The COVID-19 pandemic has forced institutions of higher education to replace face-to-face classes with online and hybrid offerings. Faculty and students find themselves suddenly online and isolated in remote learning environments; further, many practices successful in classrooms fail to translate to online. Relying on its deep experience with student-centered online education, educators at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) built a course to prepare students for online success. The Professional and Career Exploration (PACE) course is based on learning and persistence theory and highengagement practices; the seven effective principles for enhancing learning and retention in higher education (summarized by Cuseo, 2018) are incorporated in the design of PACE 111. Faculty members are supported by two faculty support courses (FACDEV 411 and FACDEV 111). As a result, qualitative and quantitative data indicates that students' completion and re-enrollment rates are higher than comparable early term courses. Students also report high degrees of satisfaction and confidence in their academic direction after the PACE course. As a result, this paper may inform educators in other institutions as they seek to make successful transitions to online learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]