The Orientation Team within Student Success and Engagement (SSE) wants to thank our academic faculty and campus partners for their continued support of Orientation programming, first as we navigated moving into the virtual world and now as we prepare for hybrid delivery.

It is clear from both our student and partner feedback, as well as our data, that the move to an online environment yielded some great benefits and gains that we hope to continue to leverage as we move to a more hybrid approach this fall and begin to re-introduce limited in-person components. Taking into account our successes with Online Orientation, the anticipated expansion of in-person academic programming this fall, and of course, our commitment to keeping students safe, below is a summary of what Fall Orientation 2021 will look like:

• Monday, August 2 - We will launch online Orientation in two parts:

a) Our Orientation website: a hub/resource for students, including pre-recorded video workshops, wayfinding information on how to navigate Humber's website, links to learning resources, and other key information.

b) A video-based Orientation Blackboard module will launch, which will further strengthen students' knowledge of supports/resources that are available to help them succeed in their new journey at Humber.  

• Monday, August 30 – Thursday, September 2 - We will host Academic Orientation which will consist of Meet Your Faculty sessions. These sessions will largely continue to be offered via Blackboard Collaborate with some limited in-person sessions hosted on campus where a program with substantial on-campus delivery this Fall is deemed to require an on-site orientation. Students will be emailed their session details directly once those are confirmed.

• September 6 – September 30 - Orientation will continue with offering a full month of Welcome activities in place of what used to be a week of programming during the first week of classes. Done in collaboration with campus partners, these activities, such as networking events will focus on social health and wellbeing and academic transitions - will also largely continue to be delivered through online platforms with a few in-person events planned for outdoor spaces on campus.

Plans also include digital swag for students and an opportunity to access recorded programming at any time through our website. 

We are continually reviewing what other institutions are planning and creating, sharing best practices, and canvasing our students to ensure we are supporting them to the best of our ability. We appreciate everyone's continued support as we roll out Online Orientation and some of these new hybrid components. We’ll be connecting with our campus partners directly in the next few weeks with some additional details and working with them to finalize the schedule of activities. 

Best,