Advising & Orientation Format

Advising & Orientation will be delivered in a hybrid format to honor the complex needs of students and campus departments. This model provides a scaffolded approach to onboarding and transition for new incoming students. The hybrid model includes a three-part process using the following format:

PREPARE

Part 1: Setting the Foundation

Self-guided First-Year Checklist:
Completing University requirements (e.g. Code of Conduct, Alcohol module, Hazing, Immunization, COVID-19 vaccine, Title IX ).

Husky Foundations course:
Enabling understanding of how the university is structured and increasing knowledge about critical resources for the first year.

Husky Guide:
Highlighting important tips and resources for students to reference throughout their time at the UW.

ATTEND LIVE

Part 2: Academic Identity, Transition, and Registration

Live 1- or 2-day sessions on Zoom for all admits, every quarter

Meeting with peer leaders, faculty,and advisers
Making connections with other incoming Huskies in small community groups
Focusing on course registration, campus resources, and communities and relationships
Synchronous, all-day sessions

ENGAGE

Part 3: Community Connections

In-person, on campus

Small group meetings with peer leaders to identify tools for academic success and understand campus history and traditions
Navigating campus and its resources and practicing commuting to campus
Making a plan to engage during the first quarter
Visiting important offices related to the transition experience

Review additional program information about the required content.

Three-Part Hybrid Programming Model

Students: All first-year students are required to attend Advising & Orientation. By participating in A&O, you will:

Identify campus resources to assist your transition to the UW
Meet with an academic adviser to begin registering for courses, interact with faculty, staff, and the community
Understand academic and community expectations at the UW

The Advising & Orientation focus areas include the following:

A&O Part 1: Setting the Foundation (self-guided, asynchronous)
- Focus: Completing University requirements through the First-Year Checklist (e.g. Code of Conduct, Alcohol module, Hazing, Immunization, COVID-19 vaccine, Title IX ). This includes the Pre-A&O Session course, enabling students' understanding of how the university is structured and increasing knowledge about critical resources for the first year.
A&O Part 2: Academic Identity, Transition, and Registration (Live in Zoom, synchronous)
- Focus: Day-long sessions centered on academic advising connections, faculty and student expectations, and exploring campus resources. Students will meet with peer leaders and engage in conversations with other incoming Huskies in small community groups.
A&O Part 3: Community Connections during Dawg Daze (on-campus, in-person)
- Focus: Small group meetings with Orientation Leaders, identifying tools for academic success, understanding campus history and traditions, and engaging with campus resources.

Before school begins, In addition to Advising & Orientation, students have the opportunity to engage in two additional transitional programs:

New Husky Experiences (in-person and online webinars in the summer)
- Focus: Wayfinding and connections to the physical UW campus, decision-making, relationships with Orientation Leaders, live webinars, transfer panels, regional connection groups, and peer leader meet-ups.
Welcome Week: Dawg Daze/Winter Welcome (in-person right before the quarter begins)
- Focus: Events to encourage students to connect, explore and get involved in the UW Community.

What we learned about shifting to remote delivery for A&O:

Most first-year students enter the UW and need more certainty of a significant or guaranteed academic pathway. Students are navigating a maze of majors, and A&O must ensure that students understand how to navigate and help students identify their educational plans.
We expect COVID-19 and its variants to fluctuate for the next few years. Because of this, we will plan to provide various program delivery methods.
We have experienced success and will continue to be innovative in providing meaningful interactions and support to students in a virtual space.
The virtual environment has allowed for deeper one-on-one conversations with students and the ability to seek help and discuss their specific and unique circumstances, focusing less on general information that may not apply to all students.
We can group students in a cohort of first-year students beginning in the summer through Dawg Daze to increase a sense of belonging and community.

Decision Process

The FYP team had several focused conversations and discussed a variety of factors that influenced our decision to move forward with the formats outlined above. Additionally, we asked for input from campus stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, and administrators). We recognize that the remote environment poses unique challenges for students given their circumstances, but we also believe the benefits of this format will support student success in our current environment. We considered the following factors:

Student Experience Considerations
- Access/Equity - Non-WA state resident student travel, costs to come to campus in summer, access to technology
- Student learning styles/modalities
- Engagement
- Public Safety
- Student Leader Experience
- Access to on-campus programming such as FIGs, & First-year Networks during the academic year.
Campus Partner Experience
- Advisor 10 and 11-month appointments.
- Access to housing for student staff.
Administrative Logistics
- Room reservations and active learning classroom availability during the summer quarter.

A primary component of Advising and orientation includes students registering for their first quarter classes.* Academic advisers are critical partners in facilitating sessions and are responsible for staffing the appointments. In the spring, summer, and autumn of 2022, we consulted explicitly with the following units to discuss modality delivery of the A&O one and two-day sessions.

Arts & Sciences: College Advising
College of Engineering: Advising & Retention
Foster School of Business: Undergraduate Programs
Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering: Studnet Services
Student Life: Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership Exchange
The Information School: Informatics Academic Advising
The UW Honors Program - Student Services
Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity: Academic Counseling
Undergraduate Academic Affairs: Undergraduate Advising
Undergraduate Academic Affairs: Deans Office
Undergraduate Academic Affairs: EEP and UW Academy

FYP will continue to consult with departments and, if warranted, can shift modality (given 1-2 years of time). FYP will continue to assess what students need in their transition to UW.

*Survey results indicated a 16% increase in students who registered for a majority or all of their classes after attending an A&O Session (66% - 2019; 82% - 2022).

Additional Considerations & Data

Data Considerations

Several assessment reports can be found on our assessment website and our first-year dashboard.

Individualized support
- After A&O sessions, Orientation Leaders engaged with, on average, over 1,100 (20%) of students who wanted to meet individually to discuss time management, study, skills, academic support, and making friends/meeting people.
- From 2020 to the present, Orientation Leaders maintained text messaging reply rates from 50%-70% for the welcome and in-session messages. The standard reply rate is 30%.
Technology access
- Of the 8,878 students with A&O reservations in 2021, 89% (7909) stated they had a reliable internet connection;
- 13 students stated they DID NOT have access to a reliable internet connection, smartphone, tablet or Chromebook, or a laptop or desktop computer.
- 92% of our U.S. Transfer and Freshman students opted into text messaging to receive follow-up communication from FYP, Orientation Leaders, and advising units
Pre-A&O module completion
- In 2022 100% of students who attended A&O completed the Pre-A&O modules, which was a 3% increase from previous years.
Changing landscape for Transfers
- The transfer student profile remains strong but must continue to be focused. FYP continued to support transfer students moving directly into a major and meeting with departmental advisers during their transition to UW.
Campus partner survey responses about A&O session format (Autumn 2021, n=59)
- FR U.S. 2-Day - 43% Remote/Online; 37% No Pref; 20% In-Person
- FR INTL 2-Day - 43% Remote/Online; 48% No Pref; 9% In-Person
- TR 1-Day - 49% Remote/Online; 31% No Pref; 20% In-Person
- These trends are consistent with WIN/SPR/SUM admit A&O preferences
First-year Experience Student Survey responses about A&O session format (Spring 2022, n-710)
- Pre-A&O Module Information - 75% Remote/Online; 11% No Pref; 14%% In-Person
- Summer/Winter A&O Session - 28% Remote/Online; 26% No Pref; 46% In-Person
- Dawg Daze/Welcome Week - 5% Remote/Online; 9% No Pref; 89% In-Person
Course registration data
- From 2019 to 2022 - Survey results indicated a 16% increase in students who registered for a majority or all of their classes after attending an A&O Session (66% - 2019; 82% - 2022).
- 2022- 82.5% Majority or all classes/ 13.9% At least 1 class/ 3.7 % No classes (n=4297)
  - Top reason students could not register "courses were closed", and close second "ran out of time"
- 2021- 72.5% Majority or all classes/ 20.9 At least 1 class/ 6.6 % No classes (n=5368)
  - Top reason students could not register, courses were closed"
- 2020 - 75.6% Majority or all classes/ 18.1 At least 1 class/ 6% No classes (n=3012)
  - Top reason students could not register, "courses were closed"
- 2019 - 66.7% Majority or all classes/ 25.9% At least 1 class/ 7% No classes (n=5716)
  - Top reason students could not register, "did not have enough time"
Areas of focus
- Campus resources, specifically dining services, on-campus employment, & transportation services
- Learning financial resources
Family Orientation
- Increased participant diversity and broadened access to the Family Orientation program by 57% after shifting the program format from an in-person conference to a self-guided, multimodal, multilingual orientation.

Other Institutional Comparisons

Transitioning to a university is a unique process when assessing the advising/registration and co-curricular priorities. The chart represents a list of Pac-12 schools and their orientation modality.

Definitions

Virtual (Live) = synchronous session with a specific date
Virtual (Self-Guided) = asynchronous session, no date, completed on your own time
In-Person = on-campus with a specific date
Hybrid = one-day on campus focused on transition and one-day virtual focused on registration/advising
Summer = majority of sessions take place in the summer
Fall = no sessions in the summer, the majority of sessions take place a few days before school begins

Pac-12 Institutions	When does Orientation take place?	Modality	When do students register for classes?
University of Arizona	Summer	Virtual (Live)	During Orientation (Virtual)
Arizona State University	Fall	Virtual (Self-Guided)	During Orientation (Virtual)
University of California, Berkeley	Fall	In-Person	Before Orientation (Virtual)
University of California, Los Angeles	Summer	In-Person	During Orientation (In-Person)
University of Colorado, Boulder	Summer	Virtual (Self-Guided)	During Orientation (Virtual)
University of Oregon	Summer	Hybrid	Before Orientation (Virtual)
Oregon State University	Summer	In-Person & Virtual (Self-Guided)	During Orientation (In-Person)
University of Southern California	Summer	Hybrid	Before Orientation (Virtual)
Stanford University	Fall	In-Person	During Orientation (In-Person)
University of Utah	Summer	In-Person	During Orientation (In-Person)
University of Washington	Summer	Virtual (Live)	During Orientation (Virtual)
Washington State University	Summer Model	In-Person	During Orientation (In-Person)

Other Institutions	When does Orientation take place?	Modality	When do students register for classes?
Ohio State University	Summer	In-Person	During Orientation (In-Person)
Purdue University	Summer	Virtual (Live)	During Orientation (Virtual)
Eastern Washington University	Summer	In-person + One Virtual	Before Orientation (Virtual)
Western Washington Universtiy	Fall	In-person	Before Orientation (Virtual)
UW Bothell	Summer	Hybrid	After Orientation (Virtual)
UW Tacoma	Fall	In-Person	Before Orientation (Virtual)

First Year Programs

Part 1: Setting the Foundation

Part 2: Academic Identity, Transition, and Registration

Part 3: Community Connections

Data Considerations

First Year Programs

Hours

Phone

Feedback

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