conference
Welcome (Back) to Aggieland
After a being gone a week for the HighEdWeb09 conference, John and I returned to the office today to wade through the issues that have popped up and start reviewing our thoughts from the conference.
While there was plenty of great information in the conference tracks, the bulk of the value to me came from interaction with other schools, seeing how they deal with many of the same issues we deal with, and comparing how successful our methodologies are in comparison. Overall I think we’re in pretty good shape. We obviously don’t compare to the nation’s elite, but that’s only a matter of funding and support. Several conversations confirmed that we’re on the right track with our projects, so look for us to continue fighting to do things right.
We do have some infrastructural projects to take care of, but look for us soon to give you an idea of where we’re looking at going.
eduWeb – Expectations by Incoming Students
This was probably the most useful and informative of the sessions presented at the conference. It summarized a 2009 study that was released just last week. The study used 1,000 high school seniors and asked them what they expected to see on a university website and what would happen if a particular topic was not there. Rather than trying to summarize I’ll link you to the document – it is a very worthwhile read with a few confimations of expected behavior and a few surprises. The long-and-short of it, is, though, content matters. It matters a great deal. What you have on your web page and how you present the information can make a difference betwen keeping and losing them as a student.
The summary concludes with a list of recommended steps for keeping your recruits engaged and returning – you can be we will be looking over that list in our office and seeing how we can implement them.
eduWeb – Online Video
Examples of how to use videos on campus:
Create a “build your own adventure” virtual tour, where the tour changes depending on answers provided by the user. For example, those indicating that they will live on-campus go to one branch while those living off-campus go through another. A good example is http://www.laverne.edu/virtualtour/
- The successful video is short and to the point: ~2.6 minutes
- Give a Share This option
- Catchy titles make a difference. Think “Ninja!” Here title truly is more important than content.
An admissions office might want to create a series of How-Tos
- Use these to create a knowledge center
- admissions, financial aid, tutoring, etc.
- ehow.com
Think outside the box. Online videos are great, but consider distributing through DVD. This might be of particular use to recruitment centers in urban environments.
Prospective students generally look at video for one thing – “Will I fit in?”
Be creative. Boon Oakley on YouTube uses visual elements of the “page” as a progress meter / navigation bar.