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Off campus, online: How technology can maintain student communities.

In the wake of the Coronavirus epidemic, many Universities are shutting up shop to protect the health of students and staff. But whilst staff are looking into ways to take teaching online, how can we preserve the student communities that so many rely on for support?

Many Universities across the UK are now taking the decision to suspend face-to-face teaching, careers, and counselling services. They’re opting for a remote approach in order to protect the health of their communities. Thousands of academics are learning to familiarise themselves with online teaching substitutes to ensure the best possible service still reaches students. But it can’t be ignored that off-campus learning has the potential to feel isolating for students. They’re used to interacting with each other day in and day out. Not just in the lecture theatre, but in the library, the lunch hall and the gym locker rooms. It’s imperative that we make sure these students continue to feel involved with campus communities, even if from afar.

Taking Learning Online

At Tyfy, we take a modern approach to peer mentoring. We allow students to match with and access help from mentors, all from the comfort of their phones. Distance learning is what we do. Now, like many Higher Education suppliers across the world, we’re looking into how we can support students at a time when they’re more likely to feel cut off from their communities. Whether home is just down the road, halfway across the country or on the other side of the world, now more than ever, we need to make sure we can reach them in it.

In order to tackle this, we’re now working with our partner Universities to establish new ways of online student communications. We’re introducing course-specific forums and enabling students to access not only the support of a mentor, but the collective support of their cohorts too. It’s vital that students retain the community feel of University learning, even whilst working from their desks, their bedrooms or their kitchen tables. And it’s perhaps even more vital for those students with concerns or anxieties over the current situation to retain an element of normality (however small) and to be reminded that they’re not alone.

We will continue to work to help reach students, and to ensure they stay connected with each other. To find out more about how you can work with us, feel free to get in touch via this form.