How Digital Communities Can Help Students Succeed During COVID-19

Maintaining Connections Now vs. Rebuilding Them Later

We all know that much of a student’s educational experience is based on learning, but have you ever stopped to wonder how much revolves around human connections?

In truth, community has always been an important part of education. Human connections shape the student experience and provide networks that last long after graduation. 

The importance of community has been amplified recently as COVID-19 effectively shut down the campus life students had grown to know and love. Since then, schools have been adjusting their plans to keep moving forward in a world where health, economic realities, and social factors change on a daily basis. But the one constant in all of this? The desire for everyone to stay connected.

Pre-COVID19, students had fairly easy access to each other, to their teachers, and to their support teams. Fast forward to today - those connections aren't as readily available. In a recent Top Hat student survey, the vast majority of students (86 percent) said they miss socializing with their peers, and almost 69 percent said they no longer have regular access to them. Additionally, 85 percent of students said they miss face-to-face interactions with faculty and more than half (53 percent) no longer have regular access.

With ongoing uncertainty about when students will return to campus, schools are diligently working on digital learning strategies to ensure students have the tools, courseware, and content they need to keep their education moving forward. Yet equally important, and sometimes overlooked, is the need for a digital community strategy that allows students to tap into the connections they need from peers, teachers, and staff.

Digital communities create spaces for students to interact with each other and with key members of faculty and staff. They reinforce the student’s bond with the school, creating a sense of belonging that boosts motivation, enhances confidence, and ultimately improves each student’s ability to succeed.

Importance of Digital Communities

Today, the role of community in education is more critical than ever.  Ensuring the continuity of this community experience should be a key aspect of each institution's digital strategy now and in the future. 

The benefits of digital communities can be seen in many ways.

  • Access to Student Support: Students rely on faculty and staff to help them navigate each point in their education. Whether finding their footing, accessing academic support, or taking on the job hunt, success hinges upon easy and regular access to critical team members across the institution. When learning moves online, finding the right way to connect can be complicated. Websites are hard to maintain, emails quickly become overwhelming, and scheduling video conferences is a logistics nightmare. Digital communities offer a great solution, providing a consistent space for students to turn anytime they need help. Answers can be provided asynchronously and easily shared with other students who have similar questions. Students find solutions more quickly, and staff can reserve one on one time for those students who need the most support. 

  • Peer to Peer Engagement: Digital communities also give students a place to connect with each other, to share stories, offer advice, and grow relationships. These connections are more important than ever, with a recent Rise survey reporting 75% of students expressing feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While peer engagement cannot solve every student's worries, it can go a long way towards ensuring students don’t feel isolated and reintroducing the support networks that many of them rely on. 

  • Insights for Action: Understanding the needs of their students is a critical activity at institutions. While never easy, trying to gain insights into students who are learning at a distance can be especially difficult. Digital communities create an open space where students can voice areas of confusion, stress, and concern, giving administrators and educators insights into the issues that are causing the most difficulty and anxiety. These insights allow institutions to be more proactive in formulating outreach strategies and support programs that address the needs of their learner population.

Where do we go from here?

The jury is still out on when life might return to normal, and what shape that new normal will take. But what if at the end of all of this, your students don't have to rebuild relationships with each other and faculty, and even with your school, because they had easy access to the right people and resources throughout? What if they maintained these relationships and stayed connected because your school's digital community is what got them through? 


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