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Archive for the category “Take Two”

30 Sep 2012

Another Take: Looking Ahead at Social Media & Higher Education

Last week, Kevin kicked off this month’s Take Two feature on the intersection of social media and higher education this coming academic year.  He made excellent points on critical shifts in our industry’s use of these tools; new efforts to define success and how platforms can push our industry further to help students learn in new ways. This week, I’d like to present an international focus.  In the months ahead, I look forward to social media’s role to help our industry successfully navigate international partnerships. What can we learn from higher education institutions (HEI) abroad and their use of social media? More importantly, how can we continue to leverage these platforms to help one another succeed?

International Comparisons and Leadership

Higher education is more global than ever before.  According to the OECD, there are over 4 million, perhaps close to 5 million, international students; the majority of which, at least at this time, are in the U.S. Our institutions also maintain a lead in use of social media.  100 percent of colleges and universities in the U.S. during 2010-2011 utilized some form of social media, based on a study by the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.  Not only are students coming to our schools to learn, but we’re also engaging them through these innovative means the most.   We’re a leader, and with that comes responsibility to share knowledge and help our peers.

Sociagility’s Report, The Transatlantic University Divide: How the UK lags the USA in social media effectiveness

A prime example of this knowledge exchange is Sociagility‘s recent comparison of HEI’s use of social media in the US vs. UK (full report is linked above).   I look forward to seeing more data from Sociagility, as well as other groups like Educational Marketing Group in Colorado, who track the international state of social media in higher education.

Unique Challenges 

The tracking of this information is critical, but consideration of unique challenges is equally important as we move forward. As Kevin noted last week, universities here have established channels in place to address social media issues, and define success.  The report above is a reminder that many  schools are still just beginning, and still defining what success is based on the unique needs in their countries and systems.

Take the case of the European and Asian universities, where there is a call for more collaboration to aid the creation of a credit-transfer system to increase student mobility.  Social media may not be a priority at those HEI’s given the circumstances.  Yet, the key to their solution, according to their respective rectors, is collaboration; that is a hallmark to social media, interaction and collaboration.  Events around the world that directly affect higher education will evolve before our eyes thanks to social media, like the case above or the US election. The exchange of this information through Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. can create connections and identify potential solutions, regardless of where one lives in the world.

This coming year, I look forward to watching the international dialogue about higher education evolve and get stronger.  I’m excited to see how the use of social media changes among our peers at home and abroad, and help one another succeed.  It is important to tap the potential of social media to fuel these discussions and exchanges, and we hope that Social @ Edu can do it’s part.

Posted by Shannon Kelly in International, Take Two and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
23 Sep 2012
1 Comment

Take Two: Looking Ahead at Social Media & Higher Education

As a new academic year gets underway, it is hard not to feel the ubiquitous buzz on a college campus.  All of the hype of “back to school” season has finally come to fruition and we are all getting ourselves in gear for what’s sure to be another blink-and-they’re-gone set of semesters.

Though I often think of planning for the future when I reach the end of a previous chapter, I find myself thinking forward these past few days at the start of this academic year.  Particularly, I am meditating on what’s next for social media in higher education.  How are the two going to intersect this year?  I’m no soothsayer, but here’s a little bit of what I’m looking forward to given the trends I’m noticing on my campus and across the country.

Moving From “How Do We Begin” to “How Do We Succeed”

I am already seeing this happen, and I am excited about it.  Across universities, colleagues are continuing their meetings to discuss the use of social media.  Now more so than before, the discussions are turning evaluative; to how exactly it’s working.  To some degree, there seems to be a push for campus-wide social media education for faculty and stuff.  At many colleges & universities, there are social media committees or working groups that meet regularly to discuss issues and trends on campus.  The conversation is moving beyond the introductions, beyond experimental.  I’m looking forward to digging in to this conversation and focusing the conversation more on how we can succeed together, and a little less on how we can begin together.

Examining Learning On Social Media

Social Media in the Classroom slide

“Social Media in the Classroom” – a presentation given at the University of Denver and found on their blog. Click the image to be taken to the page where you can view the presentation.

When using social media for business, it’s critical to measure if your efforts on the networks lead to conversions of some sort.  Is my Twitter account driving traffic to my website?  Are my Facebook posts creating opportunities for sales of my product or service?  Is my Pinterest page getting people to physically visit my boutique?  These are examples of business goals, and they make sense.  For business.  In higher education, there are instances where we want and can track similar conversions: driving traffic to our websites, creating opportunities for donations, and encouraging people to apply for admission.  But, what about learning – our biggest goal?  How are social media helping students learn?  What are the best ways to promote learning on social media?  I know this discussion has already gotten started.  I know there’s even a social network whose stated purpose is for learning.  This is all great progress, and I am looking forward to continuing the move beyond the numbers of Likes, Retweets, Pins, +1s, etc. as we dive into studying the possible educational benefits of social media use for faculty, staff, and administration at colleges and universities.

When it comes to social media and higher education, what are you looking forward to this year?  An innovative project or idea?  A new way to examine how your efforts are working?  Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

By Kevin

Posted by Kevin Grubb in Take Two and tagged , , ,
25 Aug 2012
1 Comment

Another Take: Social Media ROI in Higher Education

This week, I’m completing our latest “Take Two,” a back-to-back series of blog entries between me and  Shannon, with my take on social media ROI in higher education.  To see the first entry, check out Take Two: Social Media ROI in Higher Education.

As Shannon pointed out last week, it’s both important and challenging to measure the ROI of social media in higher education.  The thing that strikes me most is the idea that many departments, from student services offices to various groups in academic affairs, use social media.  It’s also often the case that each have unique reasons for doing so.  Some may be focused on building awareness of services & activities, while others may be set on growing the number of applicants or donations.  Although altogether they make up one institution, they often vary in individual goals that contribute to the larger ones.  In that way, it’s a little bit like bringing the puzzle pieces together to create one beautiful picture.  That’s part of the challenge in higher education.

Since Shannon did a great job kicking off a discussion about the big picture, I thought this week I’d share some tools and ideas for measuring social media with higher education in mind (all free tools!).  Recognizing this won’t be all encompassing in one blog entry, consider how you measure social media while you’re reading and think about sharing it with us in the Comments.

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a dashboard of metrics for a Facebook Page.  With Insights, a Page administrator can measure things like growth rate of Fans, interactions on a Page, and much more.  As is the case with measuring anything, Page administrators need to know what their goals are in order to determine what to look for in Insights.  As an example, let’s say I’ve created a Page with the goal of building awareness of office services to traditional age undergraduate students.  One thing I should look at it is the demographic of my Page Fans.

A sample of demographics in Facebook Insights

A sample of demographics in Facebook Insights

These demographics would look pretty good for my target audience.  As you can see, the majority of the Fans are in the age bracket 18-24, which is the group I’m trying to reach.  Facebook Insights will also tell you the Countries, Cities, and Languages of your Fans, so that may help me even further determine if I’m reaching people in the right age in the right region.  I’ll need to look at more in Insights to determine whether or not people are viewing my posts, but at least with demographics, I’ll know if I’ve got the right audience in front of me.  For more on Facebook Insights, here’s a guide on the subject from Mashable.

Tweetreach

When it comes to measuring Twitter, one tool I like to explore is TweetReach.  On the site, type in your Twitter name in the search bar and click the search button.  It may take a few moments, but shortly TweetReach will show you the reach, impressions and more of your 50 most recent tweets.  You can also see a collection of the people retweeting you, which may enable you to determine whether or not those people are your target audience (students, alumni, colleagues, etc.).  For investigating awareness or even engagement, TweetReach is an interesting place to start.

A sample of the results page of TweetReach

A sample of the results page of TweetReach

Social Mention

Social Mention refers to itself “real-time social media search and analysis” and aims to pull together all the times a set of keywords has been mentioned in online social spaces.  Social Mention even allows you to set up an alert (kind of like a Google Alert) so you can be notified when the words you’re following are being mentioned.  You can type in the name of your university, office, department, etc. and see if it’s being discussed online on social media.  I’ve just been tinkering with Social Mention more as of late, and so far I am very intrigued.

So, what are your tips for measuring social media in higher education?  Let us know your take.

By Kevin

Posted by Kevin Grubb in Take Two and tagged , , , , ,
20 Aug 2012
3 Comments

Take Two: Social Media ROI in Higher Education

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has been evaluating social media’s return on investment (ROI) in higher education and generated a lot of reactions to their recent report from the Center for Marketing Research. In this edition of Take Two, Kevin and I are going to offer our own take on this general topic. 

Are your college/university’s social media efforts worth it? That is the million dollar question as of late.  I’ve come across several opinions recently that argue measuring social media ROI in higher education is complicated, it does not happen enough and warrants a university-wide effort.  I agree with all these points. Today though, I’d like to present my own take on this important and complicated conversation from a student services perspective.  A perspective that many times is not adequately addressed when looking at social media in higher education, but inevitably one that must be incorporated in the ROI discussion. I don’t necessarily have all the answers for this topic, but it’s important to consider as many angles as possible.

First, why are student services important to social media ROI in higher education?

They are important departments because they help students stay at your institution and succeed.   According to Kyle James on .eduGuru, ROI should focus on enrollment because if students do not enroll and pay, the university will cease to exist because that brings in the most money at an institution.  I agree with his logic here, and I’m glad he mentioned the importance of retention, albeit briefly, and the need to identify activities that influence enrollment.  These activities are what warrant more attention, and where student services come into the ROI discussion.

Students enroll at an institution in consideration of an institution’s reputation and their likelihood to succeed in their academic and extracurricular life on campus.   Families and students make their own huge investment, and want the ultimate return, a degree and a career.  Student service departments increase the likelihood of students attaining that goal.   They have grown exponentially in the past 30 years for that reason. Furthermore, these offices help the institution convert students into alumni who donate and/or recruit from their alma mater for jobs or internships.   To me, these are very important functions which influence the return on investment from an individual and institutional level.

Why does this complicate measurement of social media ROI?

This complicates matters because there are a lot of departments and offices that aid in retention and student success.  Each of these departments, or at least the most active, should be considered for a thorough understanding of an institution’s social media ROI.  Academic advising, student affairs, student organizations, greek life, mental health counseling, career services, cultural and LGBT offices, are a few departments that come to mind in the student services category.  The majority of these departments have turned to social media and other online tools in light of budget cuts or freezes and the increase in enrollment numbers.

As student populations grow, departments leverage online resources to enhance their visibility on campus as a resource, but also to educate students before they physically come into an office for a more efficient use of staff time.  Social media is one of these resources that allow staff to engage students in new, creative and efficient ways. And yes, this is why it is important to measure social media ROI.  Is it worth it? It is truly efficient?

The other complication, in addition to the sheer number of departments to consider, is each department has a different objective, they serve a different population, or they have a different staff member in charge of social media as one of many responsibilities. This last piece is another important consideration in the ROI discussion.

It is difficult to establish an institutional system to measure social media ROI, especially in decentralized institutions, when it is difficult to identify the individual in charge of social media.  Moreover, these staff members often lack the time to adequately establish metrics because there is so much else to do that is mission critical for their department. Professionals who measure social media ROI outside of higher education may not understand or realize this reality faced by colleges and universities around the world.  This is not an excuse, but a reminder that smaller departments who are active on social media may need assistance in order to establish metrics and identify the tools to track those metrics.

If key departments that influence student enrollment are identified and offered assistance to establish systems to measure social media ROI, then I think a lot of progress can be made in our industry.

In the end, measuring social media ROI in higher education is very complicated because colleges and universities are comprised of hundreds of departments on the academic and student services side.  Each department today has established some sort of presence online, and social media is often involved.  These departments also contribute to the top priority of the institution, whether that is enrollment or not, in their own way.  To fully understand social media ROI, they each need to be included in the conversation and offered assistance, if needed, to ensure a successful system.

If you have established a system to measure social media ROI as a student service department or can offer any insight into this topic, please share!

by Shannon

Posted by Shannon Kelly in Higher Education, Strategy, Take Two and tagged , ,
29 Jul 2012
23 Comments

Another Take: Gamification in Education – It’s Not Always About Winning

This week, I’m completing our second “Take Two,” a back-to-back series of blog entries between me and  Shannon, with my take on gamification in education as part of our Olympic theme.  To see the first entry, check out Take Two: It’s Not Just About Winning in the Olympics – Lessons for Higher Education.

This weekend, the city of London opened itself up to the world and kicked off the 2012 Olympic Games.  I’ve been glued to my TV ever since.  (I also came across this handy website that allows you to find out when each event is being shown on your local network: Olympic TV schedule - enjoy).  The Olympic Games are such an inspiring example of international unity, and hearing the stories of Olympians are sometimes even more amazing.  Their journeys are full of discipline, passion, and learning.  There are so many lessons that can be applied to higher education, but I want to focus on one that has been trending up lately: gamification in education, specifically using social media.  Let’s take a closer look.

What is gamification?

Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking, and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.  If I had to translate that very formal definition into an educational framework, I’d say gamification is adding incentive or external motivation to promote action.

About gamification in education

Of course, since there has been a lot of hype about gamifying lately, there also comes some speculation, and some appropriate thoughts at that.  On the other hand, a recent whitepaper published by MIT called “Moving Learning Games Forward” makes a case for educational games and learning through play.  Below is an infographic that helps to highlight some major takeaways from the paper.  Some food for thought comes in the first quote mentioned: “Game players regularly exhibit persistence, risk-taking, attention to detail and problem-solving, all behaviors that ideally would be regularly demonstrated in school.”

An infographic exploring gamification in education, summarizing MIT's whitepaper on the subject

A great visual summary of MIT’s whitepaper on gamification in education. Click the image to be taken to the original blog entry where I found this graphic.

About gamification on social media

In a recent study detailing why people follow brands, it was revealed that approximately 37% of people follow brands on Facebook for “Special Offers/Deals” and 43.5% have similar motivations for following a brand on Twitter.  Further, 70% of the respondents in the study reported that they have participated in a brand-sponsored contest or sweepstakes.  The motivation and evidence are there: people want to be engaged in “gaming” via social channels.

Examples of gamification in higher education

We’re all just getting started here, but there are some very interesting developments already taking place.  Here are a few:

  • Penn State developed an “Educational Gaming Commons” to bring games into teaching & learning.  Many examples there.
  • Educause’s paper, “7 Things You Should Know About Gamification,” discusses how Dartmouth used gaming to help students and archivists tag thousands of photos for researchers and offers another cautionary note about gamification
  • Seven of the Ivy+ alumni associations are currently engaged in the “Alumpics” where they’ll each post an alumni-related photo on their Facebook Pages.  The university with the most Likes on the picture will win the gold.

Personally, I think there’s potential to gamify with educational goals in mind when it’s done right, whether it’s promoting learning or growing an affinity to your university.  I, for one, will be experimenting with the idea more this year, and I think using social media is one fantastic way to do it.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts or examples of gamification in education in the Comments and let’s play!

By Kevin

Posted by Kevin Grubb in Take Two and tagged , , ,
23 Jul 2012
1 Comment

Take Two: It’s Not Just About Winning in the Olympics – Lessons for Higher Education

The Olympics begin soon, and over a hundred countries will come together in London for a common cause – to win.  In higher education today, there is a similar competition to win.  A contest to secure a spot among your peers in a college ranking system or a race to win resources, such as faculty or funding.  Yet, as the Olympics show, an international competition is not just about winning, it is about the importance of international solidarity.  Solidarity is especially critical in the current higher education climate.

Universities from around the world have worked together to address important issues, identify creative solutions and take on a more global approach.  NYU-Abu Dhabi is a prime example of a domestic institution’s international partnership to help educate citizens of another country and enhance the research and global experience of our own. There are also important examples of how international institutions have utilized social media, such as the UK’s Open University’s use of YouTube to deliver content freely.  This is similar to the recent launch of Coursera, where top universities deliver education to students around the world through videos and interactive chats.

The use of technology and socia media allow institutions around the world to connect and engage in meaningful discourse on a larger scale than ever before. LinkedIn has been critical to this development.  Groups like EDUCAUSE, NAFSA or the International Society for Technology in Education offer more meaningful and frequent interaction compared to traditional formats, like annual conferences.

These examples show how far our industry has come since the last summer Olympics.  There are more formal and informal partnerships around the globe.  Technology has been leveraged in very creative ways.  But, there is still a lot of ground to cover.  Because, rankings remain a top priority and a source of competition even among partners.  Institutions vy for the same faculty, students (especially from abroad) and funding from outside the government.

I hope as higher education professionals watch the Olympics next week they remember the games are more than just a competition. They are an opportunity for the world to come together and celebrate the talent each country can bring to the table.  That is an important lesson, and reminder, for us all.

by Shannon

Posted by Shannon Kelly in Higher Education, Take Two and tagged ,
23 Jun 2012
2 Comments

Take Two: Seeds of Possibility in Higher Education

This week, we’re excited to introduce a new feature here on social @ edu, Take Two.  Take Two is a series where Kevin and I will present each of our own perspectives, or takes, on a particular topic at the end of each month. It’s an opportunity for us to not only interact directly with each other on our blog, but also cross-examine something that warrants attention. We hope you enjoy the series and share your own take on the subjects with us.

“Right beneath the surface are seeds of possibility, if conditions are fertile people will flourish and grow.” Sir Ken Robinson, NACE 2012 Keynote Speech

This particular line from the keynote reminded me why I pursued a career in higher education – the possibility to help others flourish and grow.    It is increasingly difficult to accomplish this goal, however, in a time where higher education is faced with significant challenges. Budget cuts, rising tuition prices, a difficult job market for recent graduates, discrepancies in access and academic preparation, a growing college-aged population. These are a few of the issues facing our industry. Social media has the potential to help higher education address them. In fact, it has already in many respects. A few events this week centered on higher education finance drove this point home for me.

1. Higher Education Budget Cuts in Pennslyvania. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett recently said that the state should look at how it funds higher education because it does not make sense. PA needs to consider a voucher system to incorporate a market-based approach. Officials from a handful of public institutions in PA commented in the article. This is an example of where social media can create a more inclusive conversation. Clearly, administrators are discussing this on campus. What about off and between their respective campuses? What do their alumni, current and future students think? They are the most active on social media platforms and whose fate hangs in the balance. Social  media can help fuel the conversations across populations by aggregating comments across platforms through storify, or tracking and collecting important private institutional data through wikis.

2. Student Loan Rate Increases. Student loan rates will double in 9 days and 12 hours, according to a recent Facebook post by Obama.  I came across this in my own Facebook news feed (pictured below) and consider it an example of a great social media strategy. Politics aside, this post was clear, eye-catching and easy to share with my friends. Many of my friends have student loans, myself included. My younger cousins are prospective college students, as well. They are all on Facebook every.day. It is important to follow the latest bills and policies that influence one’s ability to pay for college, or pay back their education.

These are two examples of where conversations about higher education issues have, and can be influenced by social media. At the end of the day, an inclusive and  fluid communication system is at the heart of identifying and implementing resolutions.  Ask their opinion. Tell them the facts.  Listen. Students, faculty, staff and government officials all have opinions and their own facts. I don’t deny that.  Sharing and listening (which is at the foundation of social media) generates buy-in and that is critical to success.

What issues are your institutions facing? How has or can social media contribute to a resolution?

by Shannon

Posted by Shannon Kelly in Take Two

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