Building Community Online
Through our interactions as Graduate Admissions Counselors, it is commonly shared that prospective online students may worry that distance learning limits opportunities for connection and collaboration. Multiple stakeholders at Tufts University work hard to design curricula that promote collaboration and create events that facilitate networking opportunities with peers, faculty, alumni, and industry professionals. One of Tufts School of Engineering faculty member Ming Chow’s testimony highlights the importance of these efforts: “Communities are important. Theyʼll give you far more opportunities in life than you can imagine.”
How Tufts Redefines Online Community from Some Perspectives
Online degree programs at Tufts School of Engineering are designed to ensure every student can connect with their peers and faculty members within the online format. There are two factors I would like to highlight that distinguish the Tufts online learning experience:
● Synchronous learning: Some online programs offer 100 percent asynchronous course content. At Tufts, online students attend weekly live online lectures where they connect with faculty and peers.
● Small class sizes: Tufts online classes are capped at around 20 students to promote engagement and participation.
Fostering collaboration in virtual spaces is one of our key priorities at Tufts. Our online programs are designed to integrate collaboration deeply into the curriculum. From breakout groups to team projects, students experience a dynamic, interactive learning environment that mirrors real-world professional settings.
Breakout Groups
Breakout sessions allow students to engage with course material in small groups, giving everyone a chance to contribute and connect. Data science student Lanie Kropp shares: “Professors utilize breakout groups, which are always really great. It's much less intimidating to speak when there's only three faces on your screen instead of 20.”
Team Projects
Team-based assignments offer practical, hands-on experience with collaboration, an essential skill in today's workforce. Computer science faculty member Lisa Diorio explains: “I assign group projects to give students the experience of working with two or three other people. My students have repeatedly told me the projects are a highlight of the class and that working with other people and gaining that experience is a big deal.”
Peer Learning Across Backgrounds
Computer science master’s student Hope Rogan describes how interacting with peers expanded her approach to problem-solving by finding “a different way of approaching a problem you hadn't thought of before. You can exchange ideas and challenge yourself in a way you
wouldn't have originally.ˮ
Building Faculty-Student Relationships Online
Contrary to common perceptions, online students at Tufts often form strong, personal connections with their professors, sometimes more so than in large, in-person classes. Chow echoes the sentiment: “Even though you are taking the course online, you are working and teaching with real Tufts faculty. The only big difference is that the online version of the class meets once a week and is a lot smaller, like 20 students and not 120, as in the in-person.”
For many students, these smaller classes and regular interaction with faculty become a cornerstone of their academic journey. Lanie Kropp describes how a professor’s support helped shape her capstone project: “We had some really great conversations, and he ended up informing my capstone project because he gave me some articles to read and things to look into. He was accessible and excited to talk about it.”
Tufts’ approach to online education combines interactive teaching, deep collaboration, faculty accessibility, and real-world application, creating a virtual learning environment that is anything but passive!