The Educational Communication and Technology (ECT) student orientation is designed to welcome and present program overviews to incoming students in both NYU Games for Learning and Digital Design for learning master students and ECT Ph.D. students. However, the issue is that scores of students have reported the current orientation contains too much information at once which makes it easy for them to lose focus and there is a limited amount of time available for them to connect with their prospective peers and faculties during the orientation.

The problem this project is addressing: how to redesign the orientation to let students receive all the essential info given to them on the orientation without overwhelming them and losing their excitement towards the program?

• • Physical Contexts:

    • Possible Physical Constraints: Due to COVID-19, current ECT students are spreading out across the globe, and learning remotely at their places in different time zones. A key physical constraint within the learning environment that is essential to their orientation experience is that they live in various situations: living alone, living with family or roommates, living with young children in the house, or living with pets. It should be noted that we should provide the incoming ECT students with a learning environment that fits all learners regardless of their current living situations. Besides, other possible physical constraints are access to stable wifi, a laptop or desktop/mobile device for classes, and more.

    • Putting Orientation Online during COVID situations: Although the NYU Administration is planning to offer in-person classes for FALL2021, due to the scarce number of available vaccines and various visa policies, mostly like is that incoming FALL2021 ECT students will take the orientation online. As orientation has been put online, the way how to engage the students and send out the orientation materials (brochures and flyers about the resources and services NYU provides to students) are doomed to be changed from the ones in previous in-person orientations. Moreover, the same as usual, incoming students will complete an asynchronous orientation module online before their orientation.

• Social Contexts:

  • Social Interactions in the Current ECT Community: Numerous current ECT students reflected that normally they didn't have chances to meet people they met during their orientation anymore if they didn't take classes together. If someone wants to reach out to an NYU member, he/she will go to NYU Connect to look for that member's email. But this is not a deal situation for some introverted students. They believed that it would be better to have more student mixer events during the orientation.

  • Social Events Before/During/After the Orientation: ECT program director Maaike believes that getting to know peers and faculty is the most essential part of the orientation. The orientation will engage students in multiple dimensions. In the Welcome Email sends before the orientation starts, Maaike will give a brief introduction of what the incoming ECT cohort look like. Then, during the orientation, Maaike will lead the virtual orientation, read instructions for icebreaker games, and arrange breakout rooms for student and faculty mixer events. Moreover, Maaike will introduce the students to the ECT regular office hour every Wednesday, the ECT Slack channel, the ECT Facebook group, and more to make sure that students know how to connect with each other casually after the orientation.

Generally speaking, we design the learning experience for all the incoming Fall2021 ECT students who come from diverse backgrounds and professions and live in different corners of the work. ECT has both full-time and part-time students.

• Motivations:

  • Know more about the program: All learners are required to join the orientation and are excited to know more about what resources and service ECT offer them and how their academic life at NYU prepare them for future jobs during the orientation.

  • Connect with people in the community: They are also motivated to form a strong relationship with both ECT faculty members to learn more insights into the industry and look for research opportunities but also with their peers to establish strong ties among the community for support.

• Challenges:

  • Some learners work full time in the daytime and take ECT classes at night. They might miss the orientation if the orientation schedule doesn't fit theirs. By the same token, students are currently live across the globe. Time zone differences should be taken into consideration.

  • Course work is challenging and time-consuming. Learners might not want to have more time to join social events with other learners after the orientation.

• Opportunities:

  • Some learners might already have years of working experience in the field. They could support their peers with more hands-on tips.

  • Some learners gain expertise in interactive media arts prior to their arrival at NYU, like doing interactive videos, visual programming, game design, and more. They can create things for the virtual orientation to make it as engaging and interactive as possible.

Learning Goals:

ECT New Student Orientation aims to provide incoming FALL2021 ECT students with a structured and holistic introduction to the academic and co-curricular services and programs vital to their successful transition to the NYU ECT community. By exposing students to the key services and opportunities available to them, we hope to enable students to make well-informed choices and decisions on the academic/career route they would like to take in the future. Through the orientation, new students will be informed about educational opportunities and responsibilities in and outside of the classroom, and ways they can go through to reach out to their cohorts and ECT faculties.

Learning Objectives:

• Learners will identify access to campus services and resources that will enhance their academic/career success and their overall graduate experience by themselves and feel comfortable and confident to use.

• Learners will learn multiple ways to get involved on campus and take responsibility and initiative for their own growth and development, and also be willing to offer help to other community members.

• Learners will develop an effective mechanism to make their transition from their previous environment to the NYU ECT community.

• Learners will relate to their colleagues and faculties in a collaborative manner, built a long-lasting relationship with them, and create a strong enhanced community.