Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

6 ways to engage alumni using Facebook Live

Launched in April 2016, Facebook Live allows the most-used social network’s users to share up to eight hours of live video with their followers and friends. According to a Facebook spokesperson, the vast majority of these recordings come from people instead of public figures and publishers, and the number of people broadcasting live at any given minute has grown by four times since its launch. Further, users comment over 10 times more on Facebook Live videos than on regular videos, demonstrating that broadcasts engage users with their real-time reactions and comments.

Many colleges and universities have already begun integrating Facebook Live into their social media marketing schemes. Out of the 45-school Alumni Monitor coverage group, 36 schools have hosted at least one Facebook Live event within their main university or alumni-focused social media page. For those schools looking to begin (or expand on) their current Facebook Live presence, here are six ideas for engaging alumni using Facebook Live.

1. Interview professors about current events…Read More

Can Facebook boost MOOC retention?

A new study on MOOC course design reveals that students prefer Facebook’s collaboration and interaction features to those of built-in MOOC communication tools.

Social media tools might be the key to keeping students engaged in MOOCs and preventing course dropouts, according to new research on MOOC course design that was presented at the annual ACM conference on Learning at Scale on April 26.

A study comparing students’ use of their MOOC course’s built-in message boards and forums to the same students’ use of course Facebook group revealed that students seemed more engaged in the Facebook groups. Students told researchers they preferred social media interaction to interacting with the MOOC communication tools.

Results of the study have implications for future MOOC course design, the researchers said in their paper, parts of which are available by registering for the Learning at Scale flipped conference online.…Read More

Number 1: Social media has negative impact on academic performance

In the report, social media also includes social technology, like texting.

social-media-performance[Editor’s note: This story is part of our end-of-year countdown, and was the most popular story on the site in 2014. Happy Holidays from eCampus News!]

Perusing Facebook, sending rapid-fire text messages, and tweeting back and forth with friends and celebrities alike might not be the best academic strategy, it turns out.

A new study released by researchers at The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine shows a link between social media use and poor academic performance. The study wasn’t limited to usage of traditional social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, but instead included popular social technology like texting.…Read More

SocialEDU expands online courses for Rwandan students

SocialEDU is collaborating on a new project with Internet.org, Facebook, and mobile technology companies to provide internet access to more than 60 percent of the world’s population.

socialedu-facebook-rwandaFacebook and edX are collaborating to give free access to online education to students in Rwanda through the SocialEDU initiative, Facebook announced Feb. 24.

SocialEDU will incorporate aspects of free content, free data, inexpensive smart phones, localized education, and a “government that supports innovation” in its launch to help the African nation, according to an announcement.

EdX will work with Facebook to build a mobile app allowing Rwandan students to access edX’s free MOOCs from universities like Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California (UC) Berkeley.…Read More

Campus admissions offices cutting back on Facebook

College and university admissions offices, it seems, have reached a saturation point with their use of Facebook as a recruiting and interactive social media tool.

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Colleges are looking toward social platforms outside of Facebook.

Facebook, long a key online platform for college admissions officials hoping to interact with students in a familiar environment, is still the most popular social media site in campus admissions offices, with 83 percent of admissions departments maintaining a Facebook presence, according to an annual survey released Dec. 13 by Varsity Outreach.

Admissions offices are spending less time on Facebook, however, due to growing interest in other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram — sites that haven’t traditionally been used to recruit prospective students and communicate with current students.

A closer look at admissions officials who are using Facebook to recruit prospects shows that those who spend the most time on Facebook communicating with potential students are more satisfied with their experience.…Read More

How social media privacy settings could affect your future

In an effort to win back its teenage audience, Facebook made a major change last week to its privacy policy, The Huffington Post reports. Teenagers have been rapidly abandoning the social network in favor of competitors such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Now, 13- to 17-year-old Facebook users have the ability to post their comments and photos publicly. Prior to this change, teenagers were restricted to sharing their posts with friends and friends-of-friends in an effort to protect this young generation from predators.

While I can’t predict how these new privacy settings will affect Facebook’s business, I am certain the change could negatively impact this generation’s personal brand and with it, their future college and job prospects.…Read More

Social media could help MOOCs, Facebook executive says

Facebook could one day help massive open online course (MOOC) providers deliver education to more remote parts of the globe, an executive with the social network said.

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Facebook has more than 1 billion users in 60 countries.

Speaking at the Transform Africa 2013 Summit in Rwanda, Matt Perault, Facebook’s head of global policy development, said partnerships between MOOC platforms and far-reaching social media websites could allow for a wider distribution of educational content, according to Wired.

“I do think there’s a tremendous opportunity in education which has not yet been realized and that is connecting massively open online courses, which are known as MOOCs, with distribution networks like Facebook, so as to get educational content out to a larger number of people,” Perault said.

Providing greater access to such content has been a much-publicized goal of MOOC companies, and recent months have seen a more calculated push to increase the global reach of the courses.…Read More

Students turn to social media to research colleges

College students are scouring social media to find out about perspective colleges more than ever, though students with the highest SAT scores took a slightly different approach to their Twitter and Facebook research when compared to their peers.

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General social media use is down overall among perspective college students.

The education consulting firm Art & Science Group released the results of a study that showed 44 percent of student respondents said they had used some form of social media in their search for a college or university.

That’s more than double than 18 percent of students who used social media in their college research five years ago.

The preferred social media platforms were hardly surprising, with 36 percent of students using Twitter and Facebook, while 13 percent used Google+. A mere 7 percent used YouTube in their school searches.…Read More

Florida university suspends fraternity over Facebook posts

References to drugs, comments about hazing and pictures of semi-nude women taken from posts on a closed Facebook page have prompted the suspension of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity on Florida International University’s Miami campus, CNN reports. An eMail containing 70 screen grabs of posts allegedly found on the Facebook page for active members of Pi Kappa Alpha, also known as Pike, were sent to school officials and members of the media, including CNN affiliate WSVN. “Anyone have a connect for coke, not me, a friends wants, lol,” says one post, while others mention “study drugs.” There are offers to sell Adderall and Vyvanse, drugs prescribed to people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Several postings allegedly made by members of the fraternity make reference to the “Pike pharmacy.”

Read more

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LinkedIn creates ‘University Pages’, opens to high school students

LinkedIn is launching college-specific pages on the site that feature updates, notable alumni, and statistics about what fields graduates migrate toward.

The social networking website LinkedIn, which has been connecting professionals and employers for more than a decade, is turning its attention to connecting two new groups: high school students and universities.

LinkedIn is launching University Pages, college-specific pages on the site that feature updates, notable alumni, and statistics about what fields graduates migrate toward. And, beginning in September, LinkedIn is lowering its age requirement to accommodate younger teenagers.

The changes mean high school students can use LinkedIn to find and connect with colleges in the way that professionals use it to find and connect with employers.…Read More