Supporting Online Student Success
About SUNY Online Student Supports
Online students face challenges navigating technology, managing work and family demands, and building academic skills from a distance. Without the right support, small problems become insurmountable barriers that lead to stopping out or failing out.
SUNY professionals who support online learners need specialized strategies, current research, and a network of peers facing similar questions. SUNY Online Student Supports provides core resources to help you create more equitable online learning experiences, essential to SUNY’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals:
- Free or low-cost professional development, including SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD)’s Online Student Supports Certificate program, the SUNY Online Summit, and regular collaborative training sessions led by practitioners across the system.
- A free online learning assessment inventory tool that helps identify strengths and potential concerns, early. The SUNY Online Student Success Inventory (SOSSI) gives student support staff a data‑informed starting point for meaningful conversations, replacing guesswork with actionable insights.
- Two communities of practice where you can ask questions, share what’s working, troubleshoot challenges, and access curated resources with colleagues across SUNY institutions:
- Online Student Success Collaborative CoP (CoP)
- Digital Academic Support Solutions CoP (DASS CoP) – formerly named Early Alerts CoP
- Student Support Spotlight showcasing new ideas and effective practices from institutions across SUNY.
Built By and For Practitioners
This resource is shaped by SUNY faculty and staff who work directly with online learners, including success coaches, advisors, learning specialists, tutoring coordinators, early‑alert responders, and program specialists. The best practices, tools, and insights shared here come from professionals doing this work every day, grounded in the real challenges and opportunities of the SUNY environment.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Check for upcoming workshops and sessions. The Professional Development section lists both SUNY-specific opportunities (like the Online Student Supports Certificate Program) and relevant external conferences and resources.
SOSSI (SUNY Online Student Success Inventory) is a free assessment tool that helps identify student strengths and concerns for online learning across multiple domains, including self-regulated learning, digital resilience, and technology access/literacy. Student Support Staff typically provide their SOSSI link to students early in the onboarding process, so the tool can inform and guide proactive support.
The Online Student Success Collaborative CoP addresses all aspects of online student support—academic advising, learning skills, technology, financial aid, environmental factors, and more.
Digital Academic Support Solutions CoP focuses on maximizing the functionality of student success enterprise platforms – such as EAB Starfish and Navigate360 – to improve student outcomes. Many SUNY professionals participate in both communities.
Yes! Use the contact form below to suggest resources, volunteer to lead a workshop, or propose a discussion topic for the communities of practice. We actively seek input from practitioners across all SUNY institutions.
We add events as they’re scheduled, update the SOSSI area regularly with tool enhancements and research findings, and post Community of Practice meeting materials and resources as they become available. Spotlights of exemplary practices are added periodically.
Get Involved
If you have questions regarding SUNY Online resources available to SUNY faculty and staff, please email the SUNY Online HelpDesk.