Designing Effective Online Orientation Programs for First-Year University Students

Abstract

While asynchronous, self-paced online orientation programs are not brand new in the field of orientation, transition and retention, COVID-19 forced many institutions to rapidly create a program for the first time to help welcome fall 2020 students. Using the community of inquiry model as a framework, this project explores the research related to orientation and online learning in an effort to identify the principles, practices and processes that can help a student affairs professional design an effective and engaging asynchronous online orientation program, or enhance an existing program. This research is presented through a series of blog posts on the website www.onlineOTR.ca.