Belonging is Just the Beginning: What’s Next for Online Student Connection?

by Katy Kappler

Online communities can help students feel like they belong. But how will we help students build the networks they need to succeed?

“I was homeless, and I’m back.”

That is a real message posted by an Alamo Colleges District student shortly after its new online community launched. Neither this student’s instructors nor their classmates had known about their housing status, but the response was immediate. Within hours, dozens of replies rolled in, sharing words of encouragement and candid personal stories. As this student emerged from an incredibly challenging situation, they were able to hear their peers say: I’ve struggled too. We’re glad you’re here. Keep going.

This student’s experience is about more than belonging; it’s also an investment in social capital, or the relationships that give students access to support, knowledge, encouragement, and opportunity. Digital communities can create the conditions to form these relationships organically, but they also raise a larger question:

What if institutions could go a step further and intentionally help online students build personalized networks to help navigate college and what comes after?

That question is what spurred InCircle, a new initiative led by InScribe, Alamo Colleges District, and Rio Salado College, and supported by WCET. InCircle, a new digital community platform, was designed to help students build meaningful connections with peers, mentors, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Belonging or social capital?

While online higher education programs have opened doors for millions of students, institutions have often overlooked the relationships students build while they’re learning. These relationships–belonging and social capital–are critical to student success. The terms are related, but not quite the same.

• Belonging speaks to the feeling of being seen, accepted, and appreciated by your peers and your institution.
• Social capital is the network of relationships that opens up access to information, support, opportunity, and perspective.

On a physical campus, relationships develop organically. Students meet in dorm rooms and libraries, join clubs, and interact regularly with faculty and peers. Online students have fewer opportunities to build their networks. Without those interactions of a physical campus, many aren’t sure who to connect with, where to find them, or even which relationships might be valuable.

This is the challenge InScribe sought to address when developing InCircle. The digital community recommends connections based on students’ interests, needs, goals, and existing networks. Instead of relying on students to stumble across the right people, this online community feature helps them discover who can add something meaningful to their college experience.

The partner perspective

Alamo Colleges District and Rio Salado College both understand something fundamental about today’s learners: Flexibility and connection are not mutually exclusive.

Both institutions support students who are balancing their education with jobs, families, caregiving, and other responsibilities. These students might not spend hours on campus or participate in traditional student activities, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in building relationships or networks.

At Alamo, this became especially clear when leaders saw students leaving. Surveys, coaching conversations, and internal research pointed to a consistent issue: students felt disconnected from their community. As Luke Dowden, Vice Chancellor for Digital Learning & Transformation at the Alamo Colleges District, put it, “These were students in good standing who were leaving. These learners were not persisting. We knew we had to act.”

Rio faced a similar challenge. Its highly flexible, asynchronous model allows students to begin courses throughout the year. That flexibility is enormously valuable, but it also means students are at different points in their program, with fewer natural opportunities to connect with an established cohort of peers.

Both institutions asked themselves, “How do we move beyond basic measures of engagement to an experience where students are creating meaningful relationships that help them navigate college, access support, and feel like they’re a part of something meaningful?” Social capital–those networks of relationships–are just as critical for online learners as they are for on-campus learners.

Creating belonging on an online campus

After implementing InScribe at their institutions–RioConnect and Alamon Online Communities–early feedback confirms: When institutions intentionally create spaces for connection, students will use them.

Alamo Online Communities	RioConnect
Six-month period	Six-week period
Students reported a 90% satisfaction rate using the tool	Students felt a 40% higher sense of belonging (than non-participants)
Students reported a 92% feeling a sense of belonging and connection to their peers on the platform	Peer connectedness increased by 14%
421 conversations and 2,147 replies	83 conversations and 56 student requests for help

Technology can open doors to community

Digital communities are not out to replace human connection with technology; instead, these resources allow institutions to provide each student with a personalized network that can answer questions, give advice, and offer support.

Technology can recognize when two students share an academic interest, that an alum has experience relevant to a student’s career goal, or that a student might benefit from connecting with a particular staff member–but a recommendation is not a relationship. It’s the human interaction that comes after the connection that creates belonging, confidence, and social capital.

Technology can help open the door. People build what happens on the other side.

Belonging is the beginning

For decades, relationships have been one of the most valuable, and least intentionally designed, parts of the college experience. Solutions like InCircle, launched with institutions like Rio Salado and Alamo Colleges District, let colleges and universities take an active role in helping online students, who shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility of learning online and the relationships that help them succeed, build meaningful, long-lasting connections.