For Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC), orientation was meant to help students take their first steps toward college. But with thousands of new students arriving each year across six campuses and an aviation training center, all within a nine-county region of northwest Georgia, making orientation accessible, consistent, and useful for every student was becoming increasingly difficult.
Plus, many GNTC students are working adults balancing college with jobs and families, while 40% to 50% are first-generation college students. Matt Bryant, GNTC’s Director of Enrollment Services, knows those students well. Before moving into enrollment, he worked as a student success coach and career services coordinator, where he regularly fielded the questions students brought with them after acceptance. Through those conversations, he saw firsthand where students needed more clarity and where the orientation experience could do more to prepare them for what came next.
GNTC began asking a bigger question: Could orientation become a resource students could use when they needed it, rather than another hurdle to get through?
The Problem: Orientation That Felt Like a Hurdle
Before going digital, GNTC held two- to three-hour, in-person orientation sessions on every campus before every semester. Coordinating the sessions was a significant lift for staff, and maintaining consistency across campuses was difficult. Students could receive the same PDFs and videos but experience the information differently depending on who led the session.
The in-person orientation also didn't always reflect how students actually attended GNTC. Many students take core classes at one location and program courses at another, making it difficult to connect orientation to a single campus.
Then there was the immense amount of information students were being thrown. "Dumping everything in one orientation session can be information overload, and it makes you ask 'Can I do this? Is this for me?'" Matt said.
When COVID moved orientation to video conferencing, students still had to register and attend at a specific time. But when GNTC began offering both virtual and on-campus options, student behavior revealed something important: virtual sessions filled up first, and the college kept adding more dates.
The pattern was hard to ignore. Students were choosing the flexibility of virtual orientation, giving GNTC a clear signal that it was time to rethink what an online orientation experience could look like.
The Solution: A Signpost Students Can Follow Anytime
GNTC's Dean of Student Success discovered Advantage Orientation and brought another college's experience to the team. With virtual orientation already gaining momentum, leadership buy-in came easily. Student success leaders then took a closer look at everything they had been presenting and asked what newly accepted students actually needed to know, what could be removed, and what students might need to revisit later.
That review also meant considering how to make required training easier for students to complete. Because GNTC students must complete Title IX training, the college decided to use the Advantage platform to not only keep training in one place but to also allow the team to track completion, follow up with students who still need to finish, and document compliance for reporting.
The result was an orientation built around a simple idea Matt still uses to describe the experience: orientation should be "a signpost in the process of becoming enrolled, not a barrier to get through to start classes."
That idea shaped the experience in several ways:
- Start with a warm welcome. Videos from GNTC President Dr. Popham and current students create a welcoming introduction before students dive into information.
- Turn setup into action. How-to videos walk students through Okta, myGNTC, Blackboard, and student email, so they can complete their setup and finish the section ready to use these essential tools.
- Keep required training in one place. GNTC incorporated Advantage's Title IX Learning Module directly into orientation, allowing their team to meet compliance without sending students to another platform.
- Meet students where they are. Because many GNTC students are fitting college into already busy lives, the orientation works across devices and can be accessed whenever students have time.
An Experience Students Can Return To
The new approach gave students more than a single orientation session. It gave them a resource they could return to when they needed an answer, a reminder, or a little more confidence about what comes next.
In GNTC's 2026 orientation survey, 94% of students reported having more knowledge of how to navigate the enrollment process and access important student resources, while 91% said they felt better equipped to attend their first class.
The impact reached beyond students, too. GNTC's dual enrollment team saw the value of the new approach and asked to move their own orientation online without anyone reaching out to them first.
"Our orientation spoke for itself," Matt said, "and now even more of our campus partners want to get involved."
For GNTC, rethinking orientation wasn't about putting an existing session online. It was about creating a clearer path into college, one that students can navigate on their own time and return to when they need it.
Orientation became what Matt believed it should be all along: a signpost, not a barrier.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a multi-campus college deliver consistent orientation?
Georgia Northwestern Technical College replaced in-person sessions that varied by campus and presenter with one online Advantage Orientation for all new students. Every student gets the same information in the same way, no matter which of GNTC's six campuses they attend. Students also no longer have to choose a campus for orientation that they may never take a class on.
What should online orientation include for first-generation students?
Start with a welcome before any information. GNTC opens with videos from its president and current students so new students feel they belong. From there, show rather than tell: how-to videos walk students through setting up their accounts, and registration and financial aid guidance come as text, PDFs, videos, and an advising link, all written in plain language.
How do you reduce information overload in new student orientation?
Focus on what students need right after acceptance and retire the rest. GNTC's campus managers and student success leaders reviewed everything they had presented in person before deciding what to carry forward. Students now move through self-paced sections on any device and can return later, such as revisiting the FAFSA walkthrough when it's time to renew.
See GNTC's Approach in Action & Request the Full Recording
In the full webinar, Matt gives the Advantage team a live tour of GNTC's Advantage Orientation and shares his advice for colleges looking to rethink their own student orientation.
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