Higher education leaders in the 21st century are faced with challenges of affordability, accessibility, and increased demand for postsecondary education. The recent growth of online educational programs in the United States provides institutions with potential solutions to these challenges; yet, persistence rates continue to lag behind traditional face-to-face educational environments. Additionally, academic achievement and positive student development capacities within the online learning environment are questioned by administrators. Despite continued scrutiny of online educational environments, there is little research on interventions to impact student success and persistence. To increase the base of knowledge surrounding student success in online learning environments, the current research examined the impact of synchronous telecommunication interactions between students and institutional support staff. This investigation employed an experimental pretest-posttest control group design to measure the effect of the intervention on a number of student success variables. The study included data from 74 undergraduate students enrolled in a required first-year introductory course at a private liberal arts institution who were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group received weekly telecommunication interactions, and the control group received weekly emails communications over an 8-week academic session. Dependent variables in this study included term-to-term persistence, intent to reenroll, course grades, and college student thriving. Although the results of an ANOVA indicated no significant differences in intention to reenroll between the 2 groups, a chi-square analysis revealed that those in the treatment group were significantly more likely to enroll the following term than those in the control group. An ANCOVA, with incoming GPA as the covariate, determined there were significant group differences in course grades between treatment and control groups, with participants in the treatment group earning higher course grades than those in the control group. Using pretest scores as covariates, a MANCOVA discovered an effect of the intervention on intrapersonal thriving, but not academic or interpersonal thriving. Implications for practice are discussed, providing recommendations for practice beneficial for effective online student success initiatives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]