Online Student Engagement

Online Student Engagement (OSE) hosts and manages two online orientations in Blackboard — one for undergraduate students and one for graduate students — giving every incoming online student a clear starting point. Building on that foundation, OSE developed the Marshall Online Success Boot Camp to help incoming students begin their academic journey prepared, connected, and confident. Housed in Blackboard, the Boot Camp blends live and asynchronous sessions covering university platforms, AI, student resources, success strategies, and community-building opportunities — and gives students a direct point of contact for questions and support.

Finding Your Why with AI (Coach Marco): A signature feature of the online onboarding experience, Coach Marco is an AI-guided orientation that supports reflection, goal-setting, and planning — helping students define their purpose and connect it to their academic journey.

Academic Life Coaching

OSE offers academic life coaching for online students, with two certified academic life coaches providing one-on-one support focused on goal setting, motivation, time management, and academic success. Through referrals and drop-in access, coaching gives students personalized strategies to thrive. This year, the program generated 13 student requests and 13 referrals, with 24 coaching sessions held.

In partnership with InScribe, OSE manages digital community spaces in Blackboard for both undergraduate and graduate online students — including the Marshall Online Herd Hub for undergraduates. These spaces connect students with classmates, staff, and resources in a collaborative environment. By combining community, knowledge sharing, and real-time access to resources, InScribe helps online students feel connected and supported wherever they are, with a place to ask questions and engage with the broader online community.

Online Student Engagement played a key role in Week of Welcome (WoW) by offering sessions such as “Blackboard Basics” and “Your Online Journey Begins Here,” helping new online students build confidence, navigate tools, and connect with support services from day one.

Each semester, OSE conducts proactive outreach to keep students on track and connected to resources — including text, email, and phone outreach to active students who haven’t yet registered for the upcoming term, encouragement for newly admitted students to register, and promotion of online orientations, resources, and support services. OSE also expands support during key academic moments — the beginning of the semester and finals week — through evening hours, drop-in support, and proactive communication, meeting students where they are and providing timely help when it matters most.

The Back to Marshall campaign supports stop-out students interested in returning to complete their degree, providing personalized outreach, information, and re-enrollment support. This year, OSE:

• Contacted 3,238 individual students through targeted outreach
• Conducted 12 text, 8 email, and 1 postcard campaign to engage prospective returning students
• Logged 178 email interactions with prospective Back to Marshall students
• Hosted 2 information sessions for prospective returning students
• Redesigned the website and updated content to improve access to re-enrollment information and resources

With support from the Advising Success Network, the Marshall Online Student Engagement team developed Marshall Online SkillBridges, a career-readiness resource now available for 13 online undergraduate programs. Using Lightcast labor market data and AI, SkillBridges identify the skills employers seek for careers connected to each program and create a clear bridge between developing those skills and demonstrating them through activities, experiences, and engagement opportunities. These program-specific resources help students build confidence, strengthen career readiness, and describe their skills clearly to employers — graduating better prepared to enter the workforce.

During the 2025–2026 academic year, OSE participated in 32 programs and events, hosting 22 of them — including 2 information sessions, 2 Week of Welcome events, 2 Virtual Countdown to Commencement events, and 10 recruiting events. This work was deeply collaborative, with campus partners including Admissions, Alumni Services, Career Education, the Counseling Center, Enrollment Management, the Tutoring Center, Financial Aid, the Bursar, the Registrar, Graduate Admissions, Marketing and Communications, the Marshall Bookstore, International Student Services, Military and Veterans Affairs, Student Affairs, the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations, and the WOW Planning Committee.

OSE relies on a suite of systems to manage student data, monitor outreach, and support internal workflows — including Salesforce dashboards, Salesforce chat, Navigate, Banner, and BERT.