Bruin Brief 2022-08-05 New Student Orientation and Innovations

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Orientation is a unique time for our incoming students to learn more about UCLA SON, become familiar with resources across campus, and engage with our students, staff and faculty.  Summertime is when we welcome a diverse group of scholars and professionals to the UCLA School of Nursing.  A new exciting hybrid learning model for some of our programs was launched and we resumed in-person orientations after years of being remote.   It is an exciting time to welcome our future leaders in nursing! 

Orientation Schedules

All academic programs admit new students in fall quarter, and orientation takes place in summer quarter. Below is a table of all of the orientation dates given to new students throughout the summer, in preparation for Fall:

The BS sessions are provided to us by New Student Programs. Entering freshmen and transfer students are able to sign up for any of these dates, and Lizbeth or Janet meets with these students to orient them about program requirements, progression, enrollment, advisement, student support and research opportunities. Because orientation covers basics about the curriculum, student conduct, clinical expectations, and faculty advising, it’s a helpful refresh for faculty, too.

Innovation: BruinLearn for hybrid orientation of new students

A new orientation approach we planned and executed this year was a hybrid orientation, where the majority of the important information new students receive (program requirements, academic expectations, clinical requirements, financial aid, SON and campus resources) were presented on BruinLearn in the form of modules. With the combined efforts of Stephen Austin, Scott Dicks, and Janet Kang, who worked on this project for 10 months as a cross-functional team, this online orientation was created for the MECN Class of 2024. Key stakeholders who provided content (in the form of video recordings, slides, and/or written content) included the program directors, the skills lab team, the clinical and health clearance coordinator, our Kaplan lead faculty, and student affairs. These modules also contained knowledge checks throughout the lessons, so students could understand key takeaways from each presentation. Students were given one month to complete this asynchronous, online orientation, and were then invited to an in-person welcome event on August 2^nd where they got to meet administration, staff, current students and alumni, attend a panel, go on a campus tour and participate in a Q&A session.

What does it look like? BruinLearn modules for orientation

Here are four examples of what the new orientation looks like for students.

A) Example of a lesson with a description/overview, a short list of Objectives, and an interactive video with embedded knowledge check questions.

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B) Module 2 (like most of the modules) has individual lessons (namely, 2.1 through 2.4, in this example) and an end of Module Quiz (2.5), but in this essential module students were required to get a perfect score to pass/complete the module.

C) The final Module 9 did not include new content but was a summative assessment that required a perfect score to complete the orientation as a whole.

D) Module 8, covering student resources within the School of Nursing and elsewhere at UCLA, did not feature an end of Module Quiz but instead required students to take a brief Ungraded Survey, and one of the survey questions was: "If you could choose one mode for a new student orientation, which of the following would you pick?"  As it happens, the most selected choice was exactly what the SAO team offered--a hybrid orientation that was mostly completed online, but which also featured significant in-person elements.

How did it go? Student experience of hybrid orientation

Feedback from a MECN student after her experience with the hybrid orientation approach:

“Thank you and the rest of the SON Team for putting together the orientation! I'm really thankful that it was not a 6hr zoom or 8hr in-person one. I felt like I was able to retain more information through this new hybrid model.  Also, since the environment was more casual and there was less information to digest in one sitting, we felt like that helped facilitate interacting with others.”

Goals for the Future. We plan to capitalize on the early success of hybrid orientation for new students. The hybrid orientation for the MECN program will be spread to other programs.  We’ll also continue to work on stronger advising models for students and more on-campus engagement activities.  Orientation is just the beginning!

Key Contributors:
Janet Kang, Interim Director, Student Services

Janet was the heavily invested guide and project manager on this effort and wrote the majority of this Bruin Brief

Scott Dicks, Support Business Analyst, DGIT | Digital Technology

Scott was the key technical advisor and eagle-eyed tester

Stephen Austin, Educational Technologist & AV Technician, DGIT | Digital Technology

Stephen helped shape up the content provided by SON faculty & staff subject matter experts, and arranged and enhanced the materials on Bruin Learn.

Elizabeth Yzquierdo, MPH, EdD, Associate Dean, Student Affairs

Contributed content to the Bruin Brief and supported the time and effort spent on this project

NOTE:  Archived copies of the Bruin Brief are available on the SON Intranet at http://www.sonnet.ucla.edu  

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Lauren Clark
Professor and Shapiro Family Endowed Chair in Developmental Disability Studies

Associate Dean, Academic Programs
Office: (310) 267-5923

Mobile: (801) 503-4755
nursing.ucla.edu