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Facebook study sessions foster familial feeling for UOPX online student community

By 七色视频

With the vast majority of 七色视频鈥檚 student population pursuing higher education completely online, the physical isolation from classmates can sometimes make the experience a little lonely.

But a virtual gathering developed by the University has helped foster a robust online community that is helping meet students鈥 social and academic needs.

In December 2016, the University鈥檚 Social Media Team was seeking a way to encourage students to finish their schoolwork before the holiday break. They decided to create an online聽聽that quickly grew into a robust networking community for their students. After seeing there was a demand for this type of networking, the team transformed the event into monthly sessions that allow UOPX鈥檚 adult learners to gather together to ask questions about schoolwork, share their experiences of what they鈥檝e learned, and even get support from fellow students and alumni.

Kitty Lang, a UOPX social media community manager, said the Facebook study sessions are a great platform for like-minded students, who are primarily working adults balancing multiple obligations, to gather and connect with one another.

鈥淭he study sessions allow [adult learners] to build and foster a sense of community together, and let them know we鈥檙e here to support them so they don鈥檛 ever feel isolated,鈥 said Lang, who added that her team fondly refers to their students and alumni as the 鈥#PhoenixFamily.鈥 鈥淭he sessions are a way for them to network and connect, meet a new friend or study buddy, get some homework done and reach out for support and motivation.鈥

Subjects discussed during the sessions cover a wide range and can prompt deep academic discussions. Study session participants also share resources, advice, and even reveal their hopes and dreams for academic success and their future careers after graduation. But conversations also deviate.

Every month there is a new study session theme, to guide participants to intended outcomes for sessions, and, from there, the conversation organically takes its course. Lang shared recent topics including stress awareness, late-night motivation, balancing school with the holidays, and overcoming study fears.

Some of the discussion threads are about study tips or useful subjects like time management. But they鈥檙e also laid back and even described by student participants, like聽Adriel Bratton,聽as fun.

鈥淚 got some good study tips, a way to outline assignments, a calendar, but the study sessions are really more of a study break,鈥 said Bratton,聽who graduated from UOPX with a Bachelor of Science in Management. 鈥淚t helps you to get through the work.鈥

Bratton keeps coming back to the Facebook study sessions to reconnect with the UOPX community he knew as an undergraduate, to share study techniques he has learned and to help the next cohort of students succeed in their programs.

鈥淪ometimes I come back just for the uplift I get from being part of the discussion,鈥 he added.

The November 2019 鈥淛oin our table鈥 session held just before Thanksgiving featured a discussion on time management. Students shared tips that ranged from 鈥淲rite it down in order of priority鈥 and 鈥淒on鈥檛 sweat the small stuff,鈥 to 鈥淪chedule your procrastination time.鈥

As they logged in, participants found a thread to introduce and describe themselves. On another thread, they shared their ambitions and motivations 鈥 the reason they pursued higher education. There was even a thread on the #StudySessionPlaylist 鈥 a Spotify playlist set up by the UOPX team to accompany the online session.

The Social Media Team plans to continue developing engaging content for the events. They have also started a similar series, the quarterly New Student Networking Mixer, specifically geared toward new students.

Kari Dopkins, who has just completed her undergraduate program in Early Childhood Education, has participated in the Facebook study sessions and said that they do exactly what they鈥檙e intended to do 鈥 create a supportive environment where students can mingle socially and academically.

What makes the program a success is that the student participants get so much out of it. It鈥檚 more than study tips and an online party. Dopkins said she made lifelong friends with others in the same program, who are all from widely dispersed places. Dopkins hails from South Carolina, and through the study sessions, bonded with a UOPX student located in South Korea, and another in Australia.

鈥淭he study sessions are a fun, inventive way of building a sense of community when you鈥檙e in an online university environment,鈥 Dopkins said.