Programa de intervención neuropsicológica

realization they would need to acquire other experiences and skills not available in classes online. But when the study began, Virtual University did not allow credit for co- curricular activities. The reasoning, according to the Assistant Dean was that the program had simply not developed far enough to be able to provide experiences such as internships and student leadership opportunities in a virtual manner. Advisors and the college’s leadership also said they understood online students might not be able to afford or have time for these usually non-paid experiences either because of other obligations.

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How Shenonda brought co-curricular experiences and relationships to Virtual University. Shenonda Talbot, felt so strongly about providing out-of-class experiences to

online students that she took a leadership role in the college to address it and ended up helping many students besides herself. Shenonda was a 42-year-old African American student at the start of the study who worked as a full-time secretary at nearby Historically Black College (HBC). She was a first generation college student with a high school diploma. She was also a busy single mom with three teenagers. She used to attend HBC, but she said she left because she could not manage her time well between school, work and kids.

Shenonda came to Virtual University because of a TV ad proclaiming people with busy lives could attend online at their convenience. So she began a degree in business. She was surprised though that Virtual University did not have out of class experiences. She firmly believed in them because she worked in Campus Activities at HBC and had personally witnessed the ways in which these experiences enhanced students’ lives.

Shenonda, her advisor, Aggie Bigelow and her boss at HBC’s Campus Activities Office organized a program where Virtual University students could participate in HBC co-curricular experiences (with some modifications to address their geography dilemmas) and HBC students could take an online course at Virtual University for a reduced price.

Both college administrations reported in 2011 that this was a “win-win” experience with minimal effort on the part of either college as hundreds of students from both campuses participated and made it work, including all 8 students in the study.

Observations of these experiences showed that students e-mailed, Skyped, web cammed, instant messaged and called back and forth with others during organizational meetings,

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events and experiences to accomplish many out-of-class experiences that would provide them with work experiences, leadership opportunities, community service experience and academic credit for their efforts.

Interestingly enough, 7 students in this study initially indicated they had no time to do so but eventually participated in various ways through this program. One student, Laurie Johnson, went to London for study abroad while earning college credit at HBC and eventually transferred to HBC for good as she indicated she liked F2F course-work better (See more about her story in negative cases below).

Another student in the study, Carmen Delgado-Vega, completed a co-operative learning project that was expected to result in a number of student organizations being created at Virtual University with assistance from staff at HBC and Virtual University but that had not come to fruition by the end of the study (See her story in negative cases below). Two other students in the study completed an undergraduate research project with a faculty member in Sociology from HBC, serving as virtual research assistants. And the others were able to find student organizations at HBC to join and eventually became leaders within those student organizations.

The impact of co-curricular and leadership experiences on satisfaction, retention and meaning making for advisors and students. The Director of Campus Activities at

HBC reported that incorporating the Virtual University students helped both HBC and Virtual University students grow and learn as she said:

The program brought greater diversity and more complex and creative ideas for student groups than we ever thought possible…because [Virtual University] students were older, and more experienced in life and they brought that experience and

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exposure to the world with them…which was good for our more traditional student population to see and emulate…and good for the Virtual University students’ empowerment.

From this statement, it seems that students from both campuses were gaining insight into working with students unlike themselves and as a result Virtual University students were able to become role models as well as colleagues with other students.

According to the 2012 annual report for the college, the results of these co-curricular experiences included the highest satisfaction and retention ratings Virtual University had ever received from students who participated in these new opportunities. And this was evidenced as well in the stories shared by students in the study of how surprised they were to be able to find the time to participate virtually and how satisfied they felt as a result of these experiences. For example, Shenonda Talbot, the student who began this program was promoted to a new job, Virtual University Coordinator/Liaison at HBC, which had much positive meaning for her with the success of the program, the increased pay and the new responsibilities. But this was also tempered with the reality that a busy new job would also mean adjusting her schedule again to ensure she found the time to finish her degree.

Another student, Willow Begay, described her experiences in this way in her blog: Meaning making…hell yes! I get it now…I see why my advisor wanted me to get these experiences…I might actually be a good graduate school candidate now as I’ve done undergraduate research…online…wow! I never thought that might be possible for me!

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It is clear from this statement that Willow at least could better understand the need to supplement class experiences to help her be a competitive candidate for graduate school and jobs. Which is in fact what happened as was evidence in Willow’s case which will be addressed later in Milestone 5.

The advisors in the study also found new ways to network with faculty and staff from HBC for their own professional and personal development which according to advisors at the member check group meeting said increased their satisfaction and meaning making as well. One advisor, Floria Garcia, described the meaning making in this way:

It’s different for us now…we can really give students an opportunity to succeed… Now we’re talking about how to bringing more like this to the campus…It’s been so motivating and exciting to see how the leadership and the students have

responded. It makes me so happy and proud to work here!

From this comment, it is evident that advisor Floria found new ways to enjoy her job while helping students gain more diverse experiences and that kept her satisfied, and led to her being more involved with the college. It also led her to deciding to stay with the college after she completed her graduate degree online, something which she had been unsure about at the beginning of the study.

Milestone 4: Surviving personal and academic difficulties. According to