Washington State University met that challenge in 1998, before any other traditional university distance education provider in the country, when it started, among a number of innovative student services for its distance students, a completely online student government called the Associated Students of Washington State University - Distance Degree Programs (ASWSU-DDP).

Just like the on-campus student government, ASWSU-DDP has as a student-body president and a seven-member senate; an allocated budget; bylaws and constitution; and holds a general election each academic year, along with regularly scheduled senate and committee meetings. The only difference is that all these things are done completely online.

ASWSU-DDP recently spearheaded the development of additional student services that focus more closely on career planning assistance to further benefit online students. Renee Smith, student affairs officer and ASWSU-DDP advisor, explains that over the past two academic years, ASWSU-DDP conducted an online student survey "to try and get a good understanding of what sort of nonacademic services, needs and wants DDP students have." The survey garnered 315 student responses.

"Primarily they are keenly interested in career-related information," says Smith. "That was overwhelmingly the biggest need." The result is that ASWSU-DDP will be funding a half-time position in WSU’s career services department that will focus entirely on helping DDP students with career planning, resume writing, job search assistance and internship development.

Another innovative student-services-oriented program provided to its DDP students is the Alumni Group Mentor Program. According to Cliff Moore, WSU’s associate director of extended university services, the mentor program got its start as DDP moved away from providing video-based instruction to web-based delivery of its courses. The web-based delivery is "based on a theory in which everybody has some responsibility in developing the knowledge-base of the class," adds Moore. "It’s not just the faculty member imparting knowledge; everybody has to participate."

As this change in delivery occurred, taking online courses became more of a challenge for students. "Everybody can plug in a video and watch it, but it’s a bit more complex to understand the intricacies of a collaborative learning space, and how you go about critiquing the work of others in a way that is positive," says Moore.

Hence, the mentoring program was born to enlist those students "who have been through this experience to volunteer to be mentors to new students," says Moore. "This is really to help [incoming] students understand technologically what to do and also understand that there is a person they can go to for moral support."