Creating Connections:Using Technology to Build

Student CommunityJill Lingard

Associate Director for Online ProgramsUF Warrington College of Business Administration

Bryan HowardCEO, Online Student Technologies, LLC

2008 UF Graduate - Online BSBA

Online Business Program

• Launched in 2002 with 14 students statewide• 509 active students today• 429 graduates through Summer 2009• Targets FL’s transfer students through

community college partnerships– Average age: 30 (range: 20-60) – 90% work full-time; many are parents– 85% do not live in Gainesville

Where are they?

• THE CHALLENGE:– Providing academic advising

and student services to students from Pensacola to Key West

The Solution

THE ONLINE STUDENT CENTER

Uses our electronic course platform to create an online advising center

Functions

• Orientation presentation• Information on...– Course offerings, registration, and syllabi– Required textbooks– Suggested degree plans and course sequencing– Academic policies and degree requirements– Test dates, times, locations

• Links to important UF sites• ‘Ask an Advisor’ discussion board

Benefits

• Reaches students where they already are• Streamlines communication• Fosters self-sufficiency• Reduces anxiety• Builds community

• Nice side effect: frees up our main program Web site to serve more of a marketing purpose

How might YOU use this?

• Advising/training video presentations• Information on majors and degree requirements• ‘Ask a ____’ discussion boards • Peer-to-peer discussion boards• Commonly used forms (and their submission)• Student organizations– Meeting or event videos– Room reservations

GOSA: The Gator Online Student Association

Building community

Do online students interact?

Academic Interaction

Family Interaction

Work Life Interaction

Social Interaction

Online Student

Meet Sara…

Distance learning emotions

• Apprehensive– What classes should I take and when?– How will I manage the course schedules?

• Disconnected– I have to learn this all by myself?– How will I get help when I need it?

• Overwhelmed– How do I get it all done?– How does anyone get it all done?

Student support system

• GOSA’s Birthday – April 29, 2007• Formed by a group of students in the Online

Business Program• Operated by business students, with new

recruits added each year• Provides a family atmosphere and takes the

“distance” out of distance learning

Basic site structure

• General topics– Prospective students– First-semester students– Textbook swap– Jill’s corner– Mentor program

• Business courses– Each course has a board

• Study groups– Breakdown by FL city or

region

• Alumni forum• Instead of homework– 1337 Gators– Football/basketball– Politics

How’s Sara now?

“I was thinking about dropping out of UF to go to UCF because I felt so isolated from the other students and didn't have that connection with others that I needed.

Then I found GOSA and it really changed my mind. I will graduate in December and I really owe it to

GOSA for allowing me to stick with it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm proud to be a part of GOSA and it

is amazing what's been created.”

Sara, GOSA Poster Child and UF Graduate!

Happy and successful

Academic integrity

• GOSA is committed to upholding academic integrity through posting rules and board moderation.

• Students police each other.• Many professors visit the site to gauge student

reactions to lectures, course policies, and tests.

What do professors think?

I see GOSA as the proverbial port in what could be characterized as a stormy sea of juggling difficult classes and work/family obligations in an online degree program. With GOSA, students need not feel adrift. I occasionally monitor my course's discussion board to "keep my finger on the pulse" of the course from the students' perspectives. To see how they interact and help each other is truly inspiring. They do a very good job of self-governing, keeping perspectives in check and encouraging one another. GOSA helps online students truly feel a part of The Gator Nation.

Kent Malone, Real Estate Lecturer

What do professors think?

GOSA provides a place for students with similar issues that are not shared by the on-campus students to support one another and share their problems and insights. Just having someone to talk to and a place to vent where others are in the same boat is helpful, as is the moral support they offer one another. I definitely think it helps with program persistence. I also think the sense of community and ties to the University that GOSA fosters are helpful in broader ways that are harder to pin down. I suspect, for example, it increases the probability that online students will later contribute to the University as alumni.

Dr. James Dewey, Research Economist

Academic performance

• Grades– Average GPA among all active students: 2.96– Average GPA among GOSA members: 3.04– Average GPA among non-GOSA members: 2.76

Academic performance

• Persistence – ECP3703 – Managerial Economics• Pre-GOSA drop rates: 33%, 32%, 31% • Post-GOSA drop rates: 18%, 17%, 20%

– FIN3403 – Business Finance• Pre-GOSA drop rates: 50%, 32%, 33% • Post-GOSA drop rates: 23%, 20%, 17%

We can now tell our students...

“If you join GOSA and actively participate, odds are you’ll earn better grades and

drop fewer courses.”

(“And by the way, it’s fun too!”)

GOSA’s impact on student experience:from degree shopper to UF graduate

Student services

• Orientation• Registration• Academic advising• Graduation

Online Business Program

Student Services Testing Marketing &

Recruitment

Orientation

• Online or on-campus (Saturdays)• We plug new students into GOSA immediately!• Relevant GOSA boards– First Semester Students– New to GOSA

• GOSA mentors• Post (campus) orientation bonding

Registration

• Streamlined communication to students– Deadlines– ‘How To’ information– Related details: test dates, textbooks, syllabi

• ‘On the ball’ students pull others with them• Continuing students educate newbies

Academic advising

• ‘Rate My Schedule’ thread• Peer feedback from students like them– Community college graduates– Working fulltime– Parents

• Jill’s Corner– For general advising questions– Refer personal matters to a more appropriate venue

Graduation

• Streamlined communication to students– Degree application deadlines, regalia orders,

commencement ceremony details

• Reception for online grads– Started Fall ‘07 as a direct result of GOSA feedback– Chance for students, faculty, staff to meet everyone

they’ve been emailing for 2+ years

Testing

• How testing works• Communication of procedures

– Test day emergencies

• Ride share board• Pre-exam study groups• Post-exam ‘therapy’ Online Business

Program

Student Services Testing Marketing &

Recruitment

Marketing & recruitment

• Prospective Students board• Referrals to GOSA in emails, at college fairs• Posters in students’ offices• Word-of-mouth recruiting

Online Business Program

Student Services Testing Marketing &

Recruitment

Marketing & recruitment

NOTHING markets an online degree program better than satisfied students.

Biggest impacts

• Increased academic performance and persistence

• More effective communication– Peer-to-peer– Advisor-to-student (and vice versa)

• Constant source of student feedback– How are we doing? Where can we improve?– Finding themes amid ‘the noise’

• The GOSA family

Questions?

• Bryan Howard– CEO, Online Student Technologies, LLC– (321) 258-4335– bryan@ufonlinestudents.org

• Jill Lingard– Associate Director for Online Programs– University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business– (352) 273-0165, jill.lingard@cba.ufl.edu