UNE’s Student Success team ran their first wholly online orientation to positive student feedback last week.

Referred to as UNE101, online O-week was delivered via Moodle and involved a variety of different media formats to increase engagement and ensure all students could access it.

Over the course of the week, approximately 930 students joined in the live sessions. Nearly 750 students engaged with Monday’s ‘Welcome, Student Support and Uni Basics’ session. Over 370 participated live on the night and a further 350 (and growing) have watched the session recording since. 

Other popular sessions included ‘Technology, Moodle and Website guide’ and ‘Academic Skills Office Orientation’ with over 400 new students engaging with each of these. About 300 students engaged with ‘Your First Year Journey by the First Year Advisors’.

The live program featured 11 unique webinar sessions, hosted by various UNE staff through Zoom. Students joined these webinars from far and wide, with many juggling significant time differences to participate in live chat throughout webinar sessions. Some locations included: Darwin, the Pilbara in WA, Cobar, Tasmania, Chinchilla in QLD, Goondoowindi, Batemans Bay, Sydney, North VIC, Newcastle, Port Augusta in SA, Adelaide, Maitland, Blue Mountains, Gunnedah, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Cairns, Perth, ‘from Sydney but living in London’, Nepal, ‘currently stranded in Singapore’, and the USA.

The zoom webinars included polls that allowed students to anonymously provide information about previous study experience, understanding of UNE terminology and more. The zoom webinars also featured live chats were UNE staff responded to hundreds of questions including; clarity around student ID cards, providing contact details, directions to navigate UNE webpages, enrolment advice and reassurance that staff understand that all students are unique and are here to support students with individual needs.

Below are some of the quotes captured during live chats:

• “Thanks great session dealing with such a variety of questions – makes me feel confident I’ve made the right choice !”
• “Thank you so much, so helpful, so informative. I feel very supported. Cheers”
• “It’s really nice to see you’re a connected team, makes it less daunting to contact you” (in relation to First Year Advisors all working together)
• “Thank you so much. I’ve really learned a lot. Several things to go and follow up now.”
• “Always felt intimidated by those people and this is so relieving to know. I find it wise ask questions intead of telling yourself or others you know it all. Thank you for that :)”
• “would have been great to have this meeting earlier as it was so reassuring.  I had been really overwhelmed before now”
• “A lot of information for this old head. Thank you for today”
• “Thank you!! Super excited to start :)”
• “Thanks – Your O Week sessions are really well targeted and moderated – and helpful –  great levels not bogged down and the chat box well used to make sure its open for questions and directed to the right place.  See you all tomorrow”
• “Thank you very much for the presentations!”
• “I just wanted to say that you all seem so approachable and helpful. It makes me feel very supported and a whole lot more confident as a first year student fresh to uni studies. Thank you so much! 🙏”
• “Thanks Elise and Amy – lovely intro! Off to pour a VERY LARGE wine now!”

Students will be able to access UNE101 throughout their first year of study.