Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) needed a reimagining of their online new student orientation.
The new student orientation is students' first exposure to learning at LBCC and nearly every student who applies to the college (500+ each term) is required to complete the orientation. Needless to say, a student's experience with orientation could impact their decision to enroll.
I worked closely with the orientation coordinators to overhaul the course and provide a more coherent and unified user experience. This included user research, visual and instructional design improvements, custom coding, accessibility audits and corrections, training, and more. This page details some of the project highlights.
The visual design approach focused on clear calls to action, a strong hierarchy on each page, and visually and functionally consistent learning materials and activities. I incorporated LBCC brand colors and visual identity so the orientation is consistent with the LBCC website and marketing collateral.
It was also critical the course look and perform equally well on mobile screens as many students were completing the course entirely on their phone.
One of the biggest complaints about the original course was its lack of clarity. It did not clearly communicate deadlines, required versus optional tasks, had duplicative and disparate information, and the locking of content made it difficult to form a mental picture of the course until it was entirely completed. This meant students often got lost, which is really not what you want for a course with "orientation" in the title.
Improving the navigability of the course involved reordering and grouping the content, minimizing the number of clicks between sections, making it clear when items should be completed in progression, writing meaningful headers and text for links, and finding the right balance between content restriction and transparency.
Prior to the redesign, the majority of the learning materials in the course were videos. Now, a variety of mediums and interactions are included. As part of this, all course pages, documents, and supporting materials were made accessible. This means all documents have correct structure, PDFs are tagged, audio and video have captions or transcripts, and, when possible, students are provided multiple options for learning the material.
The original course relied on standard Moodle quiz activities to assess students' understanding. Quizzes in Moodle are really best suited for longer more formal exams than the quick checks for understanding that were needed in the new student orientation. For example, students are prompted several times before submitting a quiz to see if they really want to submit. It was a little intimidating and cumbersome for the short, ungraded orientation assessments.
The solution was to ditch the Moodle quiz activity and use H5P quizzes instead. These questions could then be embedded in the content, which helped make it more streamlined and, as everything (answering the questions, viewing feedback, and submitting the quiz) is done in a single screen, these quizzes were much faster to complete. This change alone probably saved students at least 10 minutes over the course of the orientation (reduced clicks and navigating in and out of the quiz and the content).
Additionally, as everything was designed to be self-contained and require zero intervention from instructors, the assessments were set up to provide immediate and detailed feedback based on student responses.
It was important to the orientation coordinators that the course fit with the vibe of the new student center and the college overall – essentially, the orientation needed to feel relaxed and approachable. This was achieved through informal tone in written information, photos and videos from the actual people at the college, and a continual message of "we're here to help" with ever-present information about how to get help.
The new student orientation is one aspects of new student on-boarding, which also includes email campaigns and communications from the new student help center. I completed a full audit of new student communications to ensure the complete student experience was clear and consistent. This level of polish helps boosts the credibility of the college overall.
Hello Jane!
My name is Enrico and I am your Enrollment Expert at LBCC. Thank you for telling us some more about yourself on the “Getting to Know You” Questionnaire! Here are your next steps. Please read the entirety of this email before getting started.
Attached to this email you’ll find your Recommended First Term Guide of courses based on your chosen major. To see all the details, please download the guide before you open it.
Registering online isn’t always intuitive. Please look over Step 3 of your online orientation to learn about the logistics of registering.
Your alternate PIN (which you will need to register) is listed on your Recommended First Term Guide.
Step 4 of your online orientation includes helpful information about getting your textbooks, figuring out where and how to access your courses, and how to take advantage of student services you may not know about.
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For questions about your Recommended First Term Guide:
Just reply to this email. I’m here to help!.
For technical assistance with Moodle or Single Sign-On:
Contact the Student Help Desk.
For assistance with registering:
Contact the First Resort. Our hours are Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM.
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Enrollment Expert | The First Resort Linn-Benton Community College linnbenton.edu
