Mission
The UA Little Rock Trojan Transition and Assistance Center & New Student Orientation (TTAC) seeks to introduce and connect all new undergraduate students to the campus and facilitate a spirit of success. This mission is accomplished by connecting parents and families with resources on campus to initiate a smooth and balanced transition for their loved ones and by developing skilled and confident Orientation Leaders to assist with orientation of new students, while becoming strong and inviting campus leaders.
Vision Statement:
The TTAC will welcome and support students while promoting a sense of connectedness to each other and the campus to better support the mission of the university to improve students’ lives and enhance our communities.
Summary Narrative
1) Enhance recruitment and retention efforts to increase enrollment
Since TTAC was unable to host in person events until January 2022, virtual events were planned & virtual orientation software was updated. The events listed below are a list of virtual & in person opportunities to enhance recruitment & retention.
- July 13- Trojan Drive-Up
- July 15- Pop Up Orientation
- July 23- IG Live with the Bursar
- August 11- Enroll & Go
- August 23-27 Welcome Week- Leah on committee/Assisted with all events this week
- August 30- Sept 3 Go2Orientation push to finish – Classroom visits (Rachel Hayes, Clark Harris, Johnny Gilbert, Sue Bowling, Lauren Gray)
- Sept 21- TTAC assisted Admissions by labeling swag packets
- Sept 20- TTAC assisted Admissions with filling envelopes with acceptance letters
- Sept 28- Registered Student Org Fair- tabling event
- October 13- Tabled for TTAC at BBQ at Bailey
- November 4- TTAC volunteered at Discover Day
- November 9- started Spring Orientation email/text outreach
- January 13- Hosted New Student Spring Orientation
- April 5- started summer Orientation email/text outreach
- April 8- Attended Trojan Drive-up with Orientation Leaders
- May 19- Attend UALR Transfermation with Orientation Leaders
- June 3- Hosted New Student Orientation
- June 17- Hosted New Student Orientation
- June 24- Attended Admitted Trojan Kick-off with Orientation Leaders
2) Strengthen student-friendly operations and customer service
- Held first on campus Orientation since 2019 – 57 students + guests
- March 1 – Go2Orientation renewed to UA Little Rock campus
- April 19 – Campus Photo Shoot organized by TTAC using Orientation Leaders
- June 21- Campus Photo Shoot organized by TTAC using Orientation Leaders
3) Improve diversity and inclusion efforts to provide a safe and inclusive environment for students
- May 2 – Orientation Leaders finish 4 week training program (includes one week of diversity & inclusion training with Multicultural Center)
- Social media content for all holidays & celebration days/weeks
- Safe Zone training completed
- Military Student Support training completed
4) Align financial and human resources to operate more effectively and efficiently
- Leah completed all required Workday training.
- Leah completed multiple training sessions with Wendy Johnson on budget and Workday processes.
5) Promote student development, engagement, and leadership
- Title IX Investigator (& other roles) for UA Little Rock training completed
- Collaborations with Student Experience Center each semester with Welcome Week
- May 2 – Orientation Leaders finish 4 week leadership training program
At A Glance
- Hired and trained 20 Orientation Leaders. First time to have this large of a group since 2018.
- Hosted 5 in person New Student Orientation (NSO) sessions for spring and fall semesters.
- Contacted all newly admitted students with 2 different campaigns via email and text message to invite them to NSO.
- Collaboration with the ASK Desk to update website, onboarding process & other affected changes due to COVID-19.
- Maintained up-to-date information on UA Little Rock’s first professional virtual orientation, go2orientation.com/ualr
- Online Orientation statistics from 2021-2022:
- 4/4/21-6/21/21:
- 442 students started online orientation
- 290 students completed online orientation
- 65% completion rate
- 4/4/22-6/21/22:
- 484 students started online orientation
- 350 students completed online orientation
- 72% completion rate
- Increased Instagram followers by 438 since January 2021.
- 4/4/21-6/21/21:
Assessment 1
Type of assessment (learning outcome or operational)
Operational Assessment
Alignment with UA Little Rock Goal
Prepare students for success
Activity or experience being assessed
Meet with former Orientation Leaders from the past 2 Orientation seasons to get a better understanding of what they felt was most beneficial to their success. Ask them questions about the training sessions they attended and if they felt like they missed out on something that should have been learned.
Assessment artifacts
Short survey and group meeting with the Orientation Leaders.
Time period assessment was done
January 2023
Results
Director of TTAC held a meeting with Orientation Leaders in January of 2023. Students were satisfied overall with OL Training. Suggested to make the training spread over a shorter period of time, pay less for each training, increase the amount of orientation leaders for the next year, and give a few suggestions on topics they wanted to learn more about when assisting new students during summer orientation sessions.
Continuous improvement process
Reduced the Orientation Leader training program from 8 weeks down to 4 weeks. Revamped the pay schedule from two $750 stipends to four payments of $50. Hired 20 orientation leaders instead of having 8 leaders.
Will continue with the smaller pay scale, the shorter training program, and will try to hire 20 orientation leaders every year.
WHEN: December 2022 and June 2023
Stateholder involvement / Communication plan
Plans were communicated with the Director of TTAC and AVC of Enrollment Management.
Assessment 2
Type of assessment (learning outcome or operational)
Operational Assessment
Alignment with UA Little Rock Goal
Prepare students for success
Activity or experience being assessed
The new student experience of using GO2Orientation software.
Assessment artifacts
Survey
Survey built into GO2Orientation professional orientation software. 4 questions, 2 open ended & 2 rated responses
Time period assessment was done
January (1) and June (2) 2022
Results
504 students completed the survey on their experiences with Go2Orientation. They were asked to respond to 3 statements and give their opinions of strongly agree, agree, disagree, or no answer: The statements for students to answer are:
- The information I received from this online module was valuable to me as a new student
- The length of this orientation was
- What additional information could we have provided that would have been helpful?
- What information did you find most helpful in this module?
The information you received from this online module was valuable to you as a new student. 249 students strongly agreed, 192 students said they agreed. 6 students disagreed, and 54 students did not answer the question.
The length of the orientation was: 416 students said it was just right, 25 students said it was too long, 6 students said it was too short, and 42 students did not answer the question.
What additional information could we have provided that would have been helpful? Some recurring comments are wanting more information on housing, needing a campus map, more financial aid information, student accounts information, more blackboard support included, more information on classes and registration.
Students found the most helpful information in our Go2Orientation was how to register for classes, how to use BOSS/UALR systems, learning about the ASK Desk, New Student Checklist, academic advising information, and how to pay for college.
Overall I think the results had great information on what is working well, and what can be improved. The majority of the students agree that our online orientation software is helpful in the learning of UA Little Rock. I think we can improve our information in a few areas mentioned about housing and campus maps, but overall the results are great.
Continuous improvement process
Information obtained will be used to improve the GO2Orientation virtual orientation software.
Incorporate more housing information, incorporate more financial aid information and monitor any additional requests.
WHEN: January 2023
Stateholder involvement / Communication plan
More collaboration with offices to include/elaborate traditions/resources at UA Little Rock.
Formal review timeline for offices to collaborate in a timely manner.
Results shared with the Director of TTAC; then AVC Enrollment Management; then VC Student Affairs.
Orientation Committee meetings not held since 2019.
Email updates as needed to key partnerships during COVID-19.
Results shared with Orientation Leaders to review.
Assessment 3
Type of assessment (learning outcome or operational)
Operational Assessment
Alignment with UA Little Rock Goal
Prepare students for success
Activity or experience being assessed
Instagram polls @ualrnewstudents, survey options to new students on how Orientation was as far as what was beneficial in their transition period.
Assessment artifacts
Survey/Poll
Instagram polls @ualrnewstudents, survey to new students asking how Orientation was beneficial in their transition period.
Time period assessment was done
Summer 2022
Results
The Instagram poll stated that 90% of students felt that Orientation was beneficial in their transition period. 10% of students said that it was alright. We reached out to those students to ask what we could do to make it better, or if there was any individual help we could give to them. None of the students we reached out to responded back to us.
Continuous improvement process
Since the majority of the students who responded to the poll felt that orientation was beneficial to their transition period, and 10% who felt that it was okay but didn’t provide feedback on what we could do better, We will continue to use the feedback we were given from our in person orientation and build upon that.
Continue to get positive surveys back from new students and continue to make Orientation better each time by integrating their suggestions into programming.
WHEN: January- June 2023
Stateholder involvement / Communication plan
Director of TTAC/AVC. They will be able to review assessments and provide feedback on their observations on how Orientation should be led in the Summer of 2022.
