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You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: How Penn’s Online Programs Are Redefining Student Orientation

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30Jul’26

Feature Stories, Spotlights

July 30, 2026 by Erin Bartnett

Going through a strong orientation program has an impact on a student’s entire educational journey. Research indicates that students who participate in an orientation program are more likely to persist and have higher graduation rates.  

When Adam Roth-Saks was given the charge to bring SP2’s Non-Profit Leadership (NPL) master’s program online in 2017, he knew that orientation would be a critical component. However, there weren’t many models for building an online orientation at Penn. His first step would be to talk to lots of people: “You can’t do anything alone at Penn,” he says. 

He spoke to Rebecca Stein of the Online Learning Initiative (now CETLI) who helped him think about the online student experience, as well as centers across Penn—Weingarten, the Center for Teaching and Learning (now CETLI), Career Services, Wellness, and Community Standards. He knew one critical challenge would be how to help students feel supported at Penn even though they may never step onto Penn’s campus.

NPL partnered with Jessica Morris, CETLI’s Director of Instructional Design & Technology, who helped them build their orientation program in Canvas. Since the program’s launch in 2019, the NPL orientation has become a model for online orientation at Penn. CETLI now manages a Canvas orientation template based on the NPL orientation, ensuring it remains an up-to-date resource for other online programs.

This was the case for Penn Vet’s online master’s program in Animal Welfare and Behavior (AWB), which used the CETLI template to build their own orientation program. What made the AWB orientation different? A feature that both trainings have in common—NPL and AWB have built effective orientations by focusing on ways to meet the unique needs of the students in their programs.  

The Foundational Orientation Model

The NPL Orientation is two weeks long and has two goals: help students build knowledge and develop community. Prospective students for the online NPL program had full-time jobs and home addresses all over the country and the world. The orientation design, and the program itself, would have to take these things into account.

The NPL team knew that orientation would need to be a dress-rehearsal of sorts for the actual experience of learning online. “Whatever structure they’re going to learn in,” Roth-Saks says, “they should practice that in orientation.”

For this reason, orientation takes place on Canvas, the same LMS where students will carry out their coursework. To build knowledge, students engage with “How To” videos and modules directly in Canvas and learn about the centers and resources they will have access to during their time at Penn. 

“How do you build something that allows [students] to connect with each other?” and “How do [students] get to know us as staff?” 
Adam Roth-Saks, Senior Director of Operations, Catalyst, Penn GSE
Adam Roth-Saks
Senior Director of Operations, Catalyst, Penn GSE

As they were developing the orientation, Roth-Saks says, helping the students build community was really important: “How do you build something that allows [students] to connect with each other?” and “How do [students] get to know us as staff?” 

To build community, students participate in discussions, record video introductions to share, and are required to join live Zoom conversations with breakout sessions to get to know their peers. Nicole Auge, the Director of Instructional Design and Educational Technology, says they try to emphasize the value of these community building opportunities with students: “You’re not sitting in classrooms with people,” she says, so these sessions are the chance to really get to know classmates you're going through this experience with. 

In program-administered student surveys, 100% of students agreed that the online orientation helped them prepare for the program and helped them engage with other NPL students.

The process for getting to an orientation program that meets both these goals was iterative, Roth-Saks says. While the program is informed by the needs of their students, it is also informed by the NPL team members who built it. Each program coordinator has contributed their own expertise to make the program more academically robust, more community-oriented, and more accessible every year.  

A Month of Connection Creates Lifelong Community

The Master of Science in Animal Welfare & Behavior (AWB) program at Penn Vet has built on the NPL model by focusing on student experience. Chipo Siantumbu, Penn Vet’s One Health Program Director, says that centering student experience is part of what has made their program thrive. 

The program has found a way to center students before orientation even begins. AWB’s Program Coordinator, Ameena Atif, who manages the program’s relationships with partners across Penn and communication with students, develops LinkedIn posts that feature welcoming introductions to members of the incoming class. Scrolling through the comments, the sense of community is immediate: Penn Vet and AWB alumni send their congratulations; fellow students take the opportunity to introduce themselves, too. 

Orientation then takes place over a whole month. “At first glance, that might seem like a lot,” says May Truong, the program’s Director of Instructional Design and Online Learning, but she emphasizes that the modules are designed to fit into their students’ schedules, with one to two assignments or events per week. Additionally, Atif ensures that the Orientation events are recorded and distributed to the cohort so that students who are unable to attend in real time still have access to the resources that will support their success in the program. 

Because AWB students are often transitioning back into academia after some time away from school, the program starts by establishing a foundation for students’ academic wellness, then builds on that to help students get to know the program and one another. 

During the Information Literacy Bootcamp, created in collaboration with the school librarians and Truong, students are introduced to key Penn resources and build connections with library staff. Like NPL, AWB has designed the experience for Canvas. In surveys after the sessions, students reported that they found the review of specific tools, information on how to access scholarly articles, and gaining a direct contact at the library to be some of the most valuable aspects of the session. 

A screenshot of the AWB Resources Orientation homepage. It includes links to New Student Orientation modules, the Penn Libraries Information Literacy Bootcamp, and the Live Sessions on Zoom.

The AWB Orientation homepage mirrors the Program homepage so students learn how to navigate the LMS before the academic program begins.

“Because online learning can sometimes feel isolating, ensuring that students are aware of the University's support services and how to access them is especially important. Providing this foundation early in the program helps students feel connected, supported, and confident in navigating challenges should they arise.”
Chipo Siantumbu, Program Director One Health PennVet
Chipo Siantumbu
Program Director, One Health PennVet

In week 3, students participate in workshops with Weingarten, Student Health and Counseling, and Wellness, to gain a broader introduction to the resources available to them at Penn. “While some University services are primarily designed for traditional, on-campus students,” Chipo Siantumbu says, “many of our online AWB students have benefited from engaging with these campus partners.”  

Empowering students to take advantage of the resources they can use in their academic career has additional benefits. Students also report they have a better understanding of academic conduct. Siantumbu says that clearly setting student expectations early on contributes to the program’s low number of academic integrity cases. 

However, the workshops also prepare students for their future beyond Penn. AWB has added a dedicated Career Services workshop, which serves as the foundation for a resume writing workshop offered later in the spring. “Student feedback has consistently highlighted the value of this workshop in helping them strengthen their resumes, and where applicable, navigate their job search with greater confidence,” Siantumbu says.  

During the final week, it’s time to deepen students’ sense of community with one another. First, students participate in a Lunch & Learn with AWB Alumni, where students can ask alumni questions about their personal experience. Siantumbu says these sessions are often rewarding, full circle moments. For example, in a recent orientation, a Lunch & Learn alumni panelist recognized one of the new students as a prospective applicant they had spoken to during an information session. Siantumbu says it “was a rewarding reminder of the impact that mentorship and outreach can have on a student journey.” 

Indeed, one of the students reported, “I loved that we were able to interact with past and current students. This was one of the sessions I loved the most, as it gave me models to look up to and helpful information on how to navigate the course as well as bond with my fellow students.” 

Finally, in the Virtual Happy Hour, students build relationships directly with faculty and staff. Right before the semester begins, students strengthen their sense of community in AWB. This has become one of their most successful orientation events—100% of survey respondents reported being extremely satisfied with the event. 

When reflecting on students’ responses to orientation month, Siantumbu says the biggest value for students was learning about where to seek support. She says it’s valuable for an orientation program to meet these needs in an online degree: “Because online learning can sometimes feel isolating, ensuring that students are aware of the University's support services and how to access them is especially important. Providing this foundation early in the program helps students feel connected, supported, and confident in navigating challenges should they arise.” 

Building Your Own Online Orientation Program

The AWB team emphasizes that pulling off an orientation with so many components is a testament to the network of Penn resources they share with their students—it requires connections and support from staff across Penn. It requires instructional designers, faculty, alumni, program administrators and coordinators, and partners all over campus who champion the student learning experience.

CETLI fosters this collaborative environment for online program teams at Penn by hosting information and best practices for online programs, offering consultations for online program teams, and often, connecting these teams with one another for shared learning, resource sharing, and collaboration. 

To riff on Roth-Saks thesis, whether you are a staff member building an online orientation program or a new student joining that program’s orientation, it can be helpful to remember that you don’t have to do anything alone at Penn.  

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