Social Software in Higher Education

or, how my community college can benefit from meebo

Current Environment

Teenagers today are a new breed, as they often are with each generation.  Technology only adds to the mix.  The phone?  Is more for texting than talking.  The web?  Is the first point of contact for the majority of high schoolers investigating colleges, according to several reports from the Pew Internet Life Project.  The pretty brochures that university marketing departments favor?  Are generally ignored.  Perhaps a parent might look at them, but printed, mailed material is no longer a viable way to reach prospective students.   Nor are any of the other traditional, passive marketing vehicles, like cable access television, radio, or newspaper adverts.  Today's young adults (and many adult adults too) want a personal interaction, something that makes them feel connected, the same way they build communities online with other friends and organizations. 

A community college has a slightly different audience than a traditional 4-year school; the latter is squarely aimed at high-school students, while 2-year schools tend to have a wider demographic.  However, for several reasons, not the least of which is economics, community colleges are experiencing the growing trend of being more desirable as a first choice school, with many teenagers getting an associate's, and then transferring elsewhere to complete a bachelor's degree.  This saves them a great deal of money, and even more well-off families are beginning to take that approach, especially as the cost for private education continues to rise dramatically.  Attending community college for a year or two can save thousands and thousands of dollars.  What does this mean for 2-year schools?  Community colleges are still working to shed the "vocational school/stupid people" image, and fortunately, research indicates that much progress is being made on that front.  So first and foremost, they need to look beyond the tried and true methods of advertising and recruitment, and be open to new ways of reaching bright *young*  students who are middle-class, more tech-savvy, and decidedly NOT reading the newspaper for information about their education.  The solution, or at least a significant part of the solution, is social software.

Assessment

There are some higher education institutions (examples) who have begun embracing this sea change in their approach to recruitment and admissions.  Unfortunately, Roritan Malley Cool Community College (RMCCC: name changed to protect this project site from real-life search hits) is not one of these leading edge places.  A Chronicle of Higher Education sponsored survey was completed online by 461 admissions officials from all 50 states and the District of Columbia between February 26 and March 10, 2008 (details not available without a subscription to www.chronicle.com).  One of the 30 questions was:

Which of the following electronic or Web-based tools does your office actively employ in recruitment and communications?

• Admissions-office Web site 98.0%

• Virtual campus tour 56.2%

• Blogs by current students 43.6%

• Online chats 36.7%

• Instant messaging 35.8%

• Personalization of the college’s Web site according to prospect’s preferences 23.0%

• Text messaging 18.7%

• Live Webcam from one or more campus sites 17.1%

• Podcasts 15.4%

• Blogs by faculty members 6.5%

• E-mail 5.0%

• Social networking 3.9%

• Interactive features on Web site 3.5%

• Other 6.9%

• Not reported 1.5%

  (http://tinyurl.com/6dshrd)

Interesting!  Note that RMCCC currently offers, as do most places, a 'prospective students' website.  It also uses a virtual campus tour, designed in Flash, and a feedback form to collect email. so it can send marketing materials digitally. There is an RMCCC mySpace account (noted as 40/Female/Single which seems a bit off-putting for your average 17-yr-old), but no Facebook account.   Although the mySpace is fairly current (last login 10/1/08), there are no signs of community; friends, comments, etc.  So the College has some work ahead of it, if RMCCC wants to step up and really participate in the web 2.0/social software evolution.

What I've tried to do for this project is review what's out there, and pick a few key technologies the admissions staff can use to get started in developing a more robust and welcoming web presence.  Given budget constraints, learning curves, and skepticism issues, it seems prudent to me to select a few initial avenues to try, and branch out from there as response and enthusiasm develops   Just because technology is available doesn't mean it has to immediately be embraced.  Instead, I would look at this first step as using specific software tools as building blocks, and creating a real online initiative over time as staff and student buy-in grows.

Please note the scope of this project does not include using social software for learning.  There is some research out there to support such efforts, and many institutions are embarking on using wikis, Second Life (an online immersive environment), and other online tools as part of their pedagogy.  Podcasting in particular has been at the forefront of this push, with iTunes U supporting thousands of podcasts of classroom lectures, seminars, and other digital educational media from higher education organizations around the world.  But what I focused on here is more of an admissions approach--how to create a welcoming community, one that continues during matriculation, and persists even after students have left RMCCC and moved on. 

Another issue this project doesn't address is how colleges can used social software to see what prospective students are up to--a vice-versa situation.  There are a wealth of articles plumbing the questionable depths of drunken photos on myspace and how they can hurt someone's potential admission to school, among other things.  The privacy issues, as well as the cultural willingness to "put themselves out there" of today's young adults are hot topics, and I'm sure some admissions people are addressing them, but again, that activity falls outside the scope of what's being discussed here. 

Proposal

And so, the RMCCC Admissions Blog was created, as an example of how social software can be used to enhance the admissions experience for prospective students.  Specific elements are numbered in the screenshot below, and corresponding details follow.   All of this assumes that the admissions blog will be MODERATED, so that content is at least somewhat controlled.  There are other places institutions might want to give students and staff free reign to say whatever they'd like, but this is probably not it.

1. Images are very important online.  While an effort should be made not to overdo, an all-text blog would be very boring.  One option might be to create a reasonably robust collection of acceptable images, and give access to that graphics pool to all of the blog authors.
2. Notice the slight difference in presentation between entries.  Different authors should try to use a color/font that distinguishes them, while still staying within the overall blog color scheme.   In this case, I gave the student entry the least formal "look".
3. A branding logo takes top billing, so users always know whose blog they are viewing.  While this blog was kept very simple, in some of the examples on the other institutions page, you will see blogs can be highly graphics-oriented and unique. RMCCC is encouraged to make this space unique, and if possible give it some kind of visual tie-in to their .edu public website look/feel for continuity.   A logo is a great branded way to accomplish this.
4. If RMCCC wants prospective students to follow the blog, a prominent feed/subscription link should be provided.  This will allow prospective students to see new posts from RMCCC in their aggregator--basically, it's a way for them to have the content delivered automatically whenever the blog is updated, rather than requiring users to come TO the blog to see if there's anything new.  Be sure to optimize the feed via Feedburner, so multiple reader-types can be accomodated.  Notice there is also a link to subscribe to the RMCCC Special Features podcast here, which takes users to the college's podcasting webpage.
5. Give users the ability to talk directly to an admissions rep from the blog in real-time, rather than forcing them to fill out an information form or send email.  This meebo widget indicates when a counselor is online, so potential students will know if someone is available to speak to them.  They can also leave instant messages for an admissions rep to return at a later time.  Conveniently, meebo is strictly an online service and does not require any software downloads on the part of either the user or the admissions staff; it can be accessed easily via any computer with an Internet connection.
6. This is a Twitter feed, basically providing an up-to-the-minute reflection of recent updates RMCCC has added to their Twitter account.  This is only effective if it's fairly active--if users see the last update was a month ago they won't pay much attention.  As noted above, Twitter is still being debated in terms of its value to higher education (see Brad J. Ward's blog on higher ed recruitment at http://squaredpeg.com), but kept current, it could be a quick way for students to keep track of what's going on at RMCCC without having to check an online calendar.
7. Information about contributors allows potential students to see profiles, get email, and learn about the folks who are posting to the blog.  If multiple users will be allowed posting access,There are a number of technologies NOT included in this initial proposal, as I noted in the 'Assessment' section.  When or if additional social software tools are implemented depends largely on the success of this first pass, and the willingness of admissions staff at RMCCC to really get on board with all of these new ways of reaching out to potential students. it is valuable to include this information.   I would recommend that at least a few people from various college constituencies be included in the pool of posters.  This will give prospective students a more rounded view of life at RMCCC than postings strictly from the admissions office.  It also puts a more personal face on the blog, which is exactly what we are trying to accomplish. 

Future Suggestions 

There are a number of technologies NOT included in this initial proposal, as noted in the 'Assessment' section.  When or if additional social software tools are implemented depends largely on the success of this first pass, and the willingness of admissions staff at RMCCC to embrace all of these new ways of reaching out to prospective students.   Determining whether an admissions blog like the sample suggested here *works* would take several things into account--first and easiest, look at statistics.  Blogger provides a good deal of this information; you can also access feed stats from Feedburner...how many visitors is the page getting?  How long do those users stay?  What do they click on?  For admissions reps, have them track their meebo sessions.  Is anyone using it to ask them questions?  (I had a brief conversation with an admissions counselor from Truman related to this topic.)   How many followers does the RMCCC Twitter account have?  Take stock after a month, and then another month.  Compare on a timeline to see if usage is growing or dwindling, and move ahead accordingly, by expanding areas that seem popular and ditching or scaling back tools that don't.  Also, check in on your content providers.  Are people posting?  Keeping Twitter up to date?  Engaging users of the site by responding to comments?  The whole idea is to make the process a two-way street, which is outside the model many admissions departments feel comfortable with, so some monitoring will likely be necessary.

Looking ahead, I recommend RMCCC takes the time to find a comfortable rhythm and process for blog and Twitter updates.  Then build or enhance Facebook and mySpace pages, see how they grow.  What about a Flickr account next?  Pictures go a long way on the web, and photos of happy current students are known to make prospective students take a second look.  A Twitter feed could become a flashpoint for quick communications, about events on campus in particular.  Eventually there could be a NING community for alumni, VoiceThreads by current students, a Second Life island, incorporation online tools into the pedagogy of actual courses (where it's not already being done by savvy faculty)...the options are limited only to existing technology, and since new tools are being developed constantly, by the time the College is ready for something new, it will likely be available!  Social software is truly the best way to reach new students, and I'm hoping RMCCC will choose to adopt at least some of the suggestions in this proposal.