Many graduate public affairs programs offer both residential and online options for students. One of the challenges for multi-format programs is creating a sense of belonging among online students who may never set foot on campus. In 2017, the MPA program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill developed an “immersion” course designed for residential and online students in a weekend intensive format on campus to help create a greater sense of connectedness and satisfaction among (principally) online students, while benefiting students in both formats. This paper examines immersion courses as one strategy to address gaps in belonging and satisfaction between online and on-campus students. The case study of UNC-Chapel Hill developing the immersion course and the first three iterations of it are described, offering practical insight for other campus-based public affairs programs that also have online degrees who may want to try something similar.

许多研究生公共事务课程为学生提供住宿和在线选择。多格式课程的挑战之一是在可能永远不会踏上校园的在线学生中创造一种归属感。2017 年，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的 MPA 项目开发了一个“沉浸式”课程，专为住宿和在线学生设计，以周末密集形式在校园内进行，以帮助（主要）在线学生之间建立更大的联系感和满足感，同时使两种格式的学生受益。本文将沉浸式课程作为解决在线学生和在校学生之间归属感和满意度差距的一种策略。描述了 UNC-Chapel Hill 开发沉浸式课程及其前三个迭代的案例研究，