How to Offer Successful Student Support Services Online

While making a move towards online student affairs is a big step, there are a few things an institution can do to keep the mission of student affairs alive in virtual environments.

Fremont, CA: Recent incidents have prompted colleges and universities to expand their online student services capabilities. While professors work to bring course content online as quickly as possible, student affairs professionals must come up with innovative ways to support, engage, and nurture students throughout their virtual college experience. Moving student services and programs online can be a difficult task, but it is not impossible. Engaging online learners through a variety of student affairs functional areas, in fact, allows practitioners to be imaginative and creative while also broadening their reach.

How to offer student support services online:

Organize virtual career programs

Seniors are getting ready to graduate and find jobs in their fields of study. Instead of conducting a physical spring job fair on campus, virtual job fairs can be held in breakout rooms where students can meet with employers one-on-one. Video interviews are becoming increasingly prevalent in the real world, and having this type of exposure will allow students to develop their virtual interviewing skills. Offering virtual mock interview sessions where students meet online with a representative from the institution's career center to practice interviewing skills can assist them in preparing for their interviews. Students can conduct live résumé and cover letter reviews using a shared Google doc.

Offer registration services virtually

Instead of meeting with advisees in person, colleges can set up one-on-one meetings with them using their university's learning management system or audio meeting capability, or use other programs that the institution already has a license for, such as Zoom. If both have an Apple device or Google Duo for Android-compatible devices, advisers could meet with students via Facetime or Google Duo. Create a screencast using a service like Screencast-O-Matic to lead students through the online registration process, which will allow them to see the whole schedule, course offerings, and how to choose courses.

Use social media to maintain a connection with students

When it comes to staying in touch with students, an LMS can only go so far. Engage students in their natural habitat through social media. On Instagram or Facebook Live, campus recreation can host live exercise courses. Make Facebook groups for the students and invite them to join and contribute in some way. Invite students to virtual programming via Twitter, and encourage them to retweet and invite classmates. Set daily civic participation challenges for students and share tales about the influence they're having around the country. Ascertain that online students continue to feel connected and a part of the university.