Do we have a College Readiness Gap?

I was a little taken aback when I came across this detailed info-graphic recently at thebestcolleges.org.

There is a lot of good information from  National Association for College Admission Counseling and American Youth Policy Forum to digest here, but one statistic jumped out to me about whether our high schools are adequately preparing students for college. The fact that 40 percent of admitted and enrolled college students take a remedial course should set off alarm bells itself. 

The graphic also lays out why that creates such an uphill battle. It cites a survey as well that only 17 percent of students who must take a remedial reading course in college earn a bachelor's degree or higher.

This lists some good factors that contribute to the problem, especially with what areas are valued in the admissions process. It also suggests some strategies for high schools and students in preparation for college.

"College Readiness" and "Career Readiness" are huge buzzwords in both education and politics these days. Because a significant portion of American students are legitimately unprepared for college, it's obvious we need fundamental change. This topic also highlights the importance of intervening with students much earlier than the point when they get to college. According to the conversations we have daily with school districts and universities across the country, this is obviously a big focus. And teachers and administrators have made progress in the last decade or so.

However, based on this, we still have a long way to go. So, take a look at this graphic. What advice would you give to either a high school freshman or an educator? What do you think would be most helpful to chip into the number of students taking remedial courses and to make sure more students are ready once they get to college?

Why a CMS won't work for your Online Course Catalog

Through our extensive experience working with schools to help them convert their print catalog to a more online-friendly format, we've seen it all. The PDF links, the re-purposing of the university's CMS to try to support a course catalog, to using the school's SIS to generate an index of courses, forgoing the catalog part altogether.

Obviously some of these strategies work better than others, but none live up to what you can do with a course catalog when using a catalog management system. A catalog management system, like CatalogM, was designed for the unique needs of university courses catalogs, and ours was built specifically to give universities the flexibility to create their OWN menu structures instead of having to re-write and re-structure their course catalog to fit a specific hierarchy.

1. It was built to manage a website, not a 300 page document.
   It really is that simple. When you try to use literally ANYTHING for a purpose that it was NOT designed for, you're going to to have problems. Those problems take up a ton of time and resources that could be spent elsewhere. There's a fact: catalog management systems wouldn't exist if it were that easy to use a content management system to support a course catalog.
   
2. Just try to set up a logical menu without having to rewrite/restructure your catalog content.
   When you have a document of this size that you're trying to convert for the web, and with the nuances in terms of structure that are necessaary for a document like this, setting up a menu that works logically with the flow of a book is the hardest part when you're using a CMS. They just aren't configured to the flow of a document which can have 6-8 levels of hierarchy, or more, so you end up re-purposing the functionality to try to make it work. However, that's just a patch, and it requires a LOT of technical knowledge to do so, making it essentially impossible for the non-technical user.
   
3. Registrar v. Web Office technical skill level.
   Typically, the catalog is management by the Registrar's Office, and with no offense meant, they are not usually the most technical people when it comes to websites. That being said, it's probably not best to give them a tool to manage the catalog content that wasn't meant to do so. It will probably take up a lot more internal time and resources to get them up to speed than it would to invest in a system that was built for that purpose.
   
4. Global Updates.
   Sure, some CMS's do have a find and replace feature, but catalog management systems are database driven, so anytime you make a change to English 101, which is mentioned countless times throughout the catalog, each instance of that course will be automatically updated. Why force people to take the extra step to find and replace, which a lot of times causes more harm than good anyway, if you don't have to?
   
5. Imports/Exports.
   It's not exactly the easiest thing to export web content in a way that makes sense for print. However, with CatalogM, we're able to produce a fully functional print-based catalog, which exports completely formatted into a one or two column format, ellipses separating course names and the number of hours, heading styles and page numbers, to name a few. We can even control the font styles and everything, so when we say that you can manage both your online and print catalog from one central place, we mean it. And it's not going to take you extra time to produce the second one.

Find out more about our work with university course catalog management at http://catalogm.allofe.com or contact Katie at kbrosious@allofe.com.

Kent State University Launches SMASHUP

Check it out here: http://social.kent.edu/

KSU will be featuring a monthly account on the homepage - this month, they're featuring the Fashion school, which is one of the top in the U.S.! Also be sure to check out their social media directory - they have more than 100 social media accounts, and are constantly adding more. This is definitely a social media friendly school - and we have loved working on this project with them.

What do you think?

Leave us feedback in the comments - we love reading them!

Shopping for a Curriculum Management System

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the need for curriculum management in higher education--specifically in programs with defined standards and competencies required for accreditation.

Since then, I’ve been considering how a program should shop for a curriculum management system. Choosing the right system is a heavy decision. You want to have a really good idea of what you’re getting into before you make the commitment. The system you choose will affect the lives of your faculty and your students daily.

Before you decide on a curriculum management system, I hope you will consider the following questions.


Does it do what your program needs it to do?
For the programs we’ve been working with, this means tracking the standards required for accreditation and simplifying the accreditation process. As we’ve been researching the current practices related to curriculum tracking and mapping within institutions of higher education, I’ve learned many institutions are spending amazing amounts of time tracking curriculum. Some programs meet every month, some meet every week (usually in addition to lengthy meetings at the beginning of each semester) to go over each course and ensure it has met the standards and competencies it was supposed to. Programs are also spending incredible amounts of time preparing for their accreditation reviews.

With the right system, much of this work can be eliminated. A lot can be automated; the rest can be made easier using a web-based system in which information is centralized, giving members of the faculty access to the curriculum information all the time. The right system will also simplify your accreditation review preparation with automated reports and other features to make your review much less daunting.

Can it be customized?
Every Physician Assistant program is different, as is every Dental Hygiene program and every Chiropractic program. Though each and every Physician Assistant program, for example, must meet the same standards to be accredited, each program finds unique ways to serve and educate. Your curriculum management system must recognize that. Customization should include more than changing the font or a title. You don’t want a cookie-cutter solution. You should not need to adapt to the system--the system should adapt to you.

Was it designed to be a curriculum management system?
A generic content management system cannot merely be tweaked to handle your curriculum. You need something designed specifically for the unique needs presented by curriculum management. A generic content management system will not generate reports. It will not consistently structure your information. You’re looking for something that will simplify your life, not complicate it.

Additionally, a system that tries to do everything (admissions, online assessments, demographics, delivering pizza...) misses the point. Because it tries to do everything, it risks not doing any of them well. A system with an all-in-one approach may lack the detail you need to efficiently manage your curriculum. Focus on the needs your program has. Do you need admissions, or does your school already have an admissions department? You know you need curriculum management. Find a system that handles your curriculum extremely well--not one that manages it ok but also has a million features you’ll never use.

This idea goes hand in hand with customization. Ideally, the company you choose to work with will have experience and expertise in a variety of areas--certainly in curriculum management, but also in content management, maybe online examinations or catalog management as well. The more experience the company has--the broader their range of expertise--the better that company will be able to ensure that the system does all you need. If you have an incredible system for tracking your demographic information, but need a little help with managing your curriculum alignment, an all-in-one system probably is not for you. Why would you trash what you’ve already got going for you? The company you choose should be willing to work with what you have, build on your strengths, and give your program a boost where it needs one.


Is the system easy for your faculty to learn and implement?
Your entire faculty will need to use the curriculum management system to some extent, so you need to be sure it’s easy to understand and to implement. Curriculum management should not require extensive technical knowledge nor extensive training--you have more important things to do than study a technical guide or attend countless training sessions. Check out your system before you buy it. Is it intuitive, or do you guess where to find the information you need? Learning the right system should be a natural, easy process.


Does the company know what it is doing?
The company you choose to work with should have experience in curriculum management. Having experience in the field is the only way the system they build will be able to do what you need it to do. A company that works only in general content management can’t know what educators need and will therefore either fall terribly short of those needs or will take forever to get it right.

Is the technology up to date?
Before buying a system, you should make sure you see a demonstration of how it works. In the demo, consider whether the technology seems modern. Does it look like something built in the early nineties? Is it direct, or does every action require a circuitous path? You should also study the company’s web site. If it is not presented well, if it is difficult to navigate, your system likely will be as well.

Curriculum Management in Higher Education

Earlier this year, Tracy posted a blog discussing research about curriculum mapping for higher education and some reasons why schools (especially programs with defined standards and competencies that the curriculum should meet) don’t already have curriculum mapping.

Since then, AllofE implemented eCurriculum HE for five different programs at Bridgeport University. Soon, Bridgeport’s Dental Hygienist, Naturopathic, Chiropractic, Nutrition, and Physician’s Assistant programs will all be using this curriculum mapping system.

And let me tell you: the administrators there are pumped. They are excited about the how easy it will be for them to manage, share and track their curriculum.

There is a real need in Higher Education for a curriculum mapping tool.

Recently a few of us here at AllofE have started a research project around current practices related to curriculum tracking and mapping within similar Higher Ed institutions.

The answers have a familiar tone to them yet I never fail to be surprised by the archaic methods used in most cases. Some schools are using spreadsheets. Some are still putting pencil to paper.

Let’s look back at those reasons Tracy listed that Higher Ed was doing without curriculum mapping:

• They think their needs are more complex than the K-12 districts that have been using curriculum mapping successfully for years (and, if they are being honest, are maybe reluctant to follow the lead of K-12 schools)

Yeah, their needs are complicated. The Chiropractic program has over 250 competencies, as well as learning measures to track. The Physician’s Assistant program? More than 470 topics to track, as well as more than 50 ARC standards and countless labs and experiences every student needs.

Tracking their ability to hit these competencies, standards and labs—this is all part of the accreditation. They need these for their school to stay a school.

Yes, these could be tracked by hand. But tracking them by hand involves hours of work—work that most schools probably put in at the last second, with the accreditation date quickly approaching. At this point, they’ve either taught the skills or not. They may have taught the same competency several times, then run out of time to teach another vital skill.

And they wouldn’t know until it was too late.

eCurriculum is built to avoid these errors. It lets you plan your semester week by week, simply checking a box to include a competency in an instruction module. It also provides reports that let you know what you’re overteaching and what you’ve forgotten about. It helps you ensure everything is covered when it should be.

• Schools have intense and exact customization needs — they can’t take a cookie-cutter solution, and the customization must be quick and cost-effective

eCurriculum is no cookie-cutter solution. While it comes preloaded with the standards needed for accreditation in each field (ARC Standards and NCCPA Competencies for the Physician’s Assistant programs, for example), the customization is anything but limited. Individual programs can insert their own curriculum needs—labs that are specific to their school, for example. Professors’ and student names are added, as well as class names.

eCurriculum also automatically generates a comprehensive curriculum web site from the entered curriculum information—a web site that matches the University’s overall branding and web site standards so that it provides a seamless experience for university web site visitors.

• Finally, they think they are saving by doing it themselves.

As Tracy said, “Without going into all the details here, this often ends up not quite achieving the results intended. Rather than saving money, it ends up being ten times more expensive, takes forever to develop and creates something less robust than a high-end customizable product.”

I mentioned earlier that eCurriculum generates a web page showing all the curriculum information. This automatically generated web page shows students what they will be learning, and may bring more interest to your school. (I know when I applied for graduate programs, if I couldn’t navigate the web site, I didn’t apply.) It shows potential students and parents what they’re spending their money on.

Most importantly, with one easily shared link, the accreditation board has all the information they need. The presentation does not need to take hours, or be changed every year. eCurriculum will update the web page as changes are made, cutting hours from the accreditation process each year, let alone the time it takes to create the system in the first place.

BEFORE&AFTER: Pittsburg State University Catalog

You probably already know that Pittsburg State University recently launched their new online course catalog, which is our first implementation of CatalogM.

What you probably don't know, unless you actually WENT to Pitt State recently, work on the Pitt State website, or you have a really weird affliction for course catalogs (which is another story for another day), is what the catalog used to look like and how that process was managed.

Well, my friends, you are in luck.


Click here to see before and after pictures we posted on our Facebook page.

While the previous PSU catalog didn't really look bad, it was incredibly difficult for the Registrar's Office to keep up with, there was no search, it wasn't managed using a database and wasn't "connected" to the print catalog, and the navigation could have really used some work.

These are the biggest things we wanted to help them achieve were:

• To put it simply, PSU needed a better way to manage both their print and online catalog (previously, there had been quite a long, long paper trail).


• A more automated process: menus and catalog structure should be rendered automatically, any updates made to course catalog content should update the all instances of that item in the catalog, instead of having to go and update each individual item manually, the ability to print the catalog on-demand, etc.


• A catalog website that would fit in seamslessly with the university website.


• Better Navigation. This was a big one.


• Search. PSU needed a way to allow students to globally search the catalog for course and degree information.


• Ability to have complete control over the catalog hierarchy and structure.


• Ability to determine custom fields for each type of catalog item from college, department, program, degree, or course.
  
  And there were a lot of others...

We were able to meet all of these needs - and guess what: instead of updating the catalog every two years, as they had in the past, the awesome folks at PSU will now have an annual catalog.

The good thing is, with our extensive background and experience in other similar academic systems, we are better able to handle the unique needs that come up. Every university is different, so what worked for PSU probably won't work perfectly for another university. But the cool thing is: We Welcome It.

Pittsburg State University Launches New Online Catalog with CatalogM

Check it out at: http://catalog.pittstate.edu/.

And the university's release on it: http://www.pittstate.edu/press-media/detail.dot?id=358652.

We'll be doing something a little different than a regular release this time around - a before and after sort of thing. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for it early next week.

This project was pretty snazzy, and a blast to work on. Really excited for what's to come with this one. Lots of good stuff in the works.

University of New Haven Launches SMASHUP

I'm so happy to announce that the University of New Haven has announced the official launch of their SMASHUP. I've been anxiously awaiting the unveiling of this website. This is our fifth university SMASHUP to go live. Kent State University will be the next.

See it at http://social.newhaven.edu/

As part of this particular project, we also worked with UNH to develop a new social media policy for all stakeholders to follow, which will promote safe use and best practices in social media.

As part of the SMASHUP website implementation, we worked very closely with UNH to ensure consistent branding in regards to the university website, emphasis on main "official" social media accounts, and integration of all university-wide social media into one interactive hub.

Click here for more about this particular project.

Is your university interested in becoming a part of this elite group of universities that are setting the standard not only for university social media and social media mashups, but social media mashups as a whole for any sector? Send me a note at kbrosious AT allofe.com.

The Latest: Our SMASHUP Partnership with Kent State University

We recently partnered with Kent State University for our latest university SMASHUP project. The SMASHUP will serve as the university's social media hub, giving students, parents, faculty, staff and the community a place to interact with the university through social media.

The Kent State SMASHUP, or social media mashup, will aggregate all of the university's social media accounts in one place, giving all accounts from across the university the exposure they deserve. KSU wanted a way to make its social media more interactive and to bring its online brand to a whole new level. Since the university already uses a lot of social media, this is really a natural progression for it to make what it's already doing a lot more successful and the university's social media will reach a lot more people.

Kent State is the sixth university that has selected SMASHUP as its choice of social media mashup. Kent State joins Youngstown State University, Northern Illinois University, DePaul University, Our Lady of the Lake University and the University of New Haven (launching soon) as AllofE's latest SMASHUP implementation.

You can find out more about the SMASHUP project at http://higheredcms.info/SMASHUP/home or send Katie an email at kbrosious@allofe.com.

6 Reasons you Need to Post your Course Catalog Online

In my last blog post, I talked about course catalog management systems and how to choose one. But before you even think about that, it's important to understand why you need to post your course catalog online in the first place.

Your course catalog affects your entire university - from students to faculty to parents, all of these stakeholders are impacted by the course catalog. An online catalog must be searchable, easy to navigate, contain the most current information (a student is a lot more likely to look something up online than search through a book), and be branded to match the university's online image. But before you can even think about that, the catalog has to be posted online. Here are a few reasons to post your course catalog online:

• Accessibility. Give your audience the ability to access the course catalog from anywhere. This is really the biggest reason to have an online catalog - it makes it easier for all university stakeholders.
• Recruitment. Show students what courses they can take and what they're required to take. After all, that’s what they’re there for. Through our research, we've found that parents view academic programs or majors as the most valuable information in university online content, and what better to meet that need than an online catalog?
• Student Enrollment. Make it easy for students to find their degree requirements, general education requirements, and view their course options through intelligent Search features.
• Show off what you Offer. By posting your course catalog online, you're disseminating all programs and courses to all that come to your website - making your university look even better.
• Easy Navigation. It's a lot easier to find what you're looking for in a website versus a book - giving students a place to search for a course or program instead of forcing them to flip through a book [that they probably lost weeks ago...] not only increases the accessibility of the catalog information, it's just easier.
• Save costs. No surprise here. Printed catalogs take up a ton of space and are incredibly expensive to print – and what if there’s an error after the books come back from the printer? Get rid of printed catalogs altogether, or print only the number of catalogs as are necessary, since you won't have to distribute them to the entire university when all the information is online.
  

These are just a few of the reasons your catalog should be posted on your university website. To find out more about how CatalogM can help you be successful in managing your online catalog, go to http://catalogm.allofe.com, or send me an email at kbrosious AT allofe DOT com

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH: CatalogM - catalog management system

You may have noticed all of our recent blogs about online catalog management systems, which probably led you to believe that there was something going on behind the scenes in regards to that very same subject. Well, you thought correctly. Today we announce the launch of our latest product for higher education: CatalogM catalog management system.

Click here to see the release.

Or go to catalogm.allofe.com to find out more.

9 Things You Need to Consider in Choosing a Catalog Management System

A university’s course selection is one of the top reasons to choose a school. In terms of recruitment, then, a university course catalog can strongly affect a student’s decision to apply to a school or not. However, it’s not like you can hand out a printed course catalog to every student that visits the campus; not every student can afford to visit the campus, anyway.

We’re in a world where everything is done online. If students can apply online, take a tour of your campus online, and meet their roommate for the next year online, why shouldn’t they be able to check out the course catalog online?

A simple-to-use, interactive and informative online course catalog can make a huge impact on a student’s decision. Here are some things you need to consider before choosing a catalog management system.

9 things you need to consider when choosing a Catalog Management System

1. How difficult will the transition from print to online be in terms of the mindset in your office or department?
2. How flexible do you want the system to be?
3. How flexible will YOU be with the system?
4. How many users will need to update the catalog (i.e. workflow and approval processes)?
5. How are you currently managing your print and/or online catalog and how satisfied are you with that process?
6. Do you intend to continue producing a print catalog?
7. How interactive do you want the online catalog to be?
8. Do you want to incorporate Web 2.0 aspects in your online catalog such as social media, audio and video?
9. What aspects are most important to you? I.e., search capabilities, style and design, ease of use (both from your perspective re: catalog updates and a student perspective), tracking history of changes, etc.
   

There are a lot of considerations to be made before choosing the right catalog management system for you, these are only a few questions that should go into your decision-making process.

Our Newest Addition to our Higher Education Product Offering: CatalogM

CatalogM aims to help you meet your goals, however specific they may be, because it was built to be flexible enough to support unique needs. We will also work with you to make the process very streamlined to save you time and make the process as painless as possible. We'll be releasing more and more information over the next couple of weeks, but please contact Katie at kbrosious@allofe.com if you're interested in learning more.

Catalog Management Systems: You shouldn’t have to choose between online and print

Over the next few months, we'll be launching CatalogM, the most revolutionary catalog management system universities have seen in years. But before that, here are some nuggets of wisdom regarding course catalog management that we've learned along the way. To find out more information about CatalogM, contact Katie at kbrosious@allofe.com.

Why you need an online catalog

A university’s course selection is one of the top reasons to choose a school. In terms of recruitment, then, a university course catalog can strongly affect a student’s decision to apply to a school. However, it’s not like you can hand out a printed course catalog to every student that visits the campus. And don't forget - not every student can afford to visit the campus.

We’re in a world where everything is done online. If students can apply online, take a tour of your campus online, and meet their roommate for the next year online, why shouldn’t they be able to check out the course catalog online?

A simple-to-use, interactive and informative online course catalog can make a huge impact on a student’s decision.

What you need to consider when choosing a Catalog Management System

Traditionally, university course catalogs were all print. That’s not the way of it anymore. There’s been a paradigm shift in not only the way course catalogs are managed, but with the way that information is shared. We no longer live in a print-minded society, and haven’t for some time, so for those who are so focused on keeping print alive, wake up. You’re fighting a losing battle.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should just slap your catalog online and that be the end of it. There is still a place for print catalogs, and there are still champions of the print. But majority rules. You have to have an online course catalog.

Therein lies the problem.

So many Registrars are so traditional and so dedicated to the print catalog, that this isn’t an easy transition. So you’ll begin to see a few different things:

1. Universities with no online course catalog
2. Universities that simply upload documents or PDFs to their university website
3. Universities that manipulate their catalog in a way that makes it more web- and user- friendly and eliminates the print-like qualities.

Obviously, what works for print won’t work on the web, and vice-versa, but in terms of what’s currently available, universities are really forced to choose between having a great print catalog or a great online catalog; it’s very difficult to find a catalog management system that supports both.

However, some do offer ways to export catalogs to Word, allowing the universities to make changes before printing. The problem here is that the overall structure of the exported catalog is based on the web version, which is usually very hierarchical and has a much more rigid structure than a traditional print catalog would have.

The other problem is that most catalog management systems force the university to do things differently. Of course, they have to learn how to use a new system in terms of updating and maintaining their catalog, but it goes a little further than that. Most catalog systems force your content to fit into specific pockets into a specific hierarchy, ultimately completely changing the way you do things.

So, where is it going?

At some point, universities are going to need a more comprehensive system. And really, we’re at that point right now.

Universities need a way to have a strong online course catalog without completely re-writing their print catalog and having to change it to fit into a system.

The system needs to support unique needs without costing a fortune, and without spending months reorganizing the catalog. However, the system must also help the university systematize their catalog.

Sometimes print catalogs have no rhyme or reason. They don’t always have a concrete structure. They have missing pieces of information. Catalog management systems already do a good job of helping to building that structure and making the catalog more systematic for an online version, but it takes away a lot of the beauty of print when it forces the content into structured, hierarchical buckets. Catalog management systems should give a nod to both print and online, making it easy to please both sides, and ensuring that the university doesn’t have to choose between the two.

We initially partnered with Pittsburg State University, which was looking to do something different than the options currently available for universities and wanted a balance between their online catalog and the print catalog without having to change the way they currently do things, and created CatalogM in an effort to bring something new to the table. Because that implementation has been so successful, we want to help other universities do the same. More information on that partnership is coming soon.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can be a part of this project, please email Katie (kbrosious@allofe.com).

Image Source: Google Images, catalogm.allofe.com

Higher Education and Curriculum Mapping

I was doing some research related to higher education and curriculum mapping for our release of eCurriculum HE and strangely it was difficult to find a lot of information in this area. People ask questions about it, define what they want, but there seem to be few examples of what I would call a comprehensive, “feasible” solutions.

I found a lot of research projects that were funded and performed by programs in higher education institutions to go through the mapping process for an entire program or a set of courses. Strangely, this seemed to be a pretty manual and cumbersome process of documenting, charts, spreadsheets, etc.

From this study by a professor at Colorado State University to this study at Oxford College of Emory University to this study at Indiana University, it seems they all concluded that curriculum mapping was beneficial and needed, yet there is a distinct lack of systems that successfully meet the needs of automation.

I think it may be time to delve into the reasons a little deeper.

K-12 school districts got a head start on this a few years ago. They automate the curriculum management process, get their initial curriculum into the system and then benefit from the advantages of being able to generate all kinds of gap, overlap, and other reports on the What, When, and How of their instruction. Then when needed they just have to reevaluate and tweak the content.

Simple.

Time saving.

No research projects (or the associated cost) involved.

Sounds like pretty good reasons to me. So where is the problem? Well, I am guessing it has to do with a few factors:

1. The complexity of needs at the Higher Ed level compared to K-12 - this could be more perception than reality. However, it does make it harder for things to gain momentum. The needs of different areas are too diverse to find a common ground when designing solutions that can apply broadly. Perhaps, it is a resistance to follow the K-12 school districts’ lead – This is understandable but maybe we should let that slide.



2. Customization Needs - This is related to the first point. For a solution to work in Higher Ed, it has to be highly customizable. More importantly the customization has to be cost-effective and quick. This could explain the lack of high-end systems specifically geared towards higher ed.
   



3. Perceived “cost savings” of doing it ourselves – Again, this builds on the above two points. Given the lack of good custom enterprise solutions, it is easy to support the notion that "we should try to build it internally”. Without going into all the details here, this often ends up not quite achieving the results intended. Rather than saving money, it ends up being ten times more expensive, takes forever to develop and creates something less robust than a high-end customizable product.

Honestly, given all these factors, I think the biggest one is that there is just not really much out there in terms of enterprise level systems that are truly flexible, customizable, and scalable enough to manage the curriculum for higher education.

Stay tuned for more information on some exciting developments related to Curriculum Mapping specifically for Higher Ed.

Higher Ed Social Media: Help Wanted

It’s no doubt that social media has played a prominent role in higher education within the past few years. As each year passes, institutions have gone from hiking aboard the new “trend” to utilizing social media as a tool for marketing, alumni, and prospective students.

In 2010, a study done by CASE, mStoner, and Slover-Linett Strategies Inc., showcased their findings on if constituents are using their institutions social media, what barriers are keeping institutions from using social media, and most importantly, how is social media success measured?

In March 2011 Slover Linett Strategies Inc., mStoner and CASE conducted the Second Comprehensive Study of Social Media Use by Schools, Colleges and Universities via e-mail to 18,000 representative CASE members, of which 951 replied. The results may not surprise anyone but they do show that universities are realizing the importance of not just using social media but using it in the best way possible to reach their social media goals.

Almost every institution is using it.
Though not too surprising, only 4% of institutions aren’t using it. Almost all institutions have jumped into social media. What arises from all institutions using the same types of social media is a lack of originality and driving competition from each institution to stand out. According to the study, 84% of institutions use social media due to competition from peer institutions. An institution needs to have something different from all the rest of its competitors, they need to be ahead of the curve.

Why they're using it – Alumni & Branding.
While most might think that institutions are using their social media to connect with current students or recruit, the big reasons for using it are Alumni and Branding. The study shows that Alumni ranks first in goals of social media with 30% saying it's “Quite a bit” of their social media goal and a whopping 54% say it's “Extensively” part of it.

Branding falls second to Alumni, 40% quote it as being “Quite a bit” of their goal and 35% say it’s “Extensively" part of it. Branding is also the number one motivator for institutions in using social media. Institutions feel that they need to sustain and protect their brand “Quite a bit” (40%) and “Extensively” (20%).

If sustaining and protecting their brand is so important to institutions, why aren’t they using their social media to its fullest potential? Why get lost in the ordinary, mundane social media sites. By having a centralized hub with all of your social media, branded to an institution's exact site, their brand is not only sustained and protected, but they’re a step above the rest.

Facebook: favored by the majority.
Facebook is the front-runner in social media for institutions. Not only do nearly all institutions use it (96%), but most feel that it’s the best tool to help meet their social media goals (91%) and that it’s the most successful in meeting these goals (87%). Only 43% use Twitter to help meet their goals and only 27% consider it the most successful in meeting these goals. Since Facebook is the most widely-used platform, it would be advantageous to any institution to have all the department’s pages accessible on one main page in some sort of mashup. This would be an easy way for a user to visit a single page to connect, share, and like for every department within an institution.

Main basis for success – number of touches.
The most interesting data from the survey is what institutions are using to measure the success of their social media. Without an easy way to determine an ROI, institutions are using the number of touches (number of friends, click-throughs, participation, etc.) to determine how successful their social media is.

Based on this criteria it’s hard for an institution to be successful if no one is seeing the social media they are putting out there. Many display their main accounts on the main page of their website, but what about different departments? Users often have to search for a social media directory (if there is one) or find the social media themselves.

If all an institution's social media was on one page, users would be engaged, able to see all social media available, and pick which is most useful to them. It would increase the number of click-throughs, likes, and friends, and would engage them to participate in multiple social media accounts by only visiting one page.

Staffing considered barrier to success.
Although many institutions find their social media to be successful, (62%-somewhat successful and 22%-very successful), there are still many barriers that they feel inhibit their overall success. According to the study, the two top barriers institutions encountered were due to staffing. Staffing for day-to-day content management was felt to be the biggest obstacle in being successful with 28% of institutions saying it was “quite a bit” of a barrier and 22% saying it was “extensively” a barrier.

Staffing for site development came in a close second. The same percent of institutions believed it was “quite a bit” of a barrier, but only 16% said it was an “extensive” barrier.

Schools often don’t have the staffing ability to train, create, and manage social media. If an institution does have someone working on social media it’s usually only one person, not a group of people. According to the study 41% of institutions have only one person working on social media at least 25% of the time. Even more disheartening is the fact that 85% have no person whose job is to work on social media 100% of the time. What happens when that one person who works on social media is gone or the person working on social media needs to use 100% of their time on something else, does the social media of the institution stop? In the social media world, nothing ever stops and every day things are changing and moving forward.

What institutions need is a simpler way to manage their social media, something that anyone can learn and use easily.

What social media policy?
Half of all institutions using social media don’t have a social media policy. While not stated in the study it’s easy to assume why. As stated above most institutions don’t have the staffing needed to create a policy. While there are many policies out there that can be borrowed from it’s often difficult to fit it to an institution’s exact needs.

With nearly all institutions using social media, policies need to be enacted to regulate their social media. It is an institution’s voice and it needs to be protected just as much as the institutions brand and image (something nearly all universities have a policy on.)

In Closing
This study shows that institutions are seeing the need for more organized, individualized social media. Not only do they need to use it, but they want to use it to protect and sustain their brand. They want to be successful by the standards they set in their social media goals. They want to be in charge of their social media and not hire out. But they can’t seem to find a way to do all this with limited man-power.

That’s the reason SMASHUP was created. It gives institutions the tools they need to make their social media the best it can be. Institutions have freedom and control over their social media with a little outside help. It creates a place for all an institution's social media, making it easier to interact with and more successful. SMASHUP is easy to use and easy to learn, cutting back on the time and man-power needed to sustain it. It gives an institution a big boost in the right direction, all while protecting their brand.

Education Blackout

The recent Internet blackout in Egypt has left many wondering: “What if that were to happen in the US?” Besides the obvious ramifications of losing the Internet, such as mass riots due to not being able to log onto Facebook to check Farmville accounts, or not being able to tweet what you ate for lunch on Twitter, the biggest effect might very well be on education.

As an educator, student, or parent of a student, just think about how often you get online. Much of modern learning, in the classroom or outside, comes from online sources. In fact, I admittedly don’t watch television news, but I do check the news online everyday. Obviously if there was an Internet blackout I would be forced to adapt to getting my news in different ways, but what about education in universities? Even focusing just on this sector, so much of it is now reliant upon the Internet for teaching, grade reporting, homework, help, and even obtaining degrees. And while yes, we would be able to adapt to this, I believe it would be a very hard transition, especially in a few areas.

Here are some areas I think would be the hardest to transition out of:

Online Degrees
One area of higher education that would be affected the most would be online degree programs - they would absolutely cease to exist. Popular with non-traditional students, such as adults who hold a full-time job already, online degree programs are the most convenient and economical form of education for many. If these programs ceased to exist, many people might not even bother getting their degree or furthering their education.

Not only do students benefit from online degree programs, but universities do too. These programs provide a great amount of money for universities, especially with funding in education being so low.

Email
As any college student would tell you, whether 20 years old or 45, the best, most convenient form of communication with a teacher is through email. Far less intimidating than asking a question in class, much faster than waiting for the next class, and way more beneficial in the long run, email has almost replaced traditional office hours. Although it is most effective to talk to a teacher in person than by email, email provides something a student can refer back to when asking a question. It’s also something teachers can benefit from. How do you easily reach 10 students in a class - call them? Well what about 700? Without email, many students would be afraid to ask questions, couldn’t quickly make up work missed in a class, and possibly miss out on information a teacher was willing to share outside the classroom.

Virtual Learning Environments (Blackboard)
Any teacher I had from high school on loved well-known virtual learning environments like Blackboard. Yet another great place to reach many students at once with information through tools like announcements, these sites allow interactive learning between students and teachers. Things like safe-assign, grade reporting, announcements, blogs, and even pertinent class information can be found in one place online, conveniently. With so many students having grown up with Blackboard and sites like it, transitioning away from it to a less interactive way of learning might very well hinder some students.

Homework
Online homework is a go-to for many classes. Many teachers use online homework tools that are associated with the textbook for the class. Pearson, for example, has many “labs” that connect with their textbooks, giving helpful tips, homework problems, and study guides. Online homework can also help with students who like to work ahead - they aren’t forced to learn at the speed of the rest of the class. These come in really handy, especially with language classes. A student is capable of seeing and hearing lessons even outside of the classroom.

Not only would online homework be affected without the Internet, but traditional homework would be as well. The quickest way of learning about anything is a quick search on the Internet. Students have quickly learned what are acceptable sources and use them for research. While there are encyclopedias, dictionaries, and well written books on topics, updating and using those takes lots of time. Students can learn more when they are researching with faster means - and most of the resources I mentioned are available for search online.

I know I haven’t even touch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to education online, so as educators, students, and parents of students - what would you miss most in education during an Internet blackout?

Focusing on the goal, not the task.

"Don’t let education get in the way of your learning." - Mark Twain

Work can be pretty boring. Doing the same things over and over makes for a very mundane 9-6 day, 5 days a week. I think a lot of things can get this way - just think about your New Year's Resolutions: eat healthy, work out, lose weight, etc. (Don't lie, I know you've all pledged those at least once.) A lot of kids - and adults - say they 'hate school' or 'hate class.' It's boring, and they're not getting much out of it - and for the most part, they're probably right. None of these sound fun, right?

But they can be.

And it's our fault if they aren't.

The key to keeping things interesting and exciting is focusing on the goal - not the task - at hand. For example, the next email I send or phone call I make, could lead to a completely new project with someone new. The next workout I make up could actually be fun - and not something to dread. And the next lesson you teach can inspire.

It doesn't have to be the every-day mundane - especially when you're focusing on the big picture. Sure, I hate searching for 5 minutes trying to find contact information that buried within a website. You probably hate to run. And your students probably hate writing papers.

But when you can find that glimmer within something that takes your mind off the task at hand, it's not so bad. It won't feel like such a drag anymore. You might even learn to love it.

That's the philosophy we need to take when it comes to education.

And with everything we do, for that matter.

Universities Don't 'Get' Social Media....Yet

Well, that got your attention, didn't it? There is so much buzz surrounding the university social media mashup concept, but there is a huge disparity in how universities are actually using social media and promoting those accounts. With all the buzz about social media, many schools make 'Social Media Library' pages or directories, but then do nothing more with them. It's almost as if it's a 'necessary evil.' Glancing at a university site, it often isn’t obvious what, if any, types of social media they use. We know many have some social media, but how much? And are they using it the best way possible?

What is obvious is that more and more universities are opening up to the world of social media. There are a vast array of social media sites that can be used. For example, a university athletics department can simultaneously tweet scores of an athletic game on Twitter, post video of the game on YouTube, and post pictures of the game Flickr. The possibilities of what can be covered, and how it can be used, are endless.

What a university SMASHUP (social media mashup) can do is take this one step further and bring all these forms of social media together. One example is on the DePaul SMASHUP site -- you can check upcoming game times, get updates of basketball scores on Twitter, and view YouTube videos from those games all on one page!



Searching many universities websites to find social media pages is tricky and can become quite frustrating sometimes (especially ones that don't even have a search bar!). But after finding a school has sufficient social media to proceed with, it is very exciting to tell them about SMASHUP. It’s even more exciting when a university already has a social media link page but doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. Imagine what that page would look like within the SMASHUP concept instead!

Finding qualified schools for the SMASHUP project may not be so easy, but once found, I'm not having any problem finding ones that are interested! So far, many schools have shown a ton of interest and I can't wait to see how many more would be willing to join in on this amazing opportunity!

And so the search continues. What universities do you think have great social media? Do any of them have what it takes to become a social media "master" by using SMASHUP?

4 SMASHUPs now LIVE!

The Youngstown State, DePaul, NIU and OLLU SMASHUPs are all now LIVE! Here are the links:

• YSU: http://web.ysu.edu/smashup/home
• DePaul: http://depaul.edu/smashup
• NIU: http://smashup.niu.edu/
• OLLU: http://smashup.ollusa.edu/

These four universities wanted a more effective way to display their social media content, and wanted to set the bar very high, becoming leaders in university social media management. We partnered with these four universities to create a central branded hub for all of their social media activity that displays content in more interactive and interesting ways - pulling in the audience, and keeping them on the university site - instead of sending them to other locations.

This has been a fun project so far and I'm looking forward to working with more universities in the coming months.

NIU SMASHUP goes LIVE!

NIU social media initiatives find common home (via NIU Today)

As the Internet and its applications continue to evolve at a dizzying speed, most websites now offer a veritable smorgasbord of tiny icons that link users to various social media pages.

NIU now has risen above the din of square-shaped logos clamoring for attention.

The university’s Web Communications Team this morning launched smashup.niu.edu, a one-stop shop for all of NIU’s social media initiatives, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and foursquare.

SMASHUP is a social media expansion of the Internet concept of “mashup,” the word for a website that combines data feeds from several sources.

Read the full release from "NIU Today" here.