Innovations in Online Student Services

Online learners need many of the same services that are needed by all learnersOnline learners may also need additional services such as: what to expect from online learning, how to navigate the learning management system, how to develop readiness for online success, and how to access and utilize remotely delivered services.

The purpose of the Innovative Online Student Services (IOSS) Commons is to provide a place for people to discuss and explore the challenges of and solutions for developing and delivering services to remotely located students.  We hope to exchange ideas and share resources to learn what works and what doesn’t work.

The goal is for these discussions for commons participants to submit vignettes describing an innovative online student service.  Some of these vignettes will be incorporated into an article that Marie and Anita will write for the January 2013 JALN volume on innovative services for online students.

How we are defining innovative online student services:

• Interactive time-and place-agnostic online services that enable students to complete transactions without coming to campus. Services that are available 24/7/365.

• Services that us emerging technologies with evidence that students are really using the services, possibly with data that indicate that success and retention rates have improved since the service was implemented

• Services that are well organized and designed and easy to navigate 

• Of particular interest: orientation to online learning services, early alert systems, and online academic advising services, especially those that instantiate the Quality Scorecard indicators and the parallel WCET student services suites.

 Facilitators:  Anita Crawley and Marie Fetzner will co-facilitate the Commons on Innovative Online Student Services.

How will the Commons function?  Each week, we will post a question and facilitate a discussion about a particular online student service topic.  We hope these discussions will stimulate descriptions of innovative online student service practices which we are calling vignettes.  We are particularly interested in vignettes that include the voice of students and evidence-based practices.  Bylines for each vignette will be included in the January JALN.

The timeframe for this project is August 20^th-September 28^th, 2012.  Vignettes must be submitted by September 28^th.