Thursday Thoughts: Finding Community as an Online Student

Working on a degree in an online environment can be amazing in terms of the flexibility it provides you. As a professional and a student, you have to have control over your schedule and ensure all the moving parts of career, family, and education fit together in a way that works for you. As you go through your course work during a noon lunch break, a classmate may have already been up at 5am to work on her post for the week, while another won’t get started until 10:00pm that night. Scattered across the globe, you are all able to progress in your degree program. The downside, however, is isolation.

Without regular real-time interactions with classmates, online students can sometimes feel isolated or alone. A strong sense of community and support system are important for one’s mental health, and they also help you maintain motivation throughout your program.

The good news is that Walden University, our writing center, and fellow students have all found ways to create community among students who don't have the opportunity to get together each week in a physical classroom.

Here are some suggestions to consider:

• Explore the benefits of a writing community in this blog post. We look at why joining a group can be beneficial as well as how to start your own group.

• Capitalize on social media. Much like a group of students meeting at a coffee shop or library to work on assignments together, or to talk through last week’s class, Walden students have created their own spaces online to have these discussions in Facebook groups. While we are not members of the groups ourselves, and are therefore unable to endorse any specific groups, if you do a search in Facebook for “Walden University” and limit the search to groups, many will appear. There are groups dedicated to specific programs, like the DNP, and there are groups open to all doctoral or master’s students.

• Twitter is another social media forum where students engage with each other. For a larger academic community and discussion, check out the conversation related to these hashtags: #acwri, #acwrimo (most active during November), #phdchat, #phdforum, #dissertationlife, #GetYourManuscriptOut

• If you are in a doctoral program, once you have an approved prospectus, you can join the Walden Capstone Writing Community

• Listen to our podcast episode on writing communities. The hosts talk a bit about the doctoral writing community, but also why working with others is helpful.

The Walden University Writing Center supports student writers through all phases of the writing process in order to help the writer - not just the writing. We offer this support through our paper review service, blog, podcast, website, and social media presence. 

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