In the last decade, some universities created online programs that offered course curricula but no student life or student affairs opportunities.
Online program students might benefit from lower fees but miss out on important aspects of college living and learning.
An interdisciplinary team of McQueary College of Health and Human Services (MCHHS) faculty members and student leaders saw the need to educate the whole learner, understood the fee/funding concern and took up the challenge.
What’s the MSSIP grant?
Thanks to a MCHHS Student Success Innovation Projects (MSSIP) grant worth about $8,000, team members launched a full-year pilot project in 2023. Called “More Than the Sum of Their Credits,” the project focused on integrating high-impact learning and social connection opportunities into two of Missouri State’s online academic programs – social work and psychology.
This project originated from the belief that the quality of education for students in online programs at Missouri State is enhanced by the traditional melding of academic affairs and student affairs.
MSSIP offers funds to implement real impact projects that improve undergraduate student success. Multi-year funding is available for up to four years and a maximum of $100,000.
“It allows teams to launch projects fast. We were able to pivot quickly from ‘someday we should’ to ‘let’s get started,’” said project leader Dr. Tim Daugherty. He is a psychology professor in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at Missouri State.
The other faculty members involved include:
- Natalie Curry, clinical associate professor and coordinator of the Bachelor of Social Work program in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
- Dr. Paul Deal, associate professor in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
- Dr. Leslie Echols, associate professor in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
- Dr. Dana Paliliunas, former faculty member
- Dr. Tanya Whipple, senior instructor in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
- Dr. David Zimmerman, associate professor and undergraduate coordinator of the forensic child psychology certificate program in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
More about the project
Through the university’s Learning Management System, the team experimented with delivering weekly club meetings, monthly events and plenty of accessible content. The content included links to career-related sites, news articles, videos to facilitate students’ understanding of their major curriculum and interviews with faculty members via Zimmerman’s “ZimTube.”
A year after the project began, Daugherty notes the team has been able to leverage lessons learned to continue offering the most effective project elements without additional funding.
Successful outcomes
“The team succeeded in reimagining high-impact practices to make them accessible and meaningful for online-program students,” Daugherty said.
The data the team collected and reflected on from this project resulted in a peer-reviewed scholarly paper that will soon be published in the Journal of College Orientation, Transition and Retention. This paper features a student co-author who worked closely with the team.
In addition, two online-program students seized the opportunity to collaborate with faculty members on clinical research during the pilot period. That opportunity was a first for the online program, and the successful students co-authored a paper presented at the APS (Association for Psychological Science) Global Psychological Science Summit in October.
“Working together, we can do great things,” Curry said. “We’re grateful that MSSIP funds helped launch these efforts.”
The team is available to consult with and support the efforts of teams in other programs wanting to take the next step.