Social Media for Educational Institutions: Increase Student Retention and Enroll-To-Starts With Targeted Social Media

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Petersons.com Petersons.com is the leading online planning resource for undergraduate and graduate school programs.

• Six million prospective undergraduate and graduate students.

• Premium web listings to build unparalleled program awareness

– Preferred Placement

– Promotional placements to direct targeted traffic

– Social media integration

• Student lead service matches student profiles with recruiting needs

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CUnet

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Jeff Berg Senior Social Strategist

Peterson’s Interactive & CUnet

With more than seven years of

experience, Jeff uses his social media

expertise to help schools streamline

engagement methodologies and create

meaningful, personal dialogues with

current and future students.

Jeff graduated from University of

Southern California with a degree in

Print Journalism.

The Faceless Voice You’re About To Hear

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Agenda

• The World of Social Media

• Social Media and Students

• Social Media’s Effect on Student Engagement

• What Does This Look Like In Practice?

• Q&A

The Social Media Landscape

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The World of Social Media

• Social media has changed how human beings communicate, organize, and spend time online:

– 75% of all adult internet users.

– More than 20% of all time spent online.

• Comparisons of most well-known social media:

– If Twitter were a book it would be equivalent to 6,000 complete works of Shakespeare each day.

– If YouTube were a movie it would take over 400 years to watch.

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-

200,000,000

400,000,000

600,000,000

800,000,000

1,000,000,000

1,200,000,000

1,400,000,000

1,600,000,000

1,800,000,000

2,000,000,000

Total Internet Users

Facebook Users

Oceania

South America

North America

Middle East

Europe

Asia

Africa

1,966,514,816

950,000,000

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What is Social Media?

• Social media has changed how human beings communicate, organize, and spend time online:

– 75% of all adult internet users.

– More than 20% of all time spent online.

• Comparisons of most well-known social media:

– If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world with 750MM residents.

– If Twitter were a book it would be equivalent to 1,500 complete works of Shakespeare each day.

– If YouTube were a movie it would take over 400 years to watch.

• Wikipedia

• Consumer opinions and reviews

• Internet mash-ups

• Blogs

• Message boards

• Online gaming

• Photo sharing websites

• Interactive fiction

• Instant messaging

• Social bookmarking

• Online niche communities

• Social biographies

• Social news

• Livecasting

• Audio sharing

• Virtual worlds

• Information aggregators

• Collaboration tools

• Event organization tools

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What does this mean?

Not

participating

isn’t an

option

anymore.

Social Media and Students

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Student Usage • Prospective students today…

• Grew up with Internet technology

• Nearly three-quarters use social

media

• 18 percent use Twitter

• 67 percent own an MP3 player

• 81 percent access the Internet

wirelessly

• 70 percent believe colleges should

have a presence on social

networks

• 51 percent want to be contacted

directly through a social network

“Scrolling Toward Enrollment,” Noel-Levitz, 2009

Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010

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Digital Natives Interact Differently

For digital natives,

technology is not

impersonal and it

does not pose a risk

to social interaction.

Social Media and Student Engagement

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How do we even start to think about this?

Exploring academic research in this area leads us three

distinct questions.

1. What factors affect student persistence (and can those

factors be addressed through social media)?

2. Does social media itself affect student engagement?

3. Can targeted social media interactions affect student

engagement?

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Why do students leave school?

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Why do students leave school?

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Social Media Usage is Linked to those factors

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Social Media Predicts Retention and GPA

“[…] Social presence is a significant predictor of course

retention and final grade in the community college online

environment.” (Liu, Gomez, & Yen 2009)

• Students that were socially engaged in an online course

tended to retain more and perform better.

• Tracking social engagement in course communities can

be used to:

• Provide early identification of at-risk students

• Foster effective intervention to improve learning

outcomes

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Is this more than theory? • A 2010 study examined academic Twitter usage and its

effect on student engagement and GPA.

– 125 students that tweeted while taking a first-year course for pre-health professional majors

– Engagement was assessed by a 19-item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement

• Results

– The student group which used twitter for academic and co-curricular discussions displayed significantly greater engagement and higher semester GPAs.

– “Analysis of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom theories.”

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And this is just the tip…

Tons of

research

exists that

indicates

this is

true.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

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Putting a Community In Place

• You can’t build a community in a vacuum.

• Frame it like Tinto

– What is factors relate to retaining your students?

– What features can help address those goals?

– Test and refine.

• Many platforms currently exists to do this, so focus on

the one that addresses your students’ needs.

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Warwickshire College • Situation

– Lengthy period between program acceptance and joining the course caused students’ loss of momentum, reconsideration of course and even college attendance

• Solution

– BTEC ND Media Games Development Group

• Students engage in pre-semester group projects

• Allowed for increased discussion and social integration prior to actual college attendance.

• Additionally, increased academic integration and faculty interaction

• Result

– 100 percent increase in overall retention rates

– Decrease in time spent on “ice breaking” curriculum

– Complete lack of course withdrawals

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The University of Westminster - Connect • Implemented in Sept. 2007, built on Elgg

• By Jan. 2008

– 3,048 users

– 2,300 students (about 10% of the student population)

• Features

– Personal Blogs

– Discussion Forums

• Staff-run department discussions

• Communities designed to encourage social interaction across subject boundaries

• Study-development communities.

• Results

– Students

• “It could be the best way for students to socialise and possibly find partners and be there for one another of all the time.”

– Staff

• 84% thought Connect played a roll in helping students building a community, both prior to and after arrival at school.

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Inigral

• Third-party Facebook application tailored to increase retention and enroll-to-start rates

• A “Facebook Within Facebook” designed to meet the unique needs of educational institutions and their student bodies

• Private communities designed to engage current and future students and create community before they begin classes

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How has it worked for other schools? Columbia College Chicago

• 94% of admits used the Schools on Facebook Application

UT Tyler

• Schools on Facebook users were five times more likely to start than students who did not use it

• Users also had the highest exam pass rates of any students in the UT system

ASU

• 25% of the student body used Schools on Facebook

• 8% higher retention rate when compared with non-users

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Key Takeaways

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Key Takeaways

• Ignoring social media itself isn’t possible anymore

• Digital natives intrinsically interact with (and through) technology differently

• Targeted social media can affect learning outcomes and student persistence

• Addressing student needs must be your primary concern. Worry about the technology later.

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Questions?

Jeff Berg

Senior Social Strategist

Peterson’s Interactive & CUnet

E-mail: jeff.berg@petersons.com

Phone: 201.477.7687

Contact: