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The purpose of this chapter is to share the structure and strategies that institutions can use to transform the experience of students learning at a distance. Details on how one of the largest educational systems in the United States, the State University of New York (SUNY), reshaped the student online learning experience via the “Open SUNY” model will be described. Specific strategies for infusing existing models of support with new ways of thinking will be explained.

In particular, this chapter will explore the infrastructure of the Open SUNY model of collaboration, the use of the Open SUNY Institutional Readiness approach for preparing colleges to deliver quality online programming, and the unique Open SUNY+ Signature Element program for assessing the quality of online programming and support structures.

This chapter will also highlight the efforts of one campus, SUNY Canton, to leverage Open SUNY and take its signature element on student engagement to the next level. A case study on Canton will show how the campus incorporated online students in all aspects of campus life to reduce student isolation. Specific online student engagement strategies will be provided.

This chapter unpacks the unique characteristics of online students, research that exists pertaining to support of online students in American higher education, and reviews the subsequent chapters in this volume. The chapters in this book focus on research, theoretical foundations for supporting the success of online student. Authors present case studies in various context including a large state university system, a large and increasingly growing public master’s degree, two private institutions, and a Scottish institution. Various theoretical constructs are provided to help inform practices for supporting online students including “communities of practice” (Wenger, 2000) or “communities of inquiry” (Garrison, 2007) and the Dynamic Student Development Metatheodel (DSDM). The final chapters of this book unpack the experiences of specific populations including post-baccalaureate, students, and doctoral students, understanding that each subset of students encounters different challenges throughout their online experiences. Finally, this book closes with a focus on a very important topic for all professionals: accessibility discussing the importance of inclusion, participation, and engagement for students with disabilities no matter the modality of learning. The last chapter compares two models of support (medical and social) and offers recommended changes for implementation of best practices to enhance literacy supports in online learning environments.

WE offer our readers good wishes for 1939. We hope that every kind of library may be allowed in peace to pursue its development for the spreading of good reading, to the end that enlightenment and with it wisdom may prevail amongst our millions of readers. We hope too that it will be another year of progress in service, in good and deftly‐employed technique, in the development of the will to make libraries interesting, attractive, useful and indeed inevitable and essential to all men. For librarians we hope it may be a further stage in the promotion of their profession, of growth of their own faith in it, and of increase in the willingness of those who employ librarians in municipalities, counties, colleges and other places to recognize training and service with better pay, prospects and status. We know that appreciation will not give greater willingness to serve; we do know it will give greater happiness.

To provide direct access to historically significant, original raw data from research conducted by the Bateson Team.

The approach taken is hermeneutic textual analysis.

The communication/interactional theory emerged from the interaction between members of the Bateson Research Team that took place between 1952 and 1961.

Decisively relevant to the origins of communication/interactional theory.