Introduction

Most students enter institutions of higher education for the purpose of attaining an academic goal. The objective of student retention is shared by administrators, faculty, and student services professionals as well as the students and their parents. Most institutions strive to insure that a firm foundation of preparation for the incoming student will provide the understanding of the tools necessary for a successful college experience. Freshman orientations are designed to address those needs.

Freshman Orientation

Jessica Bigger, in Improving the Odds for Freshman Success¹, cites the historical need for freshman orientation going as far back as 1888 when Boston College created the first freshman orientation class. The current challenge is to develop freshman orientation programs that students may access online to meet the needs of the distance learning student, as well any student who may require the flexibility of time and location. This is especially true of the community college setting whose students are immersed in diverse responsibilities in addition to college life. These online programs must meet or exceed the standards of quality to promote retention.

There are two general classifications of freshman orientations; those that address the admission and registration processes and those that emphasize student success strategies after the student is enrolled. While the content may overlap between the two, the former concentrates on the processes of being admitted, assessment testing and registration, and the latter typically provides strategies to be successful academically. Ideally, the inclusion of the two approaches will benefit the student throughout the college experience.

The following are four examples of best practices sites that address the steps necessary to lead the student from the prospective student to the enrolled student:

FACTS.org is Florida's official online student advising system. High school students, college students, parents, and counselors can use the services provided on this website to help plan and track educational progress in Florida. FACTS.org is provided free by the Florida Department of Education to help students make informed choices about their education.

Penn State has an excellent First-Year Testing, Counseling and Advising Program. It is presented as online “homework” for the student to explore degree options and assess readiness for college life. Responses to the Inventory are collected and utilized prior to the onsite orientation to customize the advising sessions and freshman year needs of the student.

Broward Community College offers Cyber Orientation to embark upon your college experience. Students can select various topics (general college information, course selection, and registration/fee payment) online in order to learn the process of registering for their classes.

The North Harris Montgomery Community College District chose to provide degree planning, admission/testing, student success strategies, and registration information in an online course format for its New Student Orientation [visitor login/password: visitor/visitor]. Here students can choose among customized orientations for post high school, dual credit or transfer enrollment. They log in and are presented with audio/visual presentations and quizzes to insure content comprehension. Documentation of their completion is required prior to registration. This program is the recipient of the National Council on Student Development’s Exemplary Practice Award as well as third place winner of the Terry O’Banion Shared Journey Award.

The second genre of Freshman Orientation seeks to strengthen students’ success strategies and to ease the transition to college life. The Vincent Tinto (1993) outlined three stages students move through: separation, transition and incorporation. Students first go through a separation stage in which they move away from their home environment. Although this can be quite traumatic for students, most eventually are able to move to the second stage, transition. During this stage students are torn between their old environment and the new one; they may not feel they belong in their old environments but have yet to find their places in the new one. Finally students move into incorporation when they have achieved full membership into the social and academic communities of the institution.¹ The National Resource Center encourages and endorses significant research on college student transitions.

San Antonio College offers an online Orientation to College course. The purpose of “Orientation to College” is to provide information which will complement the new student’s college career by facilitating the transition to college.  More specifically, the primary objective of “Orientation to College” is to reduce the new student’s uncertainty, confusion and frustration by assisting in the process of familiarization with and adjustment to San Antonio College, its staff, facilities, services, policies, procedures, curricular offerings, and student activities.  It is expected that this approach will contribute toward the student’s personal and academic success.  Students’ transition may be enhanced further by the secondary objectives of Orientation which are: (1) to motivate the student academically, (2) to expedite the get-acquainted process and (3) to stimulate the student to strive for continued personal growth.

Stephen F. Austin University’s SFA 101, while not an online course, provides online information to students wishing to enroll in its orientation course.

Ohio University won the NACADA Advising Technology Innovation Award with its AAC Study Tips website. Various interactive study skills seminars are available online.

In addition, there are various commercial programs that address increasing student success, improving student retention, and enhancing advising effectiveness. Thomson/Wadsworth offers an online program called College Success Factors Index that can be purchased via a student textbook. Beginning with a pre-test, it leads students through eight factors of student success. Instructors can access their students’ online results and require the post-test to measure students’ increased perception of college success skills.

The Noel-Levitz Retention Management System and its College Student Inventory also evaluates the students’ academic and affective indicators that may lead to attrition. Advisors using the system say it helps them respond to students' needs by revealing key student concerns and recommending specific action steps in priority order. In addition, a resulting Summary and Planning Report helps student services offices to prioritize their services and increase their office efficiency.

In conclusion, we’ve seen that the core components of orientations are consistent in programs sampled in colleges across the United States. Students must understand the processes of their institution and be aware of the support resources available to them. In addition, they must identify with their role as a student and embrace clear goals for success. The value of developing exemplary orientation programs will be reflected in increased retention: Current research on the importance of freshman year has shown that student retention is linked to the freshman year experience that academic and social integration is the key to student success in the freshman year, and that students who become academic "high risk" can be identified and taught to be successful.²
 

References

¹Bigger, J.J. (2005). Improving the Odds for Freshman Success. Retrieved July 20, 2005 from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/First-Year.htm

²Earl, Walter R (1987). Intrusive Advising for Freshmen. Retrieved July 20, 2005 from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Intrusive-Freshmen.htm