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.

Admissions officers rely less on social media in applications

According to a survey from Kaplan Test Prep published at the end of last year, college admissions officers aren’t visiting applicants’ social media profiles as much as they used to. The reason may surprise you.

In 2015, 40 percent of surveyed college admissions officers said they went to potential students’ social media profiles to learn more about them. But now, only 25 percent say they seek out applicants’ social media. A possible reason? Admissions officers can’t find the accounts.

Of the admissions officers who say they have looked into social media in applications, 52 percent say students have become savvier about hiding their social media presence over the past few years, or students have moved away from social communities where what they post is easy to find by people they don’t know.…Read More

Does your college president have a strong enough social-media presence?

If you’re the president of a minority-serving institutions (MSI) and not using Twitter, you may be missing out on a big opportunity, according to the research. Only 36 percent of MSI presidents use Twitter, compared to 55 percent of all college and university presidents.

Of that MSI group, most don’t post or tweet regularly, meaning they miss chances to connect with current and prospective students, as well as stakeholders and supporters, according to Presidential Engagement of Students at Minority Serving Institutions, a report from the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, which gauges how MSI leaders can use social media to connect with and engage students.

“As the student demographics shifts to a more a technologically savvy (and dependent) student population, presidents must also shift in their engagement of social media,” the authors write. “As presidents aim to prioritize authentic relationships with students and cultivate communities on their campuses, many presidents have used social media to better engage with their students.”…Read More

New partnership between Miami Dade College & Facebook focuses on real-world skills

Realizing the importance in-demand real-world skills, Miami Dade College (MDC) has entered into a partnership with Facebook to hone the digital marketing expertise of students and outside entrepreneurs. Students will earn a certificate when they complete 18 credits in the program. Small business owners and local entrepreneurs can acquire expertise in apps such as Instagram, learn how to build or expand their business, and engage more directly with their customers using different social media tools.

The partnership grew out of Facebook Community Boost, a two-year-old Facebook initiative that provides digital skills and training for job seekers, advises entrepreneurs on how to get started, and helps existing local businesses and nonprofits get the most out of the internet. MDC is the first and only higher-ed partner in Florida.

“We learned about Facebook Community Boost and their aim to empower over a million small business owners throughout the country,” says Sissi Rodriguez, assistant to the college president, special projects, for MDC. “We were interested because we were already working on a certificate program for digital marketing that was approved by the state last year.”…Read More

Admissions officers aren’t checking social media–here’s why

It appears college admissions officers aren’t visiting applicants’ social media profiles as much as in years past, and for a surprising reason, according to a new survey from Kaplan Test Prep.

In 2015, 40 percent of surveyed college admissions officers said they went to potential students’ social media profiles to learn more about them. But now, only 25 percent say they seek out applicants’ social media. A possible reason? Admissions officers can’t find the accounts.

Of the admissions officers who say they have visited applicants’ social media profiles, 52 percent say students have become savvier about hiding their social media presence over the past few years, or students have moved away from social communities where what they post is easy to find by people they don’t know.…Read More

How to use social media to engage your students

Social media is such a big part of our culture. Pew Research estimates that about 70 percent of the U.S. population uses social media in some form or another (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat), and that number is greatest in the 18- to 29-year-old age group (about 80 percent).

So if this is where my students are, I want to be there too—but in a professional way. I use a combination of my professional Twitter and Instagram accounts to stay connected with my students. In all of my classes, my students have a class assignment to create a professional Twitter and Instagram account. I don’t require them to post but I do require that they search for the class hashtag and check out the articles and information that I share. I also recommend that they follow the professional accounts I follow. I keep it pretty simple, but students often mention that they love getting connected to the educational professionals I follow and they like that I retweet posts from various university organizations.

I encourage my students to create a professional online presence. I tell them that they will be Googled by their prospective employers (when I was hiring teachers I would Google applicants all the time) and having a social media presence that presents them as a professional is very impressive. This is an easy way to connect to my students and also to bring them into the field of education.…Read More

Josie and the Podcast

Our first Podcast of the Week is Josie and the Podcast – Connecting Tech & Leadership in Higher Ed. In each episode, Dr. Josie Ahlquist, an author, researcher, and speaker, interviews on- and off-campus leaders and new media professionals through the lens of social media and leadership.

Recent episodes include a discussion on the responsibilities of digital influence with Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice; using technology to support student persistence with Dr. Jason L. Meriwether, vice president for student success at Rhode Island College; and a chat about building community in higher ed with Dr. Mary K. Boyd, provost at Berry College.…Read More

How to use social media to engage Gen Z in class and beyond

Colleges need to have a savvy social-media presence to attract and hold Generation Z’s attention as well as to address their academic, personal, and career needs. To reach students, colleges must develop effective digital tactics both inside and outside the classroom.

And to reach Gen Z where they live, you need to use their favorite platforms—Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, says Nicole Kraft, who teaches journalism at Ohio State University, which ranks sixth in BestColleges.com’s Stars of Social Media Colleges 2018.

Using social media in class
According to Kraft, professors need to teach students how to use platforms properly before giving assignments. “Just because students have been using social media for much of their lives doesn’t mean they know the right way to use it,” she says.…Read More

2 ways to use social media to teach research skills

Social media offers four different ways to collect information from a substantial number of sources. First, you can apply knowledge organization to classify and catalog information or content, such as creating a playlist on YouTube and adding videos associated with that category. Second, social networking offers opportunities for collaboration and interactivity. Facebook, for instance, lets users share information such as a New York Times article to their profile page, allowing their online community to view and distribute that knowledge to others. Social media environments are a place for users to engage with a database that is dedicated to producing and potentially archiving information regularly. Finally, users can practice information retrieval by collecting and gathering data through a particular social media site. The universal tool to retrieve data and information on social media sites is the hashtag. By placing a pound symbol in front of a word or phrase, users locate and compile content associated with the chosen hashtag, including images, videos, and articles.

Higher-ed students in all disciplines can use the hashtag as a research mechanism. Because these students typically use the hashtag for entertainment purposes and building community, I recommend focusing on how they can use hashtags and social media platforms to research various topics and locate information. Here are two sample social media research assignments I’ve conducted using hashtags and social media. While the studies are associated with my courses, the concept and theory can be applied to all disciplines.

Social media research assignment example 1: Using hashtags to analyze reactions of a television series. Over the last several years, TV has greatly evolved. Today, viewers consume an episode through a streaming on demand service (Netflix, Hulu), watch on a variety of mobile devices, and binge multiple episodes in a row. Another new feature of modern television viewing is the act of companion television, in which an individual uses a second device (phone, tablet, laptop) to communicate and interact with other fans of the show who share similar interests. Many television series include their hashtag on the top left or right of the screen. For example, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars puts #DWTS on the screen.…Read More

How to use social media for classroom assignments

Social media is embedded in our culture. Online users regularly visit multiple sites each day to interact with their online community of family and friends, post and distribute content, and consume information. Social media sites are databases where our students go to communicate before and during class sessions. Since our students are using the platforms regularly, I wanted to find a way to integrate social media assignments and interactivity within my courses.

Even though students regularly use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites to review a funny meme, watch a new reality series, re-tweet the latest celebrity news, or post pictures, they may not want to connect with their instructor away from the classroom on a platform they use as their daily communication tool. According to a report published for Pew Internet Research, 4 percent of teenagers said that learning new information was a positive influence of using social media according. Communicating with family and friends, interactivity, expression, and entertainment were much more important to young adults when using social media. Therefore, it is imperative for faculty to look for ways to use social media in the classroom so that students learn to use the sites as a tool for learning, engagement, and discussion of course content. Here are some things that have worked for me.

1. Start slowly by building community.
If you immediately add social media to your course, students may not feel comfortable connecting with you or they may not want to create an additional social media profile just for your course. First, build community with your program and content by introducing the idea of social media without requiring assignments or evaluation. Facebook lets you create Groups that provide an environment to discuss ideas and issues and share content. Create a Facebook Group and invite students to share articles, photos, opinions, and other forms of content relating to the discipline. A Facebook Group will help your students become comfortable interacting with you while learning new material that relates to the classroom discussion. Additionally, you can use the Group to show potential new students the type of issues and subjects your courses cover.…Read More

3 ways higher ed can avoid social media devastation

A tenured sociology professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., landed in hot water because of his activity on Facebook. A college news site found the professor’s posts—one of which included an offensive hashtag and reference to last summer’s congressional shooting in Virginia—and published them online. Instantaneously, the story sparked national attention. Trinity had to close its doors at one point as the professor and campus received death threats.

In the age of social media, incidents like this occur frequently. The solution: Colleges and universities need to proactively prevent these types of social media issues from wreaking havoc on their reputations and day-to-day activities.

Most higher-education institutions have social media policies, but applying and communicating these policies often falls into a gray area. When colleges and universities leave social media dos and don’ts open for interpretation, they leave their institutions vulnerable to unwanted controversy.…Read More