New Online Graduate Orientation Recognized With Award

Highlighting a commitment to student success, Global Campus presented the Lightbulb Award for Innovation to the team behind the university's first-ever coordinated orientation designed for online graduate students.

Cheryl Murphy, vice provost for distance education, announced the award at a staff meeting in January.

The online graduate student orientation gives master's and doctoral students in online programs support for a great start to their graduate education. Along with undergraduate online orientation, it aims to make an incoming student's first semester as clear and as stress-free as possible.

Graduate students studying online are often older than other students, work full time and have family to support. These responsibilities often make returning to college seem more daunting than it needs to be, said lead instructional designer for this project, Camie Wood. According to the 2025 Global Campus Annual Report, a 2024 survey of U of A students in online programs found 81% were employed full time, 51% were parenting, and 70% owned their own homes.

The graduate orientation was developed to provide support for the new student onboarding process and get students familiar with the structure, supports and systems of the U of A and their program. Through the use of web pages, videos and live guidance, students explore how to navigate the entire process of joining the U of A as a member of a community of scholars as well as engaging with peers and a facilitator in a class-like setting.

"We recognized a high need for online graduate orientation because most of our students are non-traditional students," said project co-lead Randy Forst. "Having an orientation that would give them information and details about resources, how to use Blackboard and things like that is important for online graduate students."

The History of Online Graduate Orientation

Patty Milner, assistant vice provost for Innovation & Online Student Experience at Global Campus, said the online graduate orientation came about in response to an urgent need for an online student introduction to the U of A.

"Graduate student orientation has been something that we've talked about for quite a while, especially once we got the undergraduate orientation up and going," said co-lead Kati Williams. An online orientation for undergraduates began in 2021. Enrollment data show that 83% of students who completed the online orientation were still enrolled at the end of the fall 2022 semester. The data suggested that students who complete orientation are more likely to successfully complete their first semester.

"We have learned a lot from our experiences with undergraduate online orientation," said Milner, "including the importance of giving new online students a place to connect and experience our digital learning environment and support systems prior to starting a credit class. This experience allows them to have a strong start in their courses feeling confident that they understand expectations and know how to navigate and reach out for support when they need it."

"We wanted to make sure that we were able to offer something similar for our graduate students, and we felt we were ready to take on launching graduate orientation," she said.

The pilot for graduate orientation launched in Fall 2025 with two sections and received very positive reviews. Six sections opened to students in nine additional programs in Spring 2026.

The Core Team

Co-Leads — Randy Forst and Kati Williams

The co-leads combined their efforts to perform the duties of subject matter expert, content writer and course developer.

Randy Forst

Forst has served as the online student orientation specialist for about two years.

Forst said that his role in the project was to "determine what specific content was to go into the course, how it was going to be presented within the course itself, and what the overall theme or idea of the course is going to look like."

This included extensive research to determine what kind of material would benefit all graduate students at master's and doctoral levels. He also worked on what information would be presented within the course, to promote student engagement with the content, and encourage students to participate through to the end.

"I guess I was kind of surprised when the award was announced, as I wasn't aware that it was even under consideration," Forst said.

Kati Williams

Williams is the online student support coordinator. As supervisor for the online student coaching and orientation teams, a large portion of her workday is spent in support of her staff.

Williams' role in the project was to assist Forst wherever necessary, to help generate ideas and to provide leadership for the entire team.

"Orientation came under my umbrella in spring of 2024," Williams said, "so I've been doing the orientation or overseeing orientation for about two years now. I'm super proud of Randy and all the work that he put into making this project happen. He really took the reins, and now we have graduate orientation. He was really the one that made a lot of this happen and we're proud of him for that."

Project Manager — Eve Canty

Canty was involved with the project in her former role as director of innovation and special projects before moving into a new position at Global Campus last September.

Her work was to understand the various components needed for the project, coordinate with different branches of the overall project to facilitate communication and confirm that each section was delivered on time, Canty said.

"Essentially I make sure that things are getting done on time, helping people kind of see the bigger picture of what needed to be accomplished and how all of their pieces fit together," Canty said. "Much of my time was spent talking with people and meeting with them to understand what had happened so far, why it had happened, what role they were playing, what they were good at, and what they were excited about. I fit the pieces together as part of a realistic timeline so everyone could do their best work."

Lead Instructional Designer — Camie Wood

Wood, an instructional designer for over three years, established graphic and design guidelines and worked with others to apply those guidelines to the finished product. Her efforts shaped the overall framework and supported its implementation, with a focus on articulating how those principles should appear both visually and instructionally.

"Graduate orientation required coordination across multiple roles, and it was affirming to see that work recognized as impactful," said Wood. "This project highlighted how thoughtful instructional design can reduce friction and support students at critical transition points. I'm glad the work contributed to a clearer, more supportive experience for graduate students."

One challenge Wood faced was balancing the volume of required information with the need to avoid overload. She addressed this by clarifying priorities at the design level, then applying strategies such as chunking—breaking information into small, manageable pieces—and visual hierarchy—how the page tells your eyes what's most important—during development.

"My first thought upon receiving the award was appreciation for the collective effort behind the project," Wood said. "I'm most proud of the overall coherence of the experience, how the visual and instructional elements aligned. That coherence reflects a collaborative process where design guidance and implementation worked together to create a predictable, low-friction pathway for students."

Graduate Student Subject Matter Expert - Colleen Whitman

Whitman, online student support manager, manages teams supporting online students going through the application process and attending the university. She supervises the Online Student Liaison Office and the Coaching for Online Students Office for Global Campus.

For this project, Whitman spent many hours facilitating communication between campus directors, faculty and students.

Facilitators and Support

The online orientation project pulled together several colleges and departments, giving people with different perspectives and connections an opportunity to construct an orientation process that would truly make an impact. Faculty and staff facilitators gave participating students hands-on experience using Blackboard and other campus services, preparing them for real-time enrollment and class activities, said Forst.

Key contributors from the Global Campus media production team include visual designer

Brysen Taylor, who designed the Razorbug image that is the main image/theme for the course. The film crew of Luke Gramlich, Whitney Winkler and Kris Washington recorded and edited all the course videos.

"A lot of outside support contributed to both the creation and success of the Graduate Orientation project," said Forst. "A lot of the communication and collaboration among faculty and staff centered around several different things. First off, we decided to get some input from Global Campus staff to see what their roles would be, see what their thoughts and ideas were, and what kind of content they felt would be important to put into an orientation course for grad students. We received good feedback from that.

"We also communicated with faculty and program directors across campus to get some feedback and learn what programs wanted to participate and who would be interested."

Once orientation was up and running, facilitators who had direct connections to the program were brought on board to get the course up and running. Faculty volunteers came from multiple colleges across campus, with program directors and people in similar roles. This proved very beneficial in giving the participating students a clear line of communication directly with people in their program, said Forst.

Members of the university staff and faculty who provided major contributions to the project include Jack Kern, Teaching Professor of Physical Education. Another was Julia Smith, associate director of Graduate Student Support.

"Having those campus partners, people with whom we've already built a strong working rapport, come in and be facilitators was a game-changer," Williams said. "Getting them involved, getting them excited and wanting to do it with us required a lot of meetings, both virtual and in person."

In addition to faculty and program coordinators, other university staff were called in to create instructional videos related to their specializations. Among them, Chris Bryson from the office of Academic Integrity and Initiatives helped create a video on integrity. Iroshi "Ro" Windwalker from the Institutional Review Board created an instructional video on how a student researcher should create, complete and submit a research protocol. Librarians from Mullins Library offered videos on how to use the online library, while the Writing Center team contributed their own guidance for new graduate students. Milner presented a video on the importance of time management.

"There were so many people involved," Forst said. "We brought individuals in to do specific things. It's hard to remember the names of everyone that contributed, but it's fair to say the project would not have worked without their help."

Learn More

Global Campus instituted the Lightbulb Award to honor staff members for outstanding innovation that goes above and beyond their routine job responsibilities. This award is open to appointed and hourly staff who work for Global Campus. Previous winners of this award include the Hospitality Event Management Sim Team, the Pedagogy Toolkit Podcast Team, and the Slate Team.

The Global Campus supports the U of A academic colleges and schools in the development and delivery of online degree programs and courses, and workforce development programs. This unit provides instructional design services, learning technology support, media production services and assistance with financial administration, recruitment and marketing.

The Global Campus also supports the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying in online degree programs.