WGU to Host Webinar on Maintaining Student Support in Online Higher Ed

SALT LAKE CITY – With colleges and universities nationwide closing their physical classroom doors and shutting down campuses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Western Governors University (WGU) today announced it will host a live webinar designed to help educators rethink and redesign course delivery to help students succeed in online learning. Informed by the real-world practices of WGU, an online pioneer for 23 years, the webinar will take place Thursday, April 16, at 10:00 AM MDT via WebEx and will be free and open to the public.

The webinar, “Going Virtual: How to Help Students Succeed,” will provide colleges and universities with key insights on how to help students succeed in an online environment, led by WGU’s Senior Vice President of Student Success, Debbie Fowler. Key considerations include:

• Preparing a week at a time and focusing on academic planning.
• Allowing students to accelerate as they’re able.
• Adapting faculty roles to provide 1:1 support and personalized instruction.
• Ensuring support services remain available to students.

Additionally, Fowler will highlight WGU’s award-winning Environmental Barriers Program, an initiative established by WGU to support students who have been impacted by natural disasters.

“Online or in-person, the goal is student success,” Fowler said. “How an institution flags and responds to signals of struggle with personalized interventions is critical to student success. We’re launching this webinar to provide some perspective as colleges and universities around the world make thoughtful changes to course delivery and student support services.”

The COVID-19 crisis has left higher education scrambling to adjust to a new, almost entirely online reality. While some institutions had previously already offered online classes in addition to in-person, the transition to operate fully online has been disruptive not only to institutional administration, but to faculty and students as well, and has brought about concerns of the success of running entire schools online.

To learn more about the webinar and to register, visit https://bit.ly/2V9qGlX. Registration is now open to the public.