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Rebuilding Student Trust: 6 Coaching Strategies to Support Belonging for Online and Adult Learners
Rebuilding Student Trust: 6 coaching strategies to support belonging for online and adult learners
How institutions can help online and adult learners feel seen and supported throughout their college journey
In today’s higher education landscape, more adult learners are enrolling in online programs, often while managing work, family and other life commitments. However, these motivated students often face a difficult educational journey. Rising tuition, unclear higher ed value propositions, and systems that weren’t designed with adult learners in mind all contribute to a sense of skepticism and disconnection while eroding their trust in postsecondary institutions. Rebuilding trust in higher education doesn’t happen overnight — but it does start with human connection.
Success coaching offers a personalized way to meet students where they are, walking alongside them to accomplish their goals. When learners feel heard, understood and empowered, trust can take root — and transformative growth can begin. Here are six proven coaching strategies from student success coaching nonprofit InsideTrack that faculty, advisors and support staff can start using today to help online students feel like they belong.
1. Acknowledge and validate learner concerns
Adult learners often return to school after years — sometimes decades — away from formal education. Re-enrollment is a big step involving significant sacrifice. When doubts arise, they’re typically rooted in real, lived experience: past stressors or trauma, digital overwhelm or competing life obligations that make persistence difficult.
Many learners also carry systemic distrust — especially if they come from historically marginalized communities or have been underserved by traditional institutions. Dismissing or minimizing these concerns can only exacerbate disconnection.
Validating learner concerns isn’t about having the perfect response — it’s about listening with empathy. When an adult learner expresses doubt, acknowledge their courage. Use affirming language like “You’re not the only one feeling this way” or “It’s okay to question things — you’re doing something really hard.”
It’s also important to create safe spaces for expression — from one-on-one virtual check-ins to online community boards — where students can share concerns without judgment.
2. Strengthen belonging through personalized, proactive outreach
Online and adult learners often report feeling disconnected — not just from classmates, but from their institution as a whole. And since these learners are often working part- or full-time, caretaking for children or other family members, and balancing many other commitments, they may not have much spare time to connect with institutional resources. That makes intentional, proactive outreach essential.
Belonging is cultivated through consistent, tailored interaction. Actions like checking in when a student misses an assignment or recognizing personal milestones will help learners feel that they matter — and that someone sees their effort.
Coaches can help raise learner awareness of their support networks with questions like, “Who in your life helps you feel supported right now?” From there, help them build plans to stay connected to their supporters — including student support departments at your institution.
3. Make the value of higher education tangible and relevant
For many adult learners, the decision to enroll is tied directly to career goals, financial mobility or personal fulfillment. These individuals are often pursuing degrees or credentials to upskill or reskill and advance in their careers. When the relevance of coursework isn’t clear, or if a learner isn’t sure the investment will pay off, motivation can quickly erode.
Institutions must help adult learners connect their academic work to real-world outcomes. That includes offering transparent information about job pathways, upskilling opportunities and strong messaging around return on investment. But it also means helping learners define what success looks like for them — and how their current efforts move them closer to that vision.
Connecting actions to goals and discussing the “why” behind them is a tried-and-true coaching approach for building motivation to persist and succeed. By tying assignments and discussions back to a learner’s life values and goals, success coaches can help them identify transferable skills they’re building in real time.
4. Offer stability through consistency and transparency
Many adult learners have experienced disruption — in education, work or life. Inconsistency from an institution (changing policies, conflicting communications, unclear expectations) can reinforce a belief that their school doesn’t care about them or that they don’t belong.
Learners need to feel they can count on their school and their coaches. That means following through, using consistent language across platforms, and clearly communicating timelines, processes and expectations.
Because adult learners are often balancing many competing priorities, it’s critical that they receive streamlined communication from their institution. That means they should have one person who they can turn to for everything — a coach or advisor who can help connect them to other resources on campus as needed.
Transparency is also important. If something is shifting, tell students why. Practice “gentle truth-telling” — pairing honesty with empathy: “Here’s what’s changing, and here’s how we’ll support you through it.” This blend of transparency and care helps build psychological safety.
5. Provide coaching that promotes agency and self-efficacy
Many adult learners return to school with doubts about whether they can manage all of the obligations that come with it — especially if their last experience with education ended in frustration or failure. When challenges arise, they may internalize them as personal shortcomings rather than systemic or structural obstacles. Adding to that is the sense of isolation inherent to the online learning environment. It’s easy for adult learners to feel like support is merely transactional.
Coaching not only provides needed support, but also offers opportunities for empowerment. Using framing that centers the student’s agency — “I’m here to help you get what you want from this experience, not to tell you what to do” — helps learners feel respected and capable. Guiding them to identify their goals, strengths and next steps while affirming their ability to problem-solve and make informed decisions gives them ownership of their learning and reinforces their competence.
6. Encourage faculty and staff buy-in to build trust
Online learners experience your institution through every email, course and support interaction. Building trust, therefore, takes consistent, institution-wide effort. This means all faculty and staff need tools and training to support the unique needs of online and adult learners, from recognizing signs of disengagement to creating opportunities for connection in digital spaces.
Creating intentional moments for relationship-building that accommodate adult learners’ busy schedules — like virtual office hours outside of class time, asynchronous check-in emails or online meetups — helps learners feel that they belong, even from a distance. Coaches normalize seeking help, and faculty/staff should as well. Statements like “I’m glad you reached out — we all need support” can shift a learner’s mindset.
Building trust is ongoing — and worth it
Trust takes time. It’s built through consistency, commitment and care — especially for online and adult learners, whose educational journeys are often fraught with complex challenges. Gaining their trust begins with presence, not perfection. You don’t need all the answers — just a willingness to listen.
Coaching offers a proven, human-centered framework for helping students navigate through doubt into institutional trust and self-trust. Learn more about InsideTrack’s holistic coaching approach — and find more actionable resources in the Resources for Resilience content hub.