Virtually Different: Meeting the Needs of Online Learners
The growth in distance learning in higher education is no longer a projection but rather the current reality. According to IPEDS data, in 2024, more than a quarter of undergraduate students were enrolled exclusively online, with another quarter enrolled partially online. These students tend to have unique needs. Rather than replicating on-campus support online, institutions should design services around online learners' needs and embed them in every part of the digital learning experience.
Online Education By the Numbers
54.1%
of students at four-year institutions were enrolled in online education either exclusively or partially, in fall 2024
Sources: IPEDS, IHE
8.7%
annualized growth rate of online higher education in the United States 2019-2024
<50%
of students at online institutions earn a degree within eight years
At a Glance: Pillars of Online Success
Assess incoming students' technical and academic readiness and other basic needs.
Conduct new student orientation with clear, measurable goals.
Create peer-support systems.
Train faculty in best practices in online instructional design and using technology for successful pedagogy.
Provide extended technical, academic, and student support hours.
Offer on-demand student supports such as AI Chatbots, tutorials, and instructional videos.
The Online Student Profile
Online students frequently come from non-traditional backgrounds. They are often older, working full-time, enrolled part time, and managing family commitments. Many of them are also veterans and first-generation students. These students require flexibility in how they access resources and engage with faculty and staff, as their academic pursuits coexist with their personal and professional lives. Research shows that while students can learn as well online as they do face-to-face, attrition rates in online courses are 7%-20% higher than in face-to-face courses.
Online students are also more likely to report a sense of isolation, difficulty navigating institutional systems, and weaker connections with peers, faculty, and staff. Traditional student success and retention theories do not adequately apply to them, and similarly, the traditional student support services.
The success of the online student experience is predicated on an institution's ability to provide a comprehensive support structure. This includes not just technical assistance, but active academic coaching, career guidance, and social integration tools that bridge the distance gap and foster a true sense of belonging within the campus community. If isolation and weak connection help explain higher attrition, the question becomes how to build community at a distance. One framework has shaped how researchers answer it.
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework anchors a large body of research on online learning. Even as educational technology evolves, this foundational framework continues to guide how researchers evaluate and improve virtual learning.
Perhaps the most influential framework for understanding online student success is the Community of Inquiry (CoI), first formulated by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Moving beyond earlier distance-education theories centered on communication technology, the CoI model asks a fundamental question: How do we build a meaningful online learning community? It posits that effective digital learning environments rely on three interconnected presences:
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Cognitive Presence: The extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection.
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Social Presence: The ability of participants to project their individual personalities, thereby identifying and communicating purposefully in a trusting digital environment.
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Teaching Presence: The design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the realization of personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes.
The Community of Inquiry Framework
Online Student Orientation
The first step to placing students on a path of success is the online student orientation. It allows institutions to assess technical and academic readiness of incoming students, while integrating students into the broader campus community. Peer-mentoring programs ease this transition by fostering informal support networks and an early sense of belonging, while workshops and staff conversations introduce essential campus resources. Although typically delivered virtually, an increasing number of institutions now offer in-person orientations to cultivate deeper personal connections right from the start.
Orientation is where social and teaching presence begin: students meet people instead of portals, and the institution sets expectations before the first assignment is due.
Assess Readiness
Connect With Peers
Navigate resources
Connecting Distance Learners
Student engagement is a critical driver of academic success and long-term retention. However, engagement is hard to cultivate in a self-paced, online learning environment, especially when students are working adults who are enrolled part-time and have to juggle multiple personal and professional obligations. Scholars have called on faculty to intentionally use instructional design to humanize online learning: build trust with the students by showing the faculty’s authentic self, learning to know their students, and practice empathy.
Institutions cannot rely on faculty alone to drive online learner engagement and foster a sense of belonging. This should be an institution-wide endeavor. Institutions should help students build relationships with advisors, librarians, tutors, student affairs professionals, and other staff whose support is pivotal to their success. Institutions should develop a comprehensive, intentional strategy to foster connections and a sense of belonging among online students. Faculty cannot build this alone, but they set the tone. When instructors show up as people, students are more willing to do the same.
A framework for an actively-designed strategy to foster belonging among online students should include:
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Frequent Feedback Loops: Regular input from instructors helps students gauge their progress and stay on track.
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Recurring, Proactive Touchpoints: Timely outreach across faculty and support staff builds trust, connection, and confidence
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Peer Collaboration: Group activities turn isolated learners into an active, supportive network.
Extended Support Services
Online students opt for distance education primarily for its flexibility. They frequently complete coursework and school-related tasks late at night or over weekends. Consequently, traditional campus support services operating on a standard weekday schedule fail to meet their needs. To succeed, these learners need flexible, asynchronous, and multidimensional support models. On-demand and asynchronous resources, such as virtual tutoring, discussion boards, AI chatbots, and short, focused learning resources make support accessible at the point of need, boosting satisfaction and course completion. These, alongside extended hours of operation for key campus services are baseline expectations for online students. Cognitive presence depends on students being able to keep working through confusion. When a question about a source or a login error waits until Monday, reflection stalls.
Mental Health and Student Well-Being
A community of inquiry assumes participants can show up. Isolation, fatigue, and strain erode social presence first, which is why well-being support belongs inside the framework, not beside it. Mental health challenges, and awareness of them, are increasingly present among college students. Online learners are particularly vulnerable due to factors like social isolation, screen fatigue, unstructured routines, and the ongoing strain of balancing academic workload with full-time work or family responsibilities. Because isolation directly compromises student retention, proactive mental health support is both a wellness imperative and an institutional priority.
Recent literature emphasizes the need for comprehensive, virtual mental health infrastructures. Key strategies include:
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Round-the-Clock Access: 24/7 teletherapy, digital mindfulness tools, and virtual crisis intervention lines.
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Early Detection & LMS Integration: Gatekeeper training for online faculty to identify warning signs (e.g., sudden drop-offs in LMS participation) and direct links to wellness resources embedded within course portals.
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Peer Support Networks: Low-cost, high-impact peer mentoring and moderated online support groups that reduce isolation and foster a sense of institutional belonging.
Unifex Support: Mental Health Assessment
Unifex offers comprehensive mental health services assessment, working with students, faculty, and staff to understand awareness and utilization levels of existing services and the development of targeted solutions that enhance mental health support at your institution.
Case Study: Oregon State University Ecampus
Designed to maximize student success, OSU Ecampus functions as a comprehensive support ecosystem for online learners. In 2026, Quality Matters recognized this student-centered approach with its Online Learner Support Certification—an honor reserved for just ten U.S. universities delivering complete academic and holistic support. Backed by QM’s 2024 endorsement for instructional quality and continuous, feedback-driven improvements, OSU routinely earns a top-ten national ranking from U.S. News & World Report.
The OSU model for online student support:
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Mandatory Canvas Orientation: Includes required pre-class advising sessions and well-being program overviews.
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Skill-Building Modules & Webinars: On-demand and live sessions on online learning strategies.
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Student Services Representatives: A central point of contact for system navigation, registration help, and instructor escalation.
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First-Year Success Navigators: Hands-on onboarding and transition support from admission through year one.
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Virtual Learning Communities: Digital spaces for peer collaboration and social connection.
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24/7 Library Support: Continuous access to research assistance and digital library resources.
Case Study: Western Governors University
WGU is a pioneer and leader in the US higher education, enrolling 172,000 online students. In 2026, WGU reported 6-year degree completion rates at 53%, this is compared with an average of 33% among predominantly online colleges and university. WGU is not just enrolling many thousands of online learners, it is also successfully helping them reach the finish line of their educational journeys.
WGU offers a multi-layered support ecosystem that guides students throughout their journey:
Competency-based education (CBE) model allows students to progress at their own pace, provide greater flexibility, and removes obstacles to success.
Program mentor. Every student is assigned a faculty member as their mentor. These help students create a course plan each term, navigate the university’s policies and procedures, and provide clarity towards graduation.
Extended Student Support, including 6am-10pm academic coaching and access to 24/7 mental health counseling by phone or chat, plus self-service professional development and career services.
Ready to Enhance the Online Student Experience at Your Institution?
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