Online Student Supports Certificate Programs
Develop new skills and strategies for effective online student support and outreach by completing the Online Student Supports (OSS) Certificate Program.
The program consists of 3 (three) online asynchronous courses. The courses are 6 (six) weeks in length each, and they contain approximately 3-5 hours of work each week. The courses are interactive with instructor feedback to participants and capped at 20 registrants.
Program Framework: The OSS Certificate Program framework was developed by SUNY faculty and staff involved in online student supports.
Program Learning Objectives
Participants will gain practical strategies to:
- Analyze campus online student profiles and demographics to clarify needs
- Understand key national organizations that establish best practices, rubrics, and standards for online student support
- Identify the structures, resources, and processes your campus currently has in place related to supporting online students
- Explore the core principles and goals of proactive online student success coaching
- Develop a proactive engagement strategy to connect their work with online student success
- Design strategies for continuous assessment and improvements of online student services and supports
Target Audience:
- Online Student Success Coaches
- Online Student Advisors
- Online Instructors
- Online Program Chairs
- Directors of Online Advising & Coaching
- Campus Staff Supporting Online Students
Program Completion Requirements:
To earn the SUNY Online Student Supports Certificate completion badge, participants must complete all three courses. Courses must be taken in order as listed below. Digital badges will be awarded for each individual course, as well as for the completion of the entire Program.
Course Details
Course 1: Foundations of the Online Student Support Role
This course introduces the foundations of online student support roles within higher education. Participants will explore the latest research on online learner profiles and needs and how to approach proactive support for online students. The course examines best practices for assisting online students in areas like engagement, academic success, and retention. Participants will gain strategies for providing academic, social, and technical support to online students, with the goal of improving retention and completion. Collaborative activities allow participants to exchange ideas and build community. By the end of the course, participants will understand the foundations necessary to effectively support online student success.
Course 1 Learning Outcomes:
- Describe needs specific to online students
- Name standards for working holistically with online students
- Identify SUNY resources that align with best practices for supporting online students
- Examine the role of national initiatives and research on best practices to support online learners
Course 2: Campus Overview: Developing Campus Structures for Online Student Supports
This course provides an in-depth examination of campus structures, systems, and resources for supporting online student success. Participants will gain hands-on experience mapping the online student lifecycle at their institution from both staff and student perspectives. By engaging in collaborative mapping activities, participants will evaluate their institution’s current support at each stage of the online student lifecycle. Gaps and areas for improvement will be identified. Participants will develop strategies for enhancing campus infrastructure to better serve online learners.
Course 2 Learning Outcomes:
- Create online student lifecycle map
- Investigate early alert systems
- Analyze campus’s online learning strategic plans, policies, and organizational structure
- Identify campus resources for online students and how online students access them
Course 3: Proactive Approach to Supporting Online Learners
This course empowers participants to synthesize learning into an individualized proactive support plan for online learners at their campus. Participants will review communication channels and develop targeted outreach strategies to provide holistic academic and non-academic supports.
Course 3 Learning Outcomes:
- Develop a proactive student support plan aligned with the campus’s strategic approach to enhance online student success.
- Develop communication plan for proactive online student support utilizing best messaging practices for online student communications
- Implement an appreciative approach for providing online student support
Meet the Instructors
Susan Warner
Susan currently serves as the Manager of Online Student Support at SUNY Online. In this role, Susan is deeply committed to fostering collaboration among SUNY faculty and staff to promote the best practices in online student support and empowering SUNY campuses with essential online student support resources.
In her previous role as the Lead Success Coordinator for SUNY Online, Susan spearheaded the training and leadership of the SUNY Online Degrees at Scale student success coaching team, which provided success coaching to online students across seven SUNY campuses encompassing over twenty programs.
Before her tenure at SUNY Online, Susan played a pivotal role in implementing Guided Pathways at Monroe Community College as an MCC School Specialist. Susan has a passion for an appreciative, strengths-based approach to proactive student success coaching and a strong commitment to providing equitable, accessible support to all students.
Beyond her professional pursuits, Susan finds joy in coffee gatherings with friends, cheering on the Buffalo Bills, and spending time with her grandchildren
Michele Forte
Michele completed the first cohort of the New York State Student Success Center (NYSSC) Coaching Academy and serves as a lead coach for the SUNY REACH project and the lead for the SUNY Early Alerts project. Michele is an Associate Professor at SUNY Empire State College in the area of Human Services and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New York State. She has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching diverse organizational and student populations in various educational and not-for-profit settings.
Her scholarly interests include competency-based frameworks for assessing learning, high-impact coaching and mentoring models, and connections between grief, loss, and resilience. She is a clinical practitioner focused on working with brain injury survivors and the provision of community-based mental health services. Michele also works with various student supports initiatives for SUNY Online. In this role, she helps to facilitate and supports several multi-campus, cross-functional communities of practice.
Course Pricing
How to Pay
Payment Terms
- Full payment is required within 30 days of registration. If the campus intends to cover the registration fee, prior approval must be obtained; otherwise, the registrant remains responsible for payment should the selected method be denied.
- Completion badges will not be issued until full payment has been received.
FULL payment is required 30 days from the date of registration. If the campus denies the selected payment method, the registrant will be responsible for payment.
Cancel/Drop Period
Registrants must utilize the course cancellation form (linked in the registration confirmation email) to be officially cancelled from the program.
- If you registered for all of the program courses to receive a full refund you MUST cancel no later than the end of the first week (Sunday) of EACH course.
- For multi-course registrations that include a discounted rate, cancellation will result in forfeiture of the discount, and standard course fees will apply.
No Shows
Programs have limited space and tend to fill to capacity. Individuals registered have reserved a space in the program. Registrants who do not attend will be charged the full registration fee. Refunds will not be issued for any registration in which a no show occurs, and written cancellation was not received prior to the event.
Click to view SUNY CPD Terms & Conditions Policy.
Click to view SUNY Refund Policy.
Registration
Fall 2025 Course Dates – Register for the Fall 2025 Cohort
- Course 1: Foundations of the Online Student Support Role August 26th-October 6th, 2025
- Course 2: Campus Overview: Developing Campus Structures for Online Student Supports Oct.14th-Nov. 24th, 2025
- Course 3: Proactive Approach to Supporting Online Learners January 26th-February 16th, 2026
Contact Us
For programming questions, please contact Jamie Heron, SUNY Online Program Manager at jamie.heron@suny.edu. For registration questions, please contact Alli Guzman-Martinez, SUNY CPD Program Coordinator at alli.guzmanmartinez@suny.edu.