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

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

U of A’s Global Campus reported that 73% of undergraduate students in online degree programs voluntarily enrolled in online guidance for students this fall. Robinson and Ramirez are two of those students, and both said they were glad to take advantage of the opportunity.

The Global Campus recruiting team has created an online orientation in 2021 for undergraduate students pursuing online degrees. The academic colleges at U of A offer more than 90 degree and undergraduate programs delivered online. An online orientation for students in online degree programs is under development.

Online Orientation takes place as a non-credit course, taken the two weeks before each fall and spring semester, to give students new to online degree programs a head start on what they need to know and do to be successful. And, everything is 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 ahead and pursue a master’s degree in counseling and specialize in pain counseling as a career. She found the undergraduate program through a Google search, she said.

“I’ve been out of school for a decade, and I know things have changed in terms of online classes,” Robinson said. “I felt like orientation would be handy.”

He liked how the orientation was organized like an actual academic course, Robinson said, even though 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 these things. There was also a scheduling tool that helped me set expectations for how much time we would spend each week on classes. I feel like you’re underestimating that.”

Ramirez is working on a bachelor of business administration in marketing from the Sam M. Walton College of Business. She said she may want to pursue a career in marketing or management with Walmart.

Timing the orientation closer to the beginning of the semester was especially helpful, Ramirez said.

“If it had taken longer for the semester to start, I wouldn’t have been able to remember what I needed as easily,” she said. “He got me started without any problems. I was already familiar with Blackboard because Massachusetts also used it, but U of A was more resourceful. For the first two weeks of my finished math course, I went back to the online orientation and went through the resources they 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 them up.”

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 communications from the U of A, 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 was nothing complicated and navigating the lessons and reading articles about the upcoming semester was helpful in getting us into 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 students admitted to online bachelor’s programs this fall, 422 of them, or 73 percent, signed up for orientation. This is compared to 278 students in the spring and 285 students last fall.

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