Orienting Your Students to Leo

Let’s talk about student orientation! It is my favorite event of the year. The whole campus was organized chaos, filled with new smiling faces. However, orientation can often be an overwhelming experience for incoming students. A former student of mine compared it to “drinking from a fire hose”. As administrators we want to give students all the information they need to be successful without overloading them. That makes planning orientation content a bit of a balancing act. 

Let’s start with orienting your students to their new learning management system, Leo. At DaVinci Education, we have created a series of resources and virtual training modules to help you develop an orientation program that works for your students and institution. Learn more about our virtual training modules below.

Student Orientation Virtual Training Modules

In our Creating an Orientation to Leo Course for Students article, we provide detailed instructions and resources to help you create an orientation program that meets your institution’s needs. With step-by-step instructions, guided tutorials and virtual training modules you can seamlessly orient your students to Leo, whether in-person or online. In our first module, Student Orientation to Leo, we share guided workflows on navigating and accessing courses, instructions to set up the Leo calendar feed and much more. In Events in Leo, students learn how to participate in events from replying in a discussion board to recording their attendance in an event. Additional modules on Evaluations, Exams and Patient Encounter Tracking (PET) empower client partners to go beyond the basics of using Leo to selecting specialized modules on the features utilized at your institution. Added bonus, each module ends with a certificate of completion so you can track participation!

Delivering Content

Now that we have discussed what resources are available, let’s talk about options for delivering your content to students. 

In-person: If you can get face time with students during orientation, great! Consider hosting a lab session where students can sign-in and complete the modules with support staff available for questions. Not much time on the schedule? Make it brief by introducing campus contacts for Leo, previewing the Calendar screen and guiding them through the calendar feed set up, then directing them to the self-paced modules for additional details

Virtual: If your orientation schedule is already jam packed, DaVinci has you covered. Follow the steps outlined in our Creating an Orientation to Leo Course for Students article to create a fully virtual orientation right in Leo. Do you have any required forms that must be submitted upon arrival? Consider adding this submission as an assignment for students to upload before they arrive. Create a discussion board where students can get to know their classmates virtually, before setting foot on campus. If you are already providing technical onboarding before students get to campus, see if you can incorporate our modules into your existing content. The sooner students are able to familiarize themselves with Leo, the more they can get out of their courses and events right away.

Hybrid: Personally, this is my favorite approach for orientation because it combines the convenience of virtual content and the power of in-person contact. When possible, maximize the time leading up to orientation by asking students to complete the virtual training modules before they arrive on campus. Consider holding a working session later in the year on topics such as evaluation or TBL exams. Remember, we don’t want students to leave feeling overwhelmed. This approach provides students with time, space and support to understand the basics of Leo, so your administrators can put their knowledge into practice during live courses.

Easily Customizable

Our virtual training modules were designed for customized implementation. You can choose the modules and approach that works best for your students. Consider adding modules as students are introduced to other features such as Exams or PET.  Maybe your students need a refresher on Evaluations in Leo before their clerkships, if so, you can add the module in your clerkship orientation course or directly in your clerkship materials.  We hope you will use the modules whenever and wherever you feel is most relevant and appropriate for your students. 

Build an orientation experience that works for your students as they transition to Leo. And don’t forget to make this content your own by adding institutional specific resources to your orientation program.