Orientation

{{active_language_id_uc}} {{settings.doi}}

Elements of a Solid Orientation

Some elements of a dedicated orientation for distance learners are similar to what typically occurs for in-person classroom programs. Teachers and students are introduced, students learn how to use curricular materials and digital tools, and course requirements are discussed. Orientation must also include activities that establish realistic expectations for distance, blended, hybrid, or HyFlex study and provide learners with a sense of how their learning experience will proceed. Additionally, the activities to assess readiness in Chapter 3 generally occur during orientation. The activities that should occur during an orientation session include:

Covering these topics is particularly important because although students have an idea of what is likely to happen when they step into a classroom, they may not have relevant history or experience with distance education.

Duration and Structure

How long should an orientation be? This depends on what your organization determines it needs to include. Some organizations may decide their learners will be prepared after a single four-hour orientation. Others may decide that students need a more comprehensive, multipart orientation adding up to six or eight hours. A few organizations have created orientation programs lasting 12 hours (at which point the students can be officially designated as distance learners in NRS reporting; see National Reporting System for Adult Education, 2024b). Each organization should determine how to structure its orientation to best prepare learners.

Adult education programs have offered both group and individual orientations for learners. Group orientations are more efficient for the teacher and allow the learner to meet others who will be working at a distance or in supplemental hybrid courses. If digital education like blended or HyFlex is the focus, this orientation could take place as part of the in-person class. This provides an opportunity for students to develop social support systems for their independent work. On the other hand, individual orientations may be more comfortable for learners who might need individualized support to prepare for studying online. Many programs offer orientation via video conferences. Using this technology, teachers can orient either a group or individual student to distance and/or digital learning no matter how far they are from the school. Whether in person or on a video conference call, programs may consider offering a portion of the orientation to a group and reserving a portion for individual support.

Identifying and Assessing Learner Goals

Orientation is the time for learners to identify their goals for participating in distance and digital learning. Many organizations have goal setting as part of their usual intake process, and the information gained there should be given to the teacher. In addition to this, organizations should consider additional questions about goals specific to distance and digital education for the orientation. This information is not only useful to the learner, but assists the teacher in meeting the student’s needs and determining whether a distance or digital education modality is a good fit for that particular learner.

Educators should look carefully at ways they can use goal setting to help guide their instructional planning. Asking questions about goal setting means going beyond information required by the NRS–obtain a job, earn a high school equivalency diploma, improve literacy skills(See National Reporting System for Adult Education, 2024b). These goals are a good starting point to guide students into the appropriate type of program (e.g., English language learning, high school equivalency diploma, career pathways). However, to use goal setting as a basis for instructional planning, the goals need to be at a much more specific level—similar to what many educators call objectives.

This involves breaking up the larger goal (e.g., get a high school equivalency diploma) into smaller steps that the student can accomplish in a realistic time frame (e.g., learn the algebra required on the high school equivalency test during the next semester). These more specific goals or objectives provide the teacher with direction in planning educational programming to meet the learners’ needs. They can help the teacher select the appropriate materials for students and provide more tangible, incremental milestones. Additionally, it may be helpful for the teacher to periodically revisit the goals with students. This allows the teacher and learners to assess progress, adjust the instructional plan if needed, and refine the goals to reflect the students’ growth. Used in this way, goal setting is not simply something required by reporting forms, but a valuable component of students’ educational plans. See the dated but still useful Project IDEAL Working Paper No. 3, Using Assessment to Guide Instructional Planning for Distance Learners (Petty, 2004) for more about this topic.)

Goal setting may be a new concept for your learner; adult education students come from many backgrounds and experiences, some of which do not focus on goal setting. Provide clear guidance to students as they learn to set goals. These goals may also need to focus on good study habits that learners will adopt during distance and other digital education opportunities. Be prepared to be supportive and provide guidance for learners.

Here are examples of goal planning resources. 

• Learner Goal Setting Forms – ESL Workplace Context

• Learner Interview Goal Setting Form – Any Context

Setting Expectations for the Class

Orientation is the ideal time to clearly communicate the expectations for the distance learning class or the independent online portion of a blended, hybrid, or HyFlex learning. This ought to include what the learner is expected to do and what the student should expect from the teacher. This is the time to spell out in detail the course requirements. The questions that follow are designed to guide teachers in setting expectations for learners.

Level of Structure

One of the first things to establish is the amount of structure that will shape the learner experience and to make sure the learner understands this, too. For example, you may require a specific timeline and order or, alternatively, the student might be free to explore the material on their own. Make sure the answers to the following questions are included in your orientation.

• Are there due dates for completing work?

• Does this vary depending on the learning resource being used?

• If there are self-directed online or non-digitized options for student learning, how and when will they be made available? 

• How will they be submitted to the teacher?

Feedback and Expectations

You need to decide what type of feedback learners will receive on their work. Licensed curricula provide opportunities for feedback through auto-graded quizzes and learning activities. In addition to this feedback, teachers must consider what other feedback and support they will provide by answering the following questions.

• How does the teacher respond to learners? In separate meetings? In class? Asynchronously and online?

• How quickly should students expect teacher feedback on their online work? 

• What should students do if they have questions?

• In a blended learning model, how much class time, if any, will teachers use to review content, answer questions, or give feedback on a learner’s online work?

Marking Progress

Recognition of progress is particularly important for students working entirely or largely at a distance. Be sure your learners know how you will help them gauge their progress.

• Are learners required to take progress tests embedded in the online curriculum they might be working on? If so, how and where will this be done?

• How and when will pre- and post-testing for reporting purposes be handled?

• Will the student earn digital badges or certificates to mark incremental goals or completion at the end of the course? What are the requirements in order to receive this recognition?

Planning Communication

Regular communication, whether a learner is making progress or not, is important for supporting persistence. Be sure your learners know how you expect to communicate. In your orientation you need to 1) set expectations around how assignments will be communicated, and 2) gather learners’ preferred modes of communication (e.g., email, text, phone call).

• Will you be communicating online? Make certain that both the student and teacher have each other’s email address, chat app username (e.g., WhatsApp), or Google account info for Google Meet. Make sure the student knows how to access an email system or the videoconferencing tool. If a learner does not have an email account, be ready with a current list of free email providers and a tutorial on how to create an email address.

• Will you be telephoning and texting? Specify the times the teacher is available for calls and the number that a learner should call. Many adult learners text, so establishing expectations about texting can be very useful. Using a Google Voice number or applications like WhatsApp or Remind make it possible to send text messages without sharing a telephone number. 

• Does your communication method respect learners’ privacy? For example, learners can view other learners’ phone numbers in WhatsApp. Is that a concern for learners, and if so, would an alternative like Kik be a better tool for group messaging? 

• Will you have virtual or in-person office hours? Identify when and where these will be held, taking into consideration that using web conferencing provides flexibility that helps overcome traditional barriers to learner participation. If teachers and students are comfortable with the technology, this could be a regularly scheduled time during which the teacher is available online for communication via Zoom, Google Meet, or Class Collaborate.

Formalizing Expectations

Many programs have had success with using a learning contract to make the responsibilities and expectations for both the teacher and the learner clear. The contract spells out the specifics and requires a student’s signature. A contract helps keep the learner focused and increases the likelihood of staying engaged. Programs using this approach may find it necessary to renegotiate the contract at various points in the distance learning process.

Explore: Adult Distance Learner Agreement from Northern Shenandoah Valley Adult Education.

Another approach some programs use requires students to complete an agreement or provide a nominal deposit for borrowing learning materials. In Minnesota and Rhode Island, some adult education programs offer use of tablets and internet hotspots for the time they are enrolled in courses, and both require user agreements. Presenting clear, specific expectations for all parties involved before the start of the class ensures things will operate more smoothly throughout the class period.

Explore: Learning Lab Student Hot Spot/Chromebook Use Agreement from Northwest Michigan Works.

Determining Technology Requirements and Access

New students need to know how to access learning activities and how and where they can access a device and internet connection if they do not have them at home. Additionally, if they are using their own laptops, tablets, or smartphones to access course materials, they might need additional support. You should ask learners to bring these devices to the orientation to be sure learning resources can be both accessed and realistically operated on them. If you are conducting your orientation completely remotely, start by using technology that the students feel comfortable with. For some students, this might be a phone call. Many students already have WhatsApp, so you might use that as a way to send demonstration videos that show how to use other technology tools that will be part of the learning experience.

It may be helpful to provide students with a “quick reference” sheet listing pertinent information (e.g., contact information for the teacher, step-by-step instructions for accessing the online component of a curriculum, address of a website linking to supporting online activities) for later reference.

Digital Navigation Services

According to the Digital Navigator Playbook (Digital US, 2019), Digital Navigators “provide accessible and individualized supports to millions of Americans to connect them to the internet, devices, and assistance accessing information and services and accomplishing their goals online.” Instead of being offered as a stand-alone service, digital navigation is most successful when integrated with existing services, such as those provided in community centers, education, employment assistance, healthcare, and libraries. In some organizations, such as adult education providers or workforce development programs, participants are trained to serve as "Peer Digital Navigators" to provide digital support to their colleagues, classmates, and community members. 

Whether they are dedicated staff, community volunteers, or program participants (such as students), Digital Navigators working in an adult education setting may provide support in the following ways (Yamashita, 2022): 

• Troubleshooting Technology Issues: Digital Navigators can help troubleshoot technology problems faced by staff and students, freeing educators' time to focus on teaching and removing technical barriers to students’ learning.

• Providing Support and Training: Digital Navigators can offer support and training to staff and students on tech-related issues such as Google Classroom enrollment, Google Workspace orientation, internet connectivity, student email access, and Zoom functionality. ​

• Language Support: Multilingual Digital Navigators can provide language support for students, especially those enrolled in English Language Development programs, to remove technology-based barriers for students with lower literacy levels in their preferred language. ​

• Managing Technology Distribution: If your agency provides technology—whether through the organization’s lending library or periodic giveaways through a partnership with a local refurbisher—Digital Navigators can support distribution efforts, ensuring students have the necessary onboarding to use it effectively.

• Professional Development: Digital Navigators can facilitate professional development ​workshops, focusing on specific topics related to educational technology and providing hands-on training and Q&A sessions for staff and students. 

Teaching Digital Literacy Skills and Building Learners’ Digital Resilience 

A well-designed orientation should introduce learners to resources that can help them build the digital skills they need to be successful with the learning activities. There are hundreds of such resources in the BRIDGES Digital Skills Library, but that's just the beginning. At an orientation learners might also be introduced to the concept of digital resilience.

Digital resilience is defined by Digital US (2024) as “having the awareness, skills, agility, and confidence to be empowered users of new technologies and adapt to changing digital skill demands.” One way that adult educators can focus on building digital resilience is to shift from teaching specific digital skills to building learners' confidence and ability to adapt and use new technologies (Jobs for the Future & World Education, 2022). Here are some examples of how this can be done starting at orientation:

• Praise students' efforts and persistence in using technology.

• Connect how discrete digital literacy skills, such as logging in, can be used in different contexts. 

• Set the expectation that technology issues may occur so learners aren’t discouraged when they encounter them.

• Discuss problem-solving and trouble-shooting strategies with learners. 

• Highlight skills students are currently using and demonstrate how those skills can be transferred to technology used in the distance education class.

• Model resilience whenever possible during orientation and instruction by patiently troubleshooting if/when you run into tech problems.

Some popular, commercially licensed curricula make orientation materials available. These resources may have too much information for every learner, but they illustrate the breadth of skills required for successful engagement in online learning activities. If you find you need to modify existing resources based on the information provided, internet searches for other program’s materials and using GenAI may help you more quickly produce resources for your learners. You could also cover all the required information in a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation or short video that could be posted on your organization’s website so that students can go back and review it.

For learners with emerging English skills, you may need to make additional effort to orient learners to the technology. St. Paul Adult Basic Education has created several videos, including Zoom and Google Classroom help, in multiple languages. A California adult education program creates technology guides that are picture-based and include minimal directions and basic vocabulary.

Orienting Learners at a Distance

Fully Distance Programming

Most of this chapter has discussed orientation from the perspective of programs that conduct in person orientations for distance and digital education. However, some states have pure distance education programs where the majority of instruction is delivered at a distance. Learners find these programs either online, through a statewide referral service, or through another referral source. These students may complete intake, assessment, screening, and orientation in person at a local adult education organization. Learners may also complete additional orientation activities at a distance. This may be done synchronously through video conferencing as well as asynchronously using online activities.

For example, some Pennsylvania agencies use video conferencing tools to introduce students to the program, discuss distance learning expectations, and allow students to practice using the technology that will be used during the program’s weekly online classes. In Missouri, students complete online activities that walk them through the steps of developing a distance learning plan and explore the curriculum. Distance teachers in both states support students throughout the orientation.

Remote Orientation When In-person Is Not Practical

There are times when it is not possible to meet in person. This could be due to health-related issues, geographic distance, or barriers to in-person attendance. The National Immigration Forum supported development and implementation of a completely remote workplace ESOL class, which included a robust remote onboarding and orientation process.

Important features of the onboarding included starting communication with phone calls and texting to ensure that students could access the videoconferencing tool and then using that tool to introduce the course Moodle site and other learning technologies. To introduce each technology, teachers provided incremental and highly visual and proactive guidance, and were available for tech support that was often provided in a learner’s home language. You can read more about this effort in their report, Upskilling New Americans: Innovative English Training for Career Advancement (Murray & Negoescu, 2019).

Similar steps proved effective for countless programs that moved their instruction rapidly online because of the pandemic. A common pathway for introducing technologies began with a phone call, then a transition to WhatsApp (or another messaging tool), then to Zoom (or another video conferencing tool), and finally to other educational technologies (edtech) that enhanced engagement and communication.

Although it is possible to orient students completely at a distance, it is important to ensure some face-to-face time during orientation, even if that is via videoconference. Face-to-face orientations, especially those done in person, are consistent with the growing preference for using a blended model to serve adult learners. Pure distance learning programs may find that additional orientation activities need to be completed at a distance to fully prepare the student for distance learning. Students should be supported by a distance teacher as they work through these activities.

NRS Requirements

As of 2024 the NRS allows for “Alternative Placement” so pre- and post-testing might not be required in your state.  

“New rows have been added separately for the ABE and ESL sections on Tables 1, 4, 4A, and 4C to accommodate the new placement flexibility allowed for programs designed to result in MSG types other than EFL gains based on pre- and post-testing using an NRS approved assessment (MSG Type 1a)” (National Reporting System for Adult Education, 2024a). 

This change will likely make orientations provided completely at a distance easier, but such orientations may yet be possible if your state has decided to stick with monitoring learner progress through NRS-level gain. Though several states allow for remote test administration, standardized testing required for this is easier for programs to accomplish in person and may feel less invasive to students who are reluctant to video monitoring often required for at-home testing. Some states have made arrangements with local libraries and community-based organizations to disburse students across settings in order to accommodate proctored assessments with social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This strategy is still relevant today to allow proctored assessments in locations closer to students’ homes.

Orienting Learners at a Distance

Suggested Resources for Further Exploration

Please see Appendix A for a list of useful resources related to this topic that you may want to explore more.

References

Digital US. (2019). Digital navigator playbook. World Education. https://digitalus.org/digital-navigator-playbook/

Digital US. (2024). Our work. World Education. https://digitalus.org/our-work/

Jobs for the Future, & World Education. (2022, April 29). Putting digital literacy and digital resilience into frame. World Education. https://worlded.org/putting-digital-literacy-and-digital-resilience-into-frame/

Murray, J., & Negoescu, A. (2019). Upskilling new americans: Innovative English training for career advancement. National Immigration Forum. https://immigrationforum.org/article/upskilling-new-americans-innovative-english-training-for-career-advancement/

National Reporting System for Adult Education. (2024a). NRS tips: Quick review of the 2024 NRS table changes. U.S. Department of Education. https://worlded.me/NRSTableChanges

National Reporting System for Adult Education. (2024b). Technical assistance guide for performance accountability under the workforce innovation and opportunity act. U.S. Department of Education. https://nrsweb.org/sites/default/files/NRS-TA-April2024-508.pdf

Petty, L. I. (Ed.). (2004). Using assessment to guide instructional planning for distance learners. University of Michigan. https://worlded.me/AssessInstructPlan

Porter, P., & Sturm, M. (2006). Crossing the great divides: Distance learning and flexible delivery in adult basic education. AlphaPlus Centre. http://en.copian.ca/library/research/divides/divides.pdf

Webber, A. A., & Yamashita, J. (2023, April 3). Peer digital navigators key to digital equity. World Education. https://worlded.org/peer-digital-navigators-key-to-digital-equity/

Yamashita, J. H. (2022). Connecting the community: Introducing the digital navigator. COABE Journal: The Resource for Adult Education, 11(2), 87–93. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/connecting-community-introducing-digital/docview/2892083310/se-2?accountid=9649

Yamashita, J., & Webber, A. A. (2023, May 26). Digital navigators connecting communities, bridging persistent digital divides. World Education. https://worlded.org/digital-navigators-connecting-communities-bridging-persistent-digital-divides/