The New, Virtual SOAR
The month of June always brings excitement to our campus. Our current Badgers are fresh off their spring semester, feeling good, and looking forward to their summer plans. Meanwhile our new Badgers are preparing to start their own journey on our campus through their SOAR experience. This year we have a whole new SOAR experience to offer amidst the pandemic… we’re going virtual!
Our SOAR operation on campus is a well-oiled machine involving nearly every department or division on campus. Pivoting to an online program was a huge undertaking for our Center for the First Year Experience, and they’ve done a fantastic job of including everyone and setting up a SOAR experience that will be best for our students.
For the most part, much of what the Office of the Registrar provides for SOAR is staying the same, it is just being provided in a different way. One change in delivery is the support for the Course Search and Enroll (CS&E) application. Typically in the past the tool has been taught by the advising groups, but this year Aaron Apel with Student Services, and project lead for the CS&E app, is creating videos that will be used in the CANVAS courses students will be required to take. Aaron has provided support before and is translating his knowledge and previous support into a video format.
The release of enrollment appointment times and how students get released to enroll in courses will also work differently this year. Previously, the RO provided specific group enrollment days and times, but because students are not coming in groups this year, the process will be more individualized, sporadic, and based on when students meet with their advisors. The RO is utilizing a hold system to allow the advisor to determine when a student can enroll. Student Services is working with advising to ensure that this type of enrollment appointment goes smoothly.
A larger change for the RO, and the Division of Enrollment Management, is the creation of the Credit Evaluation Services team. Because of this new team, there will be a dedicated group working “at” SOAR daily to help students with credit evaluation and course equivalencies in real-time. Additionally, the RO will also, as in past years, have Student Services staff to act as consultants and be available to help with enrollment issues within SIS. The SOAR team is working to figure out how best to connect students with consultants of all types.
The OSFA presentation we’ve historically provided in person to parents and guests will be available electronically on the SOAR guest website. We’ll also be including helpful links and virtual handouts to help access our resources. And lastly, in lieu of our popular pre-SOAR individual, drop-in advising we’ll be encouraging students, parents, and guests to call (608-262-3060) into our virtual drop-in advising from 11 am-Noon Monday-Friday throughout the summer.
Even though the 2020 SOAR experience will look and feel different than in the past, we’ll be prepared and at the ready to welcome our new Badgers to campus. Students will have more time to work with the tools and can set their own pace. They can also go back and review the videos and other resources. Some of the most notable benefits from the adjustments made this year are changes that have the potential to continue to be implemented beyond this summer. The videos for both CS&E and OSFA, for example, can be used in the future and beyond SOAR. While we are unsure of all the specific influences and how these changes might impact the future, there is potential for this year’s situation to improve the process moving forward.