed.” On the other hand, institutions that invest in robust orientation and support are letting students and faculty know that their success is the mission.

Orientation is more than a checklist—it’s the first chance to show learners they belong. Let’s explore how yours can do more.