I’ve been thinking a lot lately about uses for Twitter in Higher Ed. I’ve said before (here):

[...] having the kids sign up for Twitter is just another barrier to communication. While I am typically an advocate for universities using services rather than reinventing the wheel, Twitter has yet to prove its stability to me.

There has also been a lot of talk about Twitter, how to use it in Higher Ed, what might be effective, what might not be, etc. I’ve sort of sat back and soaked this all in, watching developments at other universities and trying to think of how I can use Twitter to enhance a student’s experience on our site.

Read the rest of this entry »

No, i’m not trying to sell you a product. I’m trying to sell you on usability testing. That’s right, with only $10 and 10 minutes YOU can IMPROVE your SITE! (insert big logo and web 2.0 graphic here)

Last November I did a usability test with Marcie, a senior at a local high school. There was one question I wanted to ask her because I was pretty sure I knew the answer already, I just needed it recorded for proof to others.

Read the rest of this entry »

The education industry is a funny creature. We go to conferences and openly share experiences, strategies, and methods. Then we go home, sign up fictitious characters on other schools’ mailing lists with our home addresses to get the actual materials and communications. We create applications (not submitting them of course…) with other schools’ to see what kinds of designs others have, and what questions are asked.

My question- Is this Ethical?

Could you consider this espionage? Let’s break it down. Our communication flows and application process is considered our informal intellectual property. It’s how we put things together to make our class every year. It’s how we hope to create a program that will be better than our competition (schools our size and region). Would you want to disclose your entire communication flow to a school with comparable size and region?

If your answer is no, then your stance on this subject seems to be set in stone.

If you are willing to share your information with competitors, then this issue takes on a different light. There’s no harm in asking your counterparts in other institutions how they do things. I think most of the time (especially at conferences) you will find people extremely receptive to sharing at least the framework of what they are doing. The likelihood increases when the information sharing is reciprocal.  You also have the added benefits of being open, honest, and helpful.

This Admission espionage is something that you can’t really enforce, or even identify - it’s just up to the honor system here. One thing people may or may not think about is the amount of money you cause a school to spend on fake prospects. We all know each school has a substantial budget and money for 1 campaign doesn’t seem like much - but what if 10-20 schools are “testing” another institutions’ communication flow? Now we’re talking about hundreds of dollars being spent - and they’re making a direct financial impact on the “target”.

So what do you think? Is this just something we do, or should we think twice about signing up Mickey Mousee to check out University X’s visit piece?

Once upon a time, in an Admission office (let’s say… 1993), someone decided they wanted to change the early application deadline from December 1st to November 15th. This would allow them to have more time to read the early apps and make a better decision, and it would position them with the app deadlines of their competitors.

So Administration made a few phone calls, had the dates changed on the application and in the catalog for the next print cycle, informed a few people around campus, changed some wording in a few brochures, and all was good.

Enter the Internet.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that I love Flickr. It’s a perfect blend of community and functionality in the web 2.0 world, and it’s an extremely powerful tool.

Could it also be your solution for an electronic photo database management system?

Let’s take a walk at what Flickr has to offer you, and how it can help you organize your campus photos and provide some additional value to your workflow. We’re going to get pretty in-depth here, so buckle up and refer back often.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight we’re doing another Butler Bloggers chat, this time for admitted/deposited/matriculated students. Last time’s chat was open to all Soph/Jr/Sr prospects and Sr Admits, which was ~19,000 students (with emails) and had about 100 show up. This time we’re looking at closer to 3,100 invites, which might yield a smaller crowd.

I’m trying to decide when to send the ‘Click to Chat!’ call to action email. Here’s the one I sent last time: Read the rest of this entry »

While you were sleeping, Flickr unveiled what has been largely speculated recently: Video. But why? Isn’t Flickr a photo site? Well, yeah.

Here’s the scoop, from the Flickr Blog: Videos can only be 90 seconds that are smaller than 150mb and uploaded by pro members. There is a ton of great info in their Help section as well, basically all affirming that they don’t intend to compete with YouTube, etc.

In addition, they raised the size of an uploadable photo from 10mb to 20mb. Must be preparing for the new 22.1mp Canon 1Ds Mk 3 and Nikon D3.

Here’s an embed sample, or check it out on Flickr.

Don’t really see much use for this in higher ed, especially given the restrictions. So why did I post it? I’m a Flickr fanatic. Enjoy!

I couldn’t possibly go 2 straight Tuesday’s without sharing some sort of how-to, so here is one that I saw a few days ago. How to Make Viral Videos. Ironically enough, the video itself is starting to go viral, averaging about 20,000 views per day.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m back from a very refreshing week of fun and sun in Florida with my wife, and am starting to get settled back in the office and get caught up. While I was out I tried my hardest to avoid work email/RSS/Twitter, but it’s just impossible. To my credit, I left 75 work emails unread and 700 posts in my Google Reader, and did pretty well at avoiding Twitter.

Vacation also allowed me to take a step back and look my profession as a whole. I read or re-read a lot of great books:

• Fat Envelope Frenzy
• All Marketers are Liars
• The Price of Admission
• Cluetrain Manifesto
• Made to Stick
• Join the Conversation

Right now is a ’season of change’ for me both personally and professionally. Vacation couldn’t have come at a better time; in the week leading up to my trip our Director of Admission resigned, our Assistant Director had a baby and went on maternity leave, and our print coordinator (my counterpart) and main web designer who did the butler.edu redesign put in their 2 weeks. Needless to say, change is in the air. With new positions come new opportunities, both for those leaving and those arriving. Change can bring more change, good and bad. And while we are filling positions, there are a few things I can look forward to/lobby for.

For example, our current CMS only allows me to change content on sites within go.butler.edu. I can’t control anything on the homepage, navigation, etc. and only recently got access to the callouts in the margins. (A post on that and web usability has been sitting in my drafts for months. I’ll get it out in after I have a little more data.) With the new web designer vacancy, I am going to lobby for access to the ‘ArtApp’, aptly named after the guy leaving. It is the ‘CMS backdoor’ that allows access to these sorts of things. No better time than now to cut red tape. I was hoping Art would give me the keys before he left, he has very similar feelings as me about the CMS limitations.

Another opportunity will be revamping emails, etc. Currently, I design emails and the copy comes to me. We’ve really worked over the past year at refining the copy into an ‘email-compatible’ format. I kid you not, previous emails have been more than 1.5 pages long in Word… imagine that in a 550-600px box. *shudder* The person leaving the position has been great at recognizing this need and helping to cut text before passing it on, and she has also been a wonderful liason for me to the print department for getting photos for emails. With the absence of this position, I am going to try and get access (finally) to the campus photo library for emails, and start working more on text edits and getting our electronic materials to match the print versions better.

All of these positions will be hard to fill; our team works so well together and hopefully we can find some people to step in and hit the ground running, but still be able to bring us some fresh ideas and thoughts on what we’re doing here. I haven’t even been here a year, and at times I feel myself slipping towards the dreaded rut of moving along with business as usual year after year using previous materials and methods.

In all, it’s good to be back. Do yourself a favor and take some time off if you haven’t recently. It’s healthy for you. Winter is pretty much gone, so get out and enjoy the weather. You don’t even have to go anywhere far; just enjoy a day to yourself. Take a photo walk around your hometown, read some books, play with your kids, work in the yard, wash the cars, clean out the garage, go to a presidential rally, or just do absolutely nothing. But take a day off. There is so much more out in the world other than work and keeping up with the 9-5. The blogs will be here when you return. The emails really aren’t that urgent. The project can wait a few more days. And when you get back, you’ll be refreshed and ready to start back up again.

Posted by: Chris Potts, Senior Assistant Director of Admission 

We have a saying here at Butler University, that we frequently use, especially over in the athletic department: “The Butler Way.” Essentially it means that we as a university place a strong emphasis on doing things the right way, in everything we do. We strive to represent ourselves and the Butler and broader Indianapolis community in the best manner possible. Or, more specifically, “The Butler Way demands commitment, denies selfishness, accepts reality yet seeks improvement everyday while putting the team above self.” Consider this clever slogan a way to encourage altruistic behavior and inspire people to want and expect greatness. In a way (no pun intended) this has become our new branding catch phrase, almost by default. And it’s working.

I don’t know if anyone reading this has picked up on the story about Davidson College, a small liberal arts school located in North Carolina. Obviously if you’re living anywhere than under a rock you know that Davidson shocked the athletic world yesterday by demolishing big-ten powerhouse Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And sweet it was - especially for all those Davidson fans present at the game.

So how many fans of a school located in North Carolina, with a total student population of 1,700, would make the trip to Detroit to watch this game? Well, as it turns out, LOTS.

In one of the best college athletics stories in a long time, in my opinion, Davidson College decided to let ANY of its students go the game in Detroit to support THEIR team. So what’s the big deal, you ask? Well the college paid all expenses for any student who wanted to go to the game: ticket, transportation, and lodging. Wow! (see http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3315722&sportCat=ncb&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2) for the complete story. And I think a big part of Davidson’s success last night was because of their fan support at the game and the inspiring story that resulted: a university totally in support of their mission, their success, and their students. Sure, athletics is a terrific way to galvanize support for a school and through winning ways promote school pride. But what the Davidson College administrators did here was show the world that they CARE about their students and their school, and believe in who they are. I don’t know too many other schools who would do such a thing. Granted, they are a small school who probably has the funds to offer this - and they are not a school who you’re going to see do this well in the tournament that often - but the fact remains that they took a bold step and said to their basketball team and their university: “we care.” Consider it an extension of Butler: “The Davidson Way.”

I’m surprised this story hasn’t gotten more attention, but hopefully other colleges and universities will read about this, and let it truly soak in. What an awesome way to give attention your school but ultimately, to show an act of goodwill and appreciation for the hard work and dedication of several young men who play their hearts out on the hard court. It’s refreshing to know that there are still these kinds of stories out there. Let’s keep it up.