Technology in Education
We Don’t Need No Education: Web Governance Through On-Demand Online Training (TIE1)
Monday, Oct. 17 8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
One of the biggest web problems we have in higher education is the number of cooks in the kitchen. We’ve got SMEs and HIPPOs and the immeasurable plethora of “non web” people making changes to web content throughout the institution. Since there are as many ways to do things as there are people to do them, it all comes out a big mess over time. All the content strategies, web governance plans, and communications policies in the world won’t help if people in the trenches (and often their bosses) don’t understand what’s expected, why, and how exactly they can accomplish their goals. Enter training. In this presentation, I’ll talk about our content strategy journey, the redevelopment of a brand new .edu website, and how we used this process to both make the case for mandatory training and develop training beyond using the CMS. I’ll even make available lesson plans, scripts, and talk about the actual tools used for development of the on-demand delivery system and content.
Marketing Your Faculty: Help Them Help You (TIE2)
Monday, Oct. 17 9:30 - 10:15 a.m.
Faculty expertise and visibility drive the academic reputation of education institutions. Proper collection, curation, and promotion of faculty information can help improve that reputation and benefit marketing, enrollment and public relations efforts. mStoner Strategist Fran Zablocki will discuss best practices for using faculty expertise as a critical marketing content pool to raise the prominence of your institution. Attendees will learn: - Content strategy practices to leverage faculty expertise on your academic program pages and throughout your entire website. - Best Practice examples of faculty content done well. - Identification of the types of content needed for robust faculty profiles. - Tactics to establish sound faculty content management and governance. - Recommendations for building a faculty experts center and maximizing the promotion of faculty expertise and engagement with media professionals.
Faculty Website vs. Blackboard: Beyond Instructional Benefits (TIE3)
Monday, Oct. 17 10:45 - 11:30 a.m.
Faculty Website and Blackboard can both be used as effective tools to facilitate instructional activities in higher education. They overlap with each other partly in content, yet a closer look into these systems reveals that the benefits of Faculty Web pages have gone beyond just learning and teaching management. Easy access to detailed information about the instructors and courses without login requirements has made Faculty Website a valuable recruiting asset for prospective students and effective tools for retaining and engaging current students. The enhanced features of WCJC’s Content Management System allow instructors to create well-designed, user-friendly Faculty Web pages that are more appealing and relevant to students. In this session, a comparative analysis of WCJC’s Faculty Website and Blackboard will be conducted, and the new CMS functionalities behind WCJC’s Faculty Website will be demonstrated to justify the maintenance of both systems.
Accessibility Essentials You Can Use Today (TIE4)
Monday, Oct. 17 11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
All students deserve full access. Many are being left out. End that cycle now with these accessibility essentials. Penn State’s Dutton e-Education Institute embraces accessibility to create a culture of inclusion for all of our online students. We’ve become efficient and effective in developing and maintaining accessible online content, and this session will motivate and equip you to do the same. We'll demonstrate how a screen reader interacts with properly formatted online content to ensure a positive user experience. Creating accessible online content doesn’t need to be overwhelming or daunting; you just need to know where to start. You’ll walk away from this session armed with our top accessibility tips and the knowledge, tools, and resources you’ll need to immediately begin to improve the accessibility of your web pages. LEARNING OUTCOMES: • Acknowledge that the need for widespread accessibility is universal and not limited to individuals who are vision and hearing impaired • Identify and remediate the top accessibility ‘blockers’ in an efficient manner (images, tables, links, math equations, etc.) • Gather information on various methods used to improve accessibility • Understand the function and limitations of a screen reader and how it interacts with online content
E-Expectations 2016: Online Behaviors for College-Bound Students from Junior to Senior Year (TIE5)
Monday, Oct. 17 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
Each year, the E-Expectations report summarizes the online behaviors of college-bound high school students in order to inform and improve e-recruitment strategies. For the first time, a fall survey was administered to learn about behavior variances that occur when high school students transition from junior to senior year. Attend this session and be the first to learn about trends and behaviors among juniors and seniors as they use digital marketing resources to explore their college enrollment options. Stephanie and Lance will discuss prospective students’ use of websites, email, texting, paid marketing, social media, forms, and more. Additionally, they will compare the spring and fall survey data and explain how the results should influence your own e-recruitment practices. By the end of the session, attendees will: 1. Understand what campuses need to do to meet the online expectations of college-bound high school students at all stages of their college search. 2. Know how to manage their institution’s digital presence across multiple channels, including the campus website, email, and social media. 3. Learn how mobile device usage is changing how students browse websites, complete forms, and interact with campuses online.
Effective Academic Program Pages That Attract and Convert (TIE6)
Monday, Oct. 17 4:15 - 5:00 p.m.
Academic program pages are dollar for dollar the most important pages on your institutions site. Why are we not treating them like it? Learn how to craft a user experience and SEO informed content strategy to gain more organic search traffic and better answer the questions of your prospects to generate interest in your schools academics programs.
The Next Generation: Post-Millennials...What Is Next? (TIE7)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
This popular session from last year is back with new research on the iGeneration and late Millennials. With a focus on technology and cultural shifts, we will explore generational differences and similarities and why those things are important. Come find out about what traits this generation has, and what impact will they have on the work you do.
#FridayReads: Library and Campus Engagement through Social Media (TIE8)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 9:30 - 10:15 a.m.
This session will focus on how academic libraries can reach faculty, staff, and students through social media and website integration. The library offers an abundance of resources that often remain hidden within the library building, but by using social media including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Periscope, the entire campus can not only be made aware of the library services, but also engage with the library staff. For a successful social media marketing plan a number of concerns must be addressed including scheduling of posts and intentional graphic design. This session will provide examples of successful and not so successful posts and there effect on campus outreach. Outcomes: Attendees will learn ways to implement a social media plan that includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Periscope to market library programs and resources. Attendees will learn strategies for integrating web site content with social media planning.
Getting it Right: What REALLY Matters to Students in Social Communities (TIE9)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 10:45 - 11:30 a.m.
The use of social media in higher education recruitment is a common practice, often used to supplement more traditional print and email-based outreach methods. Are institutions doing all they can to strategically reach students during the yield period? Are we using the right media and messaging? In 2015, Dr. Corie Martin completed a nationwide research study on admissions and marketing recruitment outreach activities and observed thousands of student interactions within university social media communities. The results of the study showed what was really important to students and suggested how Higher Ed leadership might prepare for the next generation of prospective students.
Through empathy to humor: creating content to engage students without being naff (TIE10)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Injecting a little lightness and humor into our student-facing content is something we’d all love to do, and some of us try. But making this work in higher ed is no laughing matter. With committees to battle, brands to comply with, the fear of just not being “funny”, and the even greater fear of getting more groans than giggles, getting this part of your content strategy right is seriously tough going. So much so, that many of us shy away. In this session, Tracy Playle will explore how to develop your audience research approaches to better support your development of humorous content, understand how empathy mapping techniques can influence all areas of your student engagement content strategy, and look at how different types of humor can play a strong role at different stages in the student journey, and in different types of institutions.
Train the Trainer: Tips for Enhancing Employee Learning (TIE11)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
Let’s be honest: no one truly enjoys sitting through an hour or more of training that is required as part of their job. This is especially the case when said topic is less than exciting or ever so slightly technical in nature. “Come sit for an hour to learn a web content management system so I can update the university website? Well, that sounds super fun and at the top of my to-do list!” Said no one, ever. When it’s your job to facilitate training, it can be discouraging to know that your participants may not be as engaged in the topic at hand as you are. In this presentation, we’ll cover three things that you as a training facilitator can do to enhance the learning experience of your participants, so they walk away not only having learned the required material, but actually having enjoyed their time with you.
Shall We Play a Game? Gaming the System, When the System Is Your Learning Management System (TIE12)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 4:15 - 5:00 p.m.
This session will provide an overview of the world of games and discuss how we envision the adaptation of specific elements in the educational interface. What is it about games that engages and motivates players, and how can we apply this interest to increase learning success in online? We’ll also consider the future of games, and how this developing technology might level up learning as well.