Introduction

Your orientation to UVic starts even before your first class. Completing our online pre-arrival program in the months before you start at UVic will make your first few weeks a little easier and to help make you a little more successful.   – From the course home page

UVic’s Pre-Arrival program piloted in January 2019, and the full program launched for the first time a few months later, in July 2019. All undergraduate students who are new to UVic are expected to complete the program, although it is not mandatory.

By taking the time to complete this program, students will:

  • Learn what to expect at UVic, inside and outside the classroom
  • Learn what supports and services are available to you
  • Explore some strategies for university success
  • Feel ready and confident to start the term

Topics

The Pre-Arrival Program has eight different topics. Students are able to access all topics upon enrolling in the course, and may choose to complete the topics in any order they wish.

Welcome to our community Learn more about the UVic community, including some fun facts, our community values and how to navigate our virtual campus.
Transition Learn more about what changes to expect in your life, evaluate your life skills and make a plan for building and maintaining your community.
Academic success Learn what to expect during your first term at UVic, develop strategies for success and explore how to maintain your academic integrity.
Finances Learn more about the costs associated with being a university student, explore how financial systems work and identify strategies for ensuring you can finance your education and your life.
Health & wellness Learn about the wellness wheel, reflect on the strategies you use for self-care and explore ways to maintain positive mental and physical health at university.
Substance use Learn more about substance use at UVic and reflect on what you would like your relationship with substances to be.
Respect & consent Learn about UVic’s approach to addressing sexualized violence, including available support services, consent, prevention and responding to disclosures.
Involvement Learn why involvement is an important part of your UVic experience, explore ways to stay connected to our community, even from afar.

Inside the program

Our program was initially hosted in CourseSpaces, UVic’s learning management system (LMS), which is a version of Moodle. UVic has since switched their LMS to Brightspace, so our program has switched too. Since the program is behind a log-in, we are not able to give folks from outside the institution access the program. However, all content has been replicated on this website, in this Explore our program section, to allow you to see what we’ve done. All content on this site is from the pre-COVID version of our program.

The video below, Navigating the course, is a video that helps explain to students how to navigate the Pre-Arrival Program. While the navigation advice won’t be helpful for you, this video gives you a glimpse of what the program looked like inside CourseSpaces. The video is 2 minutes 43 seconds.


Thank you

We are immensely grateful for all of the time, resources, and support UVic’s Technology Integrated Learning team gave to the development of our Pre-Arrival Program. They made our program better, and they made us better. Thank you.

Note: All content in the ‘Explore your program’ section of this website is property of the University of Victoria and is not licensed under Creative Commons. Content should not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without permission.

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