With the pilot launch of SUNY Online, and the continued success of Open SUNY, SUNY is becoming a major force in the provision of online education. How can we prepare students for academic and personal success in this modality? Assumptions about online learning being easier than instruction delivered face-to-face persist despite campuses preparing students through various onboarding and orientation activities. Mechanisms to assess a student’s readiness for online learning can complement advising and other pedagogical strategies. In August 2018, Open SUNY assembled a SUNY-wide team of campus experts to develop a SUNY-specific, research-based, open-source online student readiness assessment tool. In September 2019 the SUNY Online Student Success Inventory (SOSSI) will be piloted. The goals of this project are to:
• Design a valid and reliable open-source online readiness assessment of which all SUNY campuses could utilize.
• Develop recommendations for campus practices and pedagogical interventions.
• Analyze the effectiveness of the procedures used to promote the assessment tool to students and the intervention strategies used by campuses.
• Develop systems for ongoing continuous improvement and maintenance of the platform

This presentation will provide overview of the tool, rollout of the pilot , and discuss ways for campuses to get involved in future.