In this session we will cover relevent items relating to advising online students, successful online student services and innovative ideas. The main focus of these ideas are to keep the online student engaged and feeling a true belonging to the campus community even if they are in a different state or country. It is our goal to be proactive in the ever changing technologies as opposed to reactive. This goal has allowed us to pilot and research a variety of technology tools that enhance the way we approach online education.
This session is geared towards professionals who wish to learn more about the innovative student success tools currently being utilized and/or researched, piloted at Dakota State University. These tools are made to somewhat replicate the student services available to main campus students, but are developed and geared towards the online learner. For example, DSU has advising designated specifically for our online student population. These advising sessions obviously do not take place as the traditional "office meeting" would, but rather are handled via innovative tools such as scheduled virtual online sessions set up through Skype and can be arranged during "normal" business hours but also during the evening hours when we find the more "modern student" has availability. These can also be done through Instant Messaging or Google Hangouts, therefore ensuring the student is registered and retained without ever having to meet with anyone face to face on main campus. We also try to maintain focused attention from the student by using tools such as easy to read infographics, short animated videos and interactive advising sessions that can also involve screen casting.
DSU also provides online tutoring sessions available at either scheduled times for 1-on-1 tutoring in a designated subject area or sessions that are "open" during set hours that they can "jump in" on. These times are again set up during the "normal" business hours as well as evening hours and can be done from the convenience of their home, office or traveling schedules. Online test proctoring is also available to students. We are currently piloting and researching on online proctoring tool that will allow for the students to be monitored, but be able to do so via webcam and other security measures as opposed to having to find a physical proctor within their community. We will go over the research pros/cons of these online proctoring tools and the future as we see it in our research in this area.
DSU (College of Computing) in collaboration with the NSA (National Security Administration) and US Department of Homeland Security provide free "Tech Talks" that are conducted live in real time over the internet so no travel is required. Capital Technology University (CTU) hosts the presentations using Adobe Connect. Some examples of recent sessions are "Virtualizing Industrial Systems: Testbeds for Cyber Security Research" and "Buffer Overflow - Prevention and Defense". The "Tech Talks" are also recorded so you can view at a later time. These sessions are available to faculty, staff and students.
There are also currently talks and research on presenting to young women about Cyber Security, forensics and the future in these fields.
DSU finds it (as most universities would), extremely important to communicate the way in which our students communicate so we have an active and viable audience. This is currently done through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. We want to make sure that DSU's online student feel connected and part of our university and not just taking an "online degree". We reach out to these students with things such as involving them in homecoming events online (having them reply to trivia questions about DSU), or through virtual scavenger hunts, etc... and then send prizes directly to their residence. We also make sure that everyone that is accepted to our university receives a "DSU Care package" (includes a jump drive, ear buds, pens, post its, etc...) to ensure they know they are part of the DSU family immediately. Any current topics and/or activities that are going on at the university that we feel would benefit them, we post. Recently we posted information regarding Career Services and asked that the Career Services department put their information online so it is accessible to the online student population (sessions regarding resume writing, interview skills, etc...)
In addition to the frequently updated social media (used by students, staff and faculty), we also have published online newsletters geared towards online student advising as well as faculty. These provide current information on relevant items to both populations and include such things for student as important semester dates, career service information and student service options. For the faculty it includes student testimonials of their online experiences, new technology tools being developed, researched or used in the online classroom, upcoming faculty development sessions and current topics in online higher education.