FLO tips - Embarking on the digital journey The Online Orientation

Providing a clear online topic orientation for each topic helps students sense of capability, resourcefulness, and connectedness and contributes to students becoming active and independent learners. These tips have been created to assist you in preparing an effective online orientation to support student success. It is important to consult with the course coordinator and the rest of the teaching team to make sure the structure of the topic you are teaching fits with the rest of the course.

Tip 1: Develop students’ sense of capability and purpose

To support students in feeling capable, it’s crucial to provide clarity about expectations and timelines. When designing an online topic site, ensure a logical content flow for easy navigation and clear understanding of student responsibilities. Be mindful of cognitive overload—while some upfront information is necessary, too much can overwhelm students. Consider strategies to break down information effectively:

Restricting access to some information until certain dates (e.g. hiding certain resources until a particular point in the teaching period, depending on the structure of the topic).
Using a logical path through the content so that the topic is easy to navigate.
Using an alternative location for more general course information (and linking to this) to avoid students having to re-read information (e.g. course FLO sites, or course information on course-specific webpages). Students can be grouped within course sites so relevant information can be targeted at first, second and third years.
Include a welcome message in announcements and consider using a welcome video to clearly outline what is expected of students and when.

Resources that can help

Self-paced workshop: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

See what this looks like in FLO

Flinders Canvas Community of Practice (CoP): exemplars

Tip 2: Foster students’ resourcefulness

It is worth highlighting to students that Flinders runs a four-week orientation program for all commencing students. Consistent, university-wide communication materials are developed each year for University orientation and to assist in helping students familiarise themselves with the university environment. There is no need for you to duplicate this work, instead you can focus on orientating students to the topic within the broader context of the course. University-wide information provided to students includes:

Finding your way at Flinders FLO site which introduces students to the broader university context, support and services.
Direct students to the Help menu in FLO for direct links to support resources such as Student Support materials, Student Portal, Library, Learning Support, Careers, etc.
In the support page of Finding your way module for each topic, students can find direct links to Student Learning Support Services, Library support and Mental health and wellbeing support.

Resources that can help

Students: Orientation

Tip 3: Promote connectedness through peer-to-peer relations

You can build a sense of community for students by providing opportunities for them to meet and positively interact with their peers. Some opportunities you may like to consider, include:

Use icebreakers to encourage student interaction.
Draw students’ attention to Microsoft Team classes in FLO. Topic coordinators can encourage students to use this as a space to engage with their peers socially, to discuss strategies or to do group work.
Encourage students to participate in drop-in sessions during week one.
Activate student discussion forums and actively promote participation.
Inform students about mentoring programs available at Flinders.