Bringing part-time MBA students into the AGSM community through an online onboarding program
Dr Maurizo Floris - AGSM , Business School
In recent years the AGSM has seen rapid growth of online students in our part-time MBA programs . Increasingly students missed out on our one-day face-to-face Orientation Conference . COVID-19 provided the immediate incentive to create a comprehensive online onboarding program for the 254 commencing students in T2 ( 60 % increase over T2 in 2019 ).
One of our main aims is to bring these new students into our AGSM learning community . However , how can we begin developing an online learning community during onboarding for these geographically distributed and time-scarce students ?
We created an integrated Onboard Advantage Program that kicks-off with a two-hour orientation conference before term commencement , followed by a series of scheduled workshops and personal touch points throughout a student ’ s first term at the AGSM .
While the online Orientation Conference allows communication of some essential adminstrative information , the focus of this 2-hour session is to create excitement and emotional connection . This is achieved by humanising student-facing AGSM team members and , above all , two small group break-out sessions that allow students to meet fellow students .
Following the Orientation Conference students can participate in “ Three Coffees ”, where we connect groups of 4 students to self-organise either online or face-to-face coffee catch ups between weeks 2- 5 . This complements individual calls students receive to check they are all set up the term ( in week 1 ), and a second call to plan the next term ( in week 5 ). There are also workshops on Time-saving Study Skills , Blitzing Assessments , and on career development .
Feedback on the initial Orientation Conference was extremely positive and suggests that this was as strongly regarded as the face-to-face orientation . Importantly , nearly 80 % of new students was able to participate , more than was previously possible .
While the program has been very successful to date , it is seen as a Minimum Viable Product that we can improve over time . Trial and error of individual elements of the program will allow us to continuously improve these . Where we have an opportunity for step-change in regards to community building for new students in their initial term , is to integrate a number of deliberate communitybuilding activities in the starter course ( MBAX9131 Leadership ) that each student is expected to take . Such an integrated perspective of their ‘ First 90 Days ’ with the AGSM will set up students for success even better , and further strengthen an increasingly online learning community and professional network .
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