Innovation in Higher Education: Online Learner Onboarding, Academic Success, and Engagement
Concurrent Session 9
Brief Abstract
This session will walk through three innovative components of a fully online Master's program that will allow attendees to learn our tested ideas about online learner onboarding, academic success, and student engagement and community building.
Extended Abstract
When we think about Online Learner Onboarding, Academic Success, and Engagement, we first start with meeting the student where they are. The goal for this session will be to walk through three innovative components of our online program that have proven highly effective for online learners.
Online programs are unique in that students often do not come from having experience with online learning. Academic success strategies must be cognizant of the likely lack of experience with learning online, onboarding must look different yet achieve similar goals as an in-person program, and engagement and community building must be tailored to this type of learner to achieve true engagement. Online students are increasingly looking for similar services and interactions that an in-person program would offer, so we have learned to be creative with how to provide them with resources and connections. This workshop will provide innovative ideas and allow the audience to provide ideas and proven successful strategies they have used in the past.
Onboarding is a time for us to level-set program expectations and resources, but also a time to solidify their connection to the university, which is harder to achieve in an online program. We have recently revamped our orientation to make it more robust, and to include more connection points to include faculty and leadership connections, case study interactions, detailed resource sharing from a student success manager with whom they will work closely, and time to bond with one another as the program's newest class. Onboarding assessments, including a readiness assessment, have helped remind students of where their priorities should be with regard to academic success upon starting the program, and they are beneficial to the student success managers as well as they are assisting a new group of students while they are in the first semester, which is a critical time to ensure success strategies are deployed.
Academic success is an ongoing component of a student's journey and can ebb and flow with what a student is experiencing in life, especially with working professional students, and there are additional considerations in an online program. Returning to school as a working professional student, many also with families, comes with an adjustment period: re-learning high-quality time management skills, study skills, and learning how to learn online, only to name a few. Most students don't have experience with online learning, and that adjustment in addition to being a student again after many years, is a different type of adjustment. Online learning also comes with adjusting to more self-guided learning, which requires focus, an understanding of the course expectations, and high-quality time management to be even more solidified. We have built a "Learning to Learn Online" module that helps students learn tips for success from the moment they begin the program so there is no lag time in enrolling and learning how to best learn online.
Engagement and community building for online learners are uniquely challenging because many want additional engagement, but they are both online and working full time, which all limit the opportunities they have to engage in a meaningful way. A few ways we have increased engagement among our online learners are:
- Launching a student engagement council made up of leaders to have a better connection with a core group of students to keep a pulse on student sentiment
- Launching a virtual resource center that houses all information, announcements, and community-building opportunities
- Launching a Penpals opportunity for students to connect with one another in a casual and friendly way
- Launch a student profiles sheet to ensure students are easily accessible to one another and can network, and find each other via interests or career information
- Encouraging faculty members to include guest speakers in their live sessions to bring the group together and to provide a networking opportunity for students
- Keeping a regular newsletter running to ensure students are kept informed of engagement opportunities
- Extending invitations from other university departments who host live online events for our students to attend
- Providing students with study group connection opportunities so they can form a team
- Inviting online students to in-person networking events with other students in the in-person version of their program for additional networking and community building opportunities
- Connecting with the student success manager regularly in the first 2 semesters to ensure they are on track and are offered all resources they need