Some ideas of onboarding for the students of higher education

Diseñar, planificar e implementar un onboarding para los nuevos estudiantes de tu universidad, business school o centro educativo es un factor diferencial para el engagement con
los nuevos estudiantes.

If you are a university, business school or higher education institution and do not have defined the process of onboarding, it is time to start doing it. 

And if you have not yet decided to start, see this article why you should incorporate the onboarding of new students in your school.

Some ideas to start the onboarding:

1. Starts before the 1st day of the course

We tend to think that the onboarding begins on the 1st day of the course, but actually the relationship between the centre and the student begins much earlier. 

A student is already part of your educational center from the moment in which it performs the registration. And in most cases, there is usually at least a couple or three months between the registration until the start of the course. 

So, why not take advantage of this period to establish the first messages of this onboarding for new students? 

You also need to take into account that it is at this time that the new student is more receptive than ever to receive messages from the centre. The reality is that from the moment in which you are enrolling, you want to begin to establish a relationship with the center.

And these are the first messages that allow you to connect with him, to establish a dialogue and begin to build your perception of the university since before his own experience in the day-to-day once you begin the course. 

In this stage some helpful messages for the future student may be: 

• A brief presentation and welcome to the university
  

• A presentation of the teachers with first name, last name, photo, and a brief description more personal that allows you to know better the people that will be your main reference for their studies.

• Give to know the tools and official channels of communication center to have it clear from the start.

• Explain what facilities and services are available to students and how to make use of it.

• Tips and recommendations for the first few days, that certainly pose a difficult time and stress for the new students.

• • And of course, it is useful to make a small spoiler of the culture center, values, key events, their routines and traditions, that is to say, to explain a little bit what will be the day-to-day once you have started the course. 

 Of course, these messages don'T go all at once! The information has to flow in an orderly fashion, and above all, we must not saturate the student before you begin. 

2. Make the 1st day of the course to be remembered (in a positive, clear)

The first day is the key day for generate engagement. A day that will be saved to the memory and in which we must advocate for your experience to be as positive as possible. 

And for this purpose there is to help the student by giving you a series of indications that will simplify your first day:

• Tell him clearly the time of entry, where it should go and yes, indicate the way if necessary. You feel that you don't know where you go is not at all a positive experience. 

• Prepares a guided tour of the facilities the center and its services. 

• Make a welcomebut you try to not be a monologue, give the student the opportunity to participate and ask questions (even though, yes, we know that in 95% of cases do not usually make them...). 

• Encourages interaction between the students. Break the ice the first day it is not easy for the more introverted students, but you can encourage to speak up and presented to the partner the side. What is a good way to start to socialize, not?

• • He introduces the key people of the center and how you can contact them for any topic. 

And yes, of course, complemented with a welcome welcome pack merchandising the center is always something that will be to the liking of the new students. 

3. Passed on the 1st day, don't forget them!

Keep it clear: once passed the first day, the onboarding continues. It should not be a process with the sole focus of a day if we want it to be a success. What can you do?

• • Defines mentors who are other students who can help the new students. So to be people of the same profile can give you more specific advice or even reduce the barrier to consult with them his doubts. 

• • Do not forget to talk to the new students, ask them their opinion about the school and about how it is being your experience.

I want to implement an onboarding at my university!

Just perfect!, you are in the right place!

Unifit as can help you in all this process of onboarding for new students to your school with:

• • a app for your university or educational institution you can use it as a channel of communication with new students, getting a few ratios of engagement and superior to any other channel is used in the center.

• • the knowledge and expertise team unifit as in the design, development and implementation of strategies onboarding successful in other educational centers. 

• • the support in the promotion and creation of content on the basis of the defined strategy to your university, business school or higher education institution.

Contact us and we will tell you much more.