Placement: Where will students find the community?

 
 

By Janeen Galligan, Partnership Engagement Specialist and Ana Hernandez, Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer at InScribe

This is part 2 of the 4 P's™ series. In case you missed it…part 1: purpose. 

Placement - It's critical to the success of your community to be where you students are when they need it. One of your placements needs to be their email inbox. Be sure you've got notifications enabled. If students don't know there's activity happening in the community, they are unlikely to go back. Worried about students getting too many notifications?Students can easily manage their own notification settings.

  • Peer to Peer & Student Success: Is there a webpage or portal where students are likely to go that would be a good place to add a link to your community? Does your LMS allow for a community placement to live outside of a course? Make it easy for students to find and return to the community. If the only placement for the community link is inside an onboarding course, students are unlikely to go back to it over and over again, once the class is over.

  • Academic Support: Again, be sure it's clear that this is where you want students to go to ask questions. If there are other mechanisms in your course, like your contact info or an LMS discussion board location that directs them to ask a question, they won't know where to go and they may end up somewhere other than your community. If those items were in your courses previously, we'd recommend removing them in favor of links to your course community. 

  • Information Sharing: Much like peer to peer communities, look for spaces outside of your LMS to create links to InScribe. Notifications are even more critical here. Be sure you've enabled notifications of moderator posts at the very least, to make sure students are getting the information you're posting. 

Next week…people.

About the Authors

Janeen Galligan is an educator in higher education and a Partner Engagement Specialist at InScribe. Her mission is to lighten the load for her partners, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: ensuring every student feels seen. Janeen is dedicated to creating spaces where learners—regardless of their life stage—realize they are not alone in their academic journey. By fostering these deep connections, she helps build communities where belonging is the foundation for success.

Ana Hernandez began her career as a high school English teacher in Denver, CO. Now as a Latina entrepreneur in education technology, she is creating solutions that make educational opportunities more accessible and attainable for everyone. In 2014, she launched an education technology consulting company, which spawned a product company, InScribe, in 2017. She’s a Colorado native and avid runner who has completed eleven marathons, including the 2018 Boston Marathon, Ana is also the proud mother of a 15-year-old son and two badly behaved standard poodles.

Articles, Blog Post, Thought LeadershipDanielle BonnerAI in student support, Human-first technology enabled, Empathy in education, Student belonging and persistence, Peer-to-peer support in online learning, Digital student communities, Online learner isolation, Retention in online education, Student engagement strategies, Barriers to persistence, Support beyond automation, AI in higher education, Chatbots in education, Automation in online learning, Human empathy in education, Belonging and encouragement, Peer communities in higher ed, University of North Texas Talon-to-Talon, Rio Salado College RioConnect, Indiana University online communities, Digital student unions case studies, Human-first student success, Technology enabled education, Building online learning communities, Designing digital student spaces, Future of higher education retention, online learning, higher education, student engagement, student belonging, digital community design, human-centered design, student persistence, scalable student support, inclusive learning environments, student outcomes, Student Success Technology, Higher Education Technology, EdTech, Student Retention, LMS Integration, Digital Community, Student Engagement, Course Success Rates, Higher Ed ROI, Student Persistence, Sense of Belonging, Enterprise EdTech, Student Success Platform, Higher Education Innovation, InScribe