May 2013

Posted by Carlyn Foshee Chatfield on May 10, 2013

Back to School Communications - planning ahead

Julie Gillis from Boston College and/or Maribeth Macaisa from Massachusetts College of Art and Design are our facilitators for this discussion on Back to School Communications.

While we were waiting for everyone to find the Prezi (Adobe Connect issues today), we were talking about what we like to have with our coffee (or tea for the non-coffee drinkers in our group).

See the Prezi:

http://prezi.com/7yke-systwv8/back-to-school/?auth_key=1d3f761299e8156081bc539c6412ae9dcd865ac9&kw=view-7yke-systwv8&rc=ref-38472675

Julie and Maribeth assured us that you don't need to see the Prezi to participate in the discussion. If you are following along, use your own forward button to advance your slides.

First - What are the Key pieces of information you want to convey?

Boston College - Key things you want the campus to know when they return to campus. For new students, they get the instructions well in advance. They get a login letter when they are admitted and it the letter lists the resources available to them. Our back to school messages include reminders on all these services. We also get a 45 minute slot in our orientation days. We get creative, home made student videos (this year's them follows the popular song Gungam-style and we call it Google-Style); presentations; mostly try to just make an impression on them and make them remember our phone number and Help Desk is here to help them.

UC Davis - we get to participate in Orientation for 1-2 hours. We know they are overwhelmed - we are a big school, they are concerned about roommates and everythign else. We tell them how to get on the network, how to configure their devices - need to be able to get on both wired and wireless networks. Short presentation to them and their parents. Anything else (we've tried in the past) is just water over the dam and they don't retain it. Our channels: in person, handouts, stickers (small) that fit on their computers or other mobile devices. We sweep the room after the presentation and it's rare for us to find any stickers left behind, handouts, yes but stickers seem to be taken.

University of North Florida - we get 15 minutes in the 15 orientations throughout the summer. I use PollEverywhere for interactive discussions with the incoming students in those sessions, then I run a few Blackboard sessions at the beginning of the semester. I get invited to other special interest group meetings and can go into more detail there - going into Code Red notificaiton system, etc.

Second - What suprises you that they want to know?

MassArts - our students want to know our cable TV line up!

Boston College - us, too! We put the Help Desk information on the opposite side of the Cable TV lineup handout.

Utah State - gamers! how to connect games and wireless printers

University of Georgia - how to get email on their cell phones, and also the Cable guide.

Boston College - during the summer, parents want to know "should we buy our child a Windows Computer or a Mac Computer?" We used to be 80% Windows and 20% Mac and that has completely turned around, now we are 80% Mac and 20% Windows.

Utah and Rice both promote only minimum specs. At Rice, we promote the specs to prospective students, those who have already been admitted and we get fliers stuffed into both the visiting prospie and parents folders.

MassArts - our computer needs for each major are so specific, we used to say, "don't buy your computer yet, wait until you have declared your major in your sophomore year" but of course everyone wants to come with a computer and we have changed

Indiana - don't steer one way or the other as far as platforms, but we do steer them to the vendors we have discount-pricing agreements with.

Utah (USU) - one publication that I found really helpful is ECAR - comes out in the fall. You can easily find out what is on students' minds - the technology that students felt contributed to their success was a printer and we put in remote printing stations all over campus. Yes, they can bring their own printing device, but they can also print to a queue and then go to any printer on campus and swipe your ID card and release your job to that printer.

MassArts - do you publish any best practices on web print?

USU - not yet. I continue to be surprised at how many people still print with our eLearning focus, but there is still a lot of printing going on.

Third, what resources are you using?

University of Georgia - samples will be attached to this wiki. The new student guide is an introducation to our services. It is less instructional and more informative. What we really wanted it to be was a good quality-driven, student focused presentation. photo session with our own UG students. Goes into the University Housing packet. We get 10 minutes in orientation, and set up ahead of time with the new student PDF and stories in Bulldog News.

UC Davis - budget cuts definitely affected what we could print, working on that now.

Fourth, what different or creative things have you tried - in particular, are you using Social Media?

USU - in our focus groups, we've backed away from student orientation other than have a booth during the one-day orientations during the summer. Students have told us there is so much information they get that it gets glossed over. Recently have been using "Take One" quick tips on a postcard size handout for other IT initiatives and services and we are just brainstorming the use of a checklist for an incoming student Try One cards.

MassArts - A failed initative: scavenger hunt over first month of school - got extra printing credit if they completed (take a photo of this fish, tweet us at... etc). No one did it...

At NERCOMP, we saw a presentation by University of Connecticut system - they used a scavenger hunt successfully to introduce security awareness. http://www.huskyhunt.uconn.edu/

At Rice, Joe ITguy friends as many incoming students as possible (various students help Joe manage his correspondence and posts) and hangs out with them - he may comment on a concert or post to a thread, but he mostly watches for IT questions and either answers them or sends people to the Help Desk. Now our IT student workers are driving traffic to Joe ITguy.

Case Western - online registration of machines before they come to campus. Anyone else trying this? Yes, Rice is trying that this year, promoting a web site with all the instructions on it. Indiana rolled out this kind of system two years ago.

Is ANYONE doing something for Faculty?

Yes, Boston College found they needed a tri-fold brochure. Highlights services, aimed at new faculty but goes out to all faculty. Also have a "move-in" weekend for faculty buildings like the residential hall move-in weekend.

UNF - web based message sent out at the beginning of each semester; would like to have a better presence in the classroom.