Stacey Ludwig Johnson 
Table of Contents
Using Virtual Study Halls To Expand The Digital Landscape
Without a doubt, our nation’s students have been met with setbacks and disruptions over the past couple of years, with schools thoughtfully trying to leverage all the online and in-person tools and techniques available at this important time in education’s history. When we look across the K-12 and higher education landscape, it’s clear that all students deserve a supportive and nurturing learning environment – now more than ever – where they can thrive or rebuild any loss in their academic pursuits. Virtual study hall can be a support function that creates growth.
As the largest nonprofit, accredited college of education in the nation, the Teachers College at Western Governors University’s (WGU) School of Education has long recognized that new support centers, methods, research, projects, applications, and scaffolding are needed to create a holistic Community of Care for each student, supporting them no matter where they are on their journey.
One Community of Care model that we recently launched is the Virtual Study Hall – an equivalent of brick and mortar’s teacher or faculty “office hours,” but with much more flexibility, given our devotion to personalized online learning, flexible scheduling, and the strategic use of new, emerging educational technologies. Since launching the program a year ago, WGU’s Teachers College has offered more than 5,000 hours of hosted study hall sessions to our students.
For other K-20 institutions considering improvements to their student support network, here are three hallmarks of our Teachers College’s Virtual Study Hall that we have found vital in achieving the twin goals of offering just-in-time academic support while also building belonging and community:
Mapping the Virtual Study Hall Model
It may be helpful to think of the Virtual Study Hall as the online version of a traditional campus library. Students walk in and can see other students who look like them. They can have a quiet place to study. In addition to breakout rooms for specific course instructors and mentors, “study break” rooms are a great place where students can take a short break, go on camera, and just visit each other.
And, in an improvement over the ground-based library, the Virtual Study Hall offers a visual normalization of asking for help. Often at traditional colleges and universities, the students who would most benefit from academic support don’t seek it out because of a perceived stigma. The same can be true in online learning environments if it’s not woven into the mix via learning experience design that puts students at the center of the instruction.
Engaging Virtual Study Hall Program Mentors
At WGU’s Teachers College, each student is assigned a Program Mentor – someone the student becomes very close to over time as this person will stay with the student, in most cases, from just before starting their first course until they graduate. Regular check-ins help ensure that the students are always supported, and barriers are removed so they can progress in their studies.
Our program mentors are now weaving the Virtual Study Hall into their welcome conversations with new students. In the early one-on-one calls, mentors often ask students when they will study each week, what support they have at home, and how they’ve planned their life and work to allow for time during the day or night to do their studies. Then, once they see the student’s schedule, program mentors can overlay that with study hall session offerings and suggest the student take some of that time and study directly in the study hall.
Building Peer Support Communities
According to a report published by Timely MD, “peer-to-peer models expand the network of student support simply because of the number of peers available to help one another.” In Virtual Study Halls, it’s important to provide a platform through which students get ahead academically and feel part of a community.
We recognize that students also need time to connect, decompress from busy lives, and feel part of the whole. In addition to the study hall and breakout rooms for specific course instructors and mentors, our Virtual Study Hall has ‘study break’ rooms where students can go to take a short break, go on camera, and visit with each other.
Also, a chat function allows students to share their achievements and support each other, creating the sense of community many were asking for without the noise of a live group conversation. When students post messages about recent academic accomplishments, other students chime in with support, cheering them ever onward.
Virtual Study Hall Trajectories
As we all work to change trajectories for students with education as the key to change, building a platform such as a Virtual Study Hall provides coaching, mentoring, advice, structure, and friendship. Our Teachers College students have shown us in no uncertain terms that this is meeting an extraordinary need in their lives and their learning experience journey. As the nation’s education ecosystem continues to evolve, let’s commit to starting up, standing up, and scaling up new student support models, which are not only essential for the success of our students but also irreplaceable as a nurturing part of the schools that our students call home.
Dr. Stacey Ludwig Johnson is the Senior Vice President of Western Governors University (WGU) and Executive Dean of the School of Education.
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