Student Orientation in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Student orientation in higher education is a set of activities and programs that are designed to help students adjust to college life. For many students, the freshman year of college is their first experience of living away from home, and for some it is the first time in their lives when they must cook and clean for themselves, pay their own bills, and perform other adult tasks. It is also a time when they are adjusting to a new educational environment full of higher expectations and more serious consequences for failure, and this can be extremely stressful. By providing orientation, colleges and universities hope to ease the transition and improve students' experience.

Overview

The mainstream model of orientation developed over the course of many years. It evolved with the traditional student in mind: a person just out of high school and entering college as a freshman, usually without a firm understanding of what college will be like. Orientation activities would usually be held over the course of a day or two, during the week before the start of classes. At more or less the same time, students and their families would arrive at the school, the families there to help move in and to wish the student well before returning home. Most colleges and universities require freshmen to live either at home, if they live close to the institution, or in a dorm on campus. To save space, most students must share their dorm room with one or more roommates, who are assigned by the institution's housing office (Millett-Thompson, 2017).

Among the topics covered by orientation are practical matters such as housing assignments. These are the basic tasks of everyday life that students need information about as they start to adjust to living on their own. The institution will provide guidance about housing, meal plans and cafeteria options, registering for classes, receiving financial aid, purchasing textbooks, and where to find facilities such as pools, performance venues, and the laundry room. Usually this part of orientation will take place in large lecture halls, which are necessary to accommodate all of the students, since a freshman class can consist of hundreds or even thousands of people, depending on the size of the school. Larger schools often must break orientation up into smaller groups to make it more manageable, so people with last names starting with the letter A through L might have orientation one day and people whose last names start with the letter M through Z would have it on a different day.

Another option is for orientation groups to be separated by academic discipline, so that the engineering school would have an orientation for its students and the medical school would have a separate orientation for its entering class (Robichaud, 2016). Separating orientation groups by academic program in this way can be problematic if the orientations are presented by program staff rather than by the institution's student services staff, because program staff are better informed about the program they work in than they are about student services in general, and may therefore provide incomplete information.

In addition to the practical life skills included in orientation, there is also a focus on academic skills and information that students will need in order to be successful in their studies. This includes explanations of how to use the library, where to find assistance from tutors, using campus technology resources such as computers, e-mail, and printers, advice about studying and taking notes, and discussions of personal organization skills and how to interact with faculty and teaching assistants (Alnawas & Phillips, 2014).

A familiar part of student orientation is the campus tour. This is usually a walking tour of major points of interest around the campus, with a group of new students led around by a junior or senior (a third year or fourth year student, respectively) and given advice about campus resources. The tour is meant to help students begin to learn their way around campus, since they soon will have to know how to locate their classrooms in order to attend class, the library to study, and so forth. The campus tour assumes that the student is attending an "on the ground" campus rather than an online school. Online schools, where all instruction and coursework is conducted over the Internet, obviously have no need or capability for an actual campus tour, but they do still provide virtual tours and other orientation activities (McPhail, French & Wilson, 2015).

Online orientation is most often conducted through the use of computer graphics and streaming video. It shows students what resources are available to support them, and how to access these resources, presenting screenshots with illustrations showing where to click in order to access a particular service. Some online orientation activities occur outside the context of a class, such as by requiring students to navigate through a series of online modules about student services before they can begin their studies.

Other components of orientation may be included within one or more online classes, in the form of assignments that are meant to teach students basic skills that will serve them throughout their time at the institution. For example, an introductory online course in composition might assign every student to visit the library website and search its catalog, find a resource on a topic of interest, and then submit the citation for that resource to the professor. These "in class" orientation activities can appear in face-to-face courses also, though they are somewhat less common there.

In-class orientation has several advantages. The foremost of these is that it occurs at the point of need. One problem with student orientation tends to be that much of the information conveyed pertains to things that the students may not need to know immediately, and because of this and the fact that they are receiving so much information in such a short period of time, students will often forget instructions that they will need later. When an orientation component is included in a class, they receive the instructions just before they will need to use them, so it is more likely that they will retain the information long enough to put it into practice. Another valuable factor supporting in-class orientation is that it is presented to students as an assignment from their professor, rather than simply as good advice that is shared with them. Good advice is all too easy to ignore or forget, but an assignment is something that students must pay attention to, so it is more likely that they will absorb the information.

Further Insights

Traditionally, orientation activities tended to become preoccupied with practical and academic preparation of students. As important as these are, they did not always provide time or space for students to become socially oriented to the campus, meaning that they did not have many opportunities to make new friends or begin to establish a support system for themselves to rely on during their time away from home and family. Lacking a network of friends makes the college experience much more stressful and increases the chances that students will suffer from isolation, stress, and anxiety to a greater degree than they otherwise might. Research in this area, combined with feedback from students who experienced such isolation, has led some colleges and universities to include social activities in their orientation programs.

Social activities can be athletic events, games, parties, or any type of event where students may relax and talk to one another. There is usually some structure provided for these otherwise open-ended events, but to the extent possible they are designed to be fun experiences free from pressure or other expectations (Beckford, 2015).

Social orientation is closely linked with, and sometimes incorporates, events that are meant to include not only the new students but also their family members. Institutions are aware that the students entering their halls as freshmen are not the only ones who will be making a major adjustment in their lives; the students' families are also experiencing huge changes characterized by sadness, anxiety, and even anger. Family orientation activities may be held in order to help soothe these reactions.

A common type of family orientation activity is the orientation picnic, where new students and their families are invited to share a meal outdoors in one of the campus's more scenic locations. This is meant to help family members feel better about the place that they will be leaving their child, creating positive images and associations that may outweigh memories of the stressful moving-in experience, or the cramped living conditions in the dorms. By laying a positive foundation, these activities can reassure the family that their child is in a safe, pleasant place. Institutions hope that students and families will be left with the confidence that they may work with the school to get through any difficulties that may arise rather than withdraw and enroll elsewhere (Galway, Gard & Collinson, 2014).

From the university's perspective, a major consideration regarding student orientation is who will organize and present it. At larger schools, this is mostly a settled question because there are usually staff who work in the student services department and specialize in orientation, coordination, and events. Smaller schools, however, may not have the budget to support staff dedicated to these functions year-round, and therefore tend to draw upon staff from various roles and departments.

In some cases, there may be multiple orientation activities that students are required to participate in, some held by the university as a whole, and others put on by the department or academic program a particular student is enrolled in. The nonstandard approach to student orientation has both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, students may have a better chance of receiving information that is specific to their needs rather than of general interest. For example, an orientation by the anthropology department for its new students might spend extra time discussing a special anthropology collection in the library than it would explaining to students all of the different options they have for doing their laundry on campus.

On the negative side, program-based orientations may omit crucial information that students need, simply because program staff are not aware of it or because they assume that the students have already been given the information by someone else. This can result in students being under-informed, although it is also possible for incoming freshmen to be over-informed. This can happen when students must attend multiple orientation activities, with each activity covering some of the same information and causing students to become bored and frustrated while simultaneously feeling the stress of starting classes (Hullinger & Hogan, 2014).

Rather than try to navigate the minefield of problems that is attendant on designing orientation activities to occur in a day or two, some colleges and universities are trying an alternative approach in which all new students are required to enroll in a first year experience course. These courses can take a variety of forms, but in essence their purpose is to support new students throughout their first year of higher education. They do this by offering academic support in the form of guided assignments and tutoring, as well as group discussions about situations and challenges that arise for members of the class.

First year experience classes are generally seen as helpful by students, although some feel that they are a waste of time since they prevent students from taking additional units that would help them move through their program more quickly. On a positive note, these classes are a form of orientation that recognizes that students entering college are not automatons into which a large quantity of orientation knowledge can be deposited in a day or two, to be drawn upon later. Offering support throughout the first year is a more realistic approach that conforms to the way people become acclimated to new experiences (Platsidou, Kantaridou & Papadopoulou, 2017).

Issues

The most consistent complaint received about student orientation in higher education pertains to information overload. Students feel that they are bombarded for hours on end with huge amount of advice and instructions, to the point where they cannot remember most of what they are told. At the same time, they are repeatedly reminded that the information they are receiving is crucial to their success, and that they should put it to good use rather than simply ignoring it or taking it for granted that someone else will figure things out for them.

Orientation staff are well aware of the challenges they face trying to convey so much information in such a short period of time; each year there seems to be more for students to take in. Many orientation activities try to overcome these challenges by providing students with information that they can consult later, such as a collection of documents on a free USB flash drive that students can keep and use for their studies. This has proven to be somewhat effective, particularly when used in conjunction with the strategy of connecting students with mentors, guides, and experts that they can contact later when the need arises (Mensch, 2015). For example, instead of trying to teach students how to sign up for health insurance and access medical services all in the space of ten minutes, it is more useful to provide students with the name and contact information of a person who works at the medical clinic, and urge them to schedule an introductory meeting with the person as soon as possible (Benavides & Keyes, 2016).

Orientation effectiveness is a topic of interest not only to the staff in charge of the activities, but also to others within the institution and beyond. Student orientation that is effective is a reliable means of increasing student retention, which improves the bottom line for the institution, so university administrators are generally supportive of all reasonable measures that provide an enhanced experience for new students. Accreditation agencies that oversee the quality of college and university programs also look favorably upon high quality student orientation programs, as they are indicative of institutions that are committed to student success rather than financial growth.

Terms & Concepts

Educational Attainment: A measure of how far a student has progressed in his or her educational career; orientation activities support increases in educational attainment.

Information Overload: A feeling of being unable to absorb information due to the speed and/or quantity of its presentation.

Postsecondary: Education that is beyond the high school level, such as community college, college, university, or graduate education.

Retention: A measure of the percentage of students who enroll in college who choose to remain and complete their course of study instead of withdrawing or transferring to another institution.

Student Services: The department in colleges and universities that has oversight of orientation as well as other forms of support offered to students, such as tutoring, counseling, and career assistance.

Welcome Week: A type of student orientation that spreads activities out over the first week that new students are on campus, usually the week before classes start.

Bibliography

Alnawas, I., & Phillips, C. (2014). Prospective student orientation in higher education: Development of the construct. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 13(2), 135–163.

Beckford, M. M. (2015). The online learning orientation session. Distance Learning, 12(4), 43–50. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=114727543&site=ehost-live

Benavides, A. D., & Keyes, L. (2016). New-student orientations: Supporting success and socialization in graduate programs. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 22(1), 107–125. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=113172163&site=ehost-live

Galway, P., Gard, L., & Collinson, T. (2014). Engaging students with creative library staff: The game's afoot! ALISS Quarterly, 9(2), 16–20.

Hullinger, M., & Hogan, R. L. (2014). Student anxiety: Effects of a new graduate student orientation program. Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, and Research, 4(2), 27–34.

McPhail, R., French, B., & Wilson, K. (2015). Valuing orientation efficacy: Rethinking undergraduate business student's first impressions. Journal of International Education in Business, 8(2), 109–124.

Mensch, S. (2015). Improving distance education through student online orientation classes. Culture & Religion Review Journal, 2015(2), 12–16.

Millett-Thompson, R. A. (2017). Dealing with college students' stress, anxiety, and depression. Journal for Quality & Participation, 39(4), 24–27.

Platsidou, M., Kantaridou, Z., & Papadopoulou, I. (2017). International orientation as predictor of EFL learning strategy use in adolescent students. Language, Culture & Curriculum, 30(2), 157–173. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=122554345&site=ehost-live

Robichaud, W. (2016). Orientation programs to increase retention in online community college courses. Distance Learning, 13(2), 57–64. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=118140459&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Alnawas, I. (2015). Student orientation in higher education: development of the construct. Higher Education (00181560), 69(4), 625–652. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=101501138&site=ehost-live

Chan, M. (2017). Have you been oriented? An analysis of new student orientation and e-orientation programs at U.S. community colleges. College and University, 92(2), 12–25. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=123598409&site=ehost-live

Ribchester, C., Ross, K., & Rees, E. L. (2014). Examining the impact of pre-induction social networking on the student transition into higher education. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 51(4), 355–365. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=95768839&site=ehost-live

Ring, A. (2016). Norco College's Summer Advantage Program: Leading change to increase college readiness. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 40(7), 589–596.

Swett, D. (2016). Online student orientation: Guerrilla style. Change, 48(5), 26–35. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=118835656&site=ehost-live