Online students will soon be able to mingle with their classmates, despite being hundreds of miles away.
UF Plaza, a new program by UF Online, will officially launch in Fall 2017, said Evie Cummings, UF Online’s director. The service will be like a “virtual campus,” by connecting students with others by automatically sorting them into groups based on their major, classes and geographical area.
Cummings said the department created the forum for online students after realizing most of their communication occurred on social media.
“We see a lot of activity from the students on Facebook,” she said. “But we also felt that we could be doing a better job here at the university in serving our online students.”
About 1,000 UF Online students have been invited to test the program. Of those students, about 400 have logged on so far.
The soft-launch of the program included students majoring in business administration, health education and behavior, sport management, public relations, telecommunication and criminology and law, but all majors will have access in Fall.
Online students will also have access to in-person lecture viewings in Gainesville for them to gather, she said.
Sam Penta, an 18-year-old UF sport management freshman in UF’s Pathway to Campus Enrollment program, or PaCE, said he looks forward to meeting his classmates in person.
“You’re more able to form study groups and connect with people,” he said.
@romyellenbogen
rellenbogen@alligator.org
