Seth Odell

On Tuesday, January 21st Admissions Live hosted Eric Felix, Admissions Counselor at the University of San Diego. Eric has been in higher education the past five years now. He has spent much of his time involved in college outreach programs. More recently, he is focusing on equity, access, and student success.

While the gender gap in higher education is not a new challenge, it is a resilient trend with added layers in today’s educational climate. In the following transcript from Tuesday’s show, Eric sheds light on this issue and its effects on higher education today. In addition to the widening gender gap, the educational challenges for men of color specifically are of national concern and are demonstrated very clearly in this short video from the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. Please watch.

Taken from the live broadcast, January 21, 2012.

Ashley: Why are we here discussing this topic today? How did you become interested in this topic?

Eric:  I’ve been working in higher education for five years now. I’ve always been motivated and passionate about college outreach programs. Over the last few years my focus has been on equity, access, and success. Working and doing my graduate program at one of the largest state universities in California, I didn’t realize the gender imbalance. After transitioning to a smaller private institution the gender gap was extremely visible.

As I hit the road this past year I began to notice less and less male students attending my high school visits and also less stopping by at college fair booths. Though anecdotal, the missing men phenomenon was an issue that grew into concern. In talking with colleagues at similar institutions on the west coast we began to have discussions, share research and find best practices to identify, recruit, and enroll men. Just as we would utilize other recruiting strategies for other student characteristics or enrollment goals we wanted to achieve.

What we are talking about today isn’t a new topic, but a re-surging issue with added layers. Today, we are not only focusing on the missing men, but missing men of color. It is my hope that this show encourages public discussion, shares research, and promotes best practices.

Projections:  By 2020 men will represent 41.1% of college enrollees.

Eric’s comments on the data:
In my experience the “urgency” of this phenomenon has followed the release of the American Council on Education’s “Gender Equity in Higher Education” reports originally released in 2000, updated in 2006, and 2010. In the latest the major takeaway was “stabilizing of the college gender gap.”

New research has emerged from a variety of organizations addressing the disparity in educational attainment between genders and offered recommendations

• College Board – Educational Experience of Young Men of Color
• IHEP/Pathways to College Network – Ensuring the Academic Success of Latino Males
• Lumina Foundation – Goal 2025
• Ed Excelencia

Ashley: The men who are represented in this data – If they are not attending college, where are they going?

Eric: There are fewer men graduating and fewer men deciding to go to college straight from high school. Many are considering other options – entering the workforce or military. They are also more likely to question value of college education and it’s affordability.

Those that are attending college straight from high school are choosing large “flagship” public institutions. These colleges haven’t faced the same issues as smaller private/public 4-year institutions. And most engineering or technical schools have the opposite problem

Ashley: How would you describe the higher ed landscape in relationship to gender? What is the admissions profession facing?

Eric: At a macro-level the landscape of higher education is defined by the current statistics and projections for the future.  At a micro-level, each institution has enrollment goals they are trying to meet. Every year we develop targets to recruit a freshman class with a variety of characteristics (usually dictated by the board of trustees, AVP, or campus community needs). These characteristics include religion, ethnicity, career interest, geographic location, and gender.

Ashley: What are the questions we need to be asking ourselves?

Eric: With a decreasing amount of college-ready men in the pipeline, what changes do we need to make? How do we do our job effectively to meet the enrollment goals of our institution and how will our recruitment practices/strategies need to change?

Is the target goal really 50/50? No. A critical mass is necessary but varies by institution type.

Ashley: I face the opposite challenge at my institution, where our gender imbalance is weighted nearly 60% male. If you are enrolling the women, and I am enrolling the men then why is it important to have have a gender balance in college?

Eric: Many reasons – There are certainly social and economic ramifications, perspective in the class, residence halls, not to mention Title IX.

Ashley: How do we face these challenges? What tools do we have at our disposal?

Eric discussed the following strategy considerations:
Marketing
Remember the little things like including men in all photos, using gender neutral language and possibly an added emphasis on recreation and athletics. Considering marketing materials that generated specifically for men and delivered only to men may be the best tool, as this option will meet their need while not alienating or deterring women from applying.
Recruitment Travel
Consider strategic recruitment travel that will include more all-male high schools and visits with student groups or community based organizations. Consider – Young Black Scholars (100 Black Men), JROTC, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Club and NCAN.
Student to Student
Make sure to represent male students on campus that can act as role models for student success. Keep these considerations when hiring male tour guides, ambassadors and student blogger. Male groups on campus can also get involved in the recruitment process by providing outreach or representation during campus programs.
Transfer Students
Many male students are taking the community college or military service route to their Bachelor’s degree. Spend time making this process an easy switch.

BEST PRACTICES
University System of Georgia
African American Male Initiative (System-wide recruitment/retention)
Houston Community College
Minority Male Initiative
CUNY System
Black Male Initiative

RESEARCH / LINKS
Total fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, by sex and attendance status: Selected years, 1970 through 2009 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98

Trends in Higher Education Infographic http://visual.ly/trends-higher-education-0?view=true

Percentage of high school dropouts among persons 16 through 24 years old (status dropout rate), by sex and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1960 through 2009 http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_115.asp

Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972–2009
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012006

Affirmative Action for Men (2006)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/27/admit

Redefining the Gender Gap (2008)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/13/gender

Gender Gap Stops Growing (2010) (See Viewer Comments Too)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/26/gender

College Gender Gap Appears to be Stabilizing (2010)
http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases2&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=35338

Infographic: An Inside Look at College Admissions Today
http://www.studentadvisor.com/pages/college-admissions-infographic

The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhe/summary/v032/32.4.ropers-huilman.html

The Vanishing Latino Male in Higher Education
http://jhh.sagepub.com/content/8/1/54.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr

Masculinities go to community college: Understanding male identity socialization and gender role conflict
http://bit.ly/sFFtDU

Why are so few Men of Color Graduating High School?
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/collegeboard.html

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
INIGRAL, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. Check out their webinar series about how private social networks can increase yield and retention. That happens Wednesdays at 2pm Eastern time.  
SCVNGR, a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points.
How can you use SCVNGR to make your visit day experiences better? Learn how D’Youville College engages students through a fun game on their cell phones.
WELCOME TO COLLEGE, creators of web & mobile applications to help institutions measure their most critical recruitment tool, the college visit. Also home of MARV, the Mobile Automated Research Vehicle, who is building energy around the importance of college visits and gearing up for a very exciting few months traveling the country visiting High schools & Colleges.
ZINCH, the leader in social admissions.  It can cost over $80 to generate a single inquiry using traditional recruitment methods.  Zinch partners with over 1,000 colleges and universities to help them attract and enroll best-fit students using significantly more effective outreach methods.  Zinch is truly changing the way students and colleges find each other.  To learn more e-mail outreach@zinch.com or tweet @socialadmission

[Headlines]
Book review by Bill Gates: Change .edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy http://bit.ly/AlickF
Common App. 4.0, coming in 2013 http://nyti.ms/wCJHXR
State Support for Colleges Falls 7.6% in 2012 Fiscal Year http://bit.ly/yrhCGc

Unsolicited Shout-out of the Week: Emily Okey, production assistant for the Live broadcast.

This morning, Mike Petroff and Stamats Catchfire launched their anticipated Twitter product FollowEDU. A searchable directory of higher ed professionals on Twitter, the site allows you to discover new people to follow, create lists based on industry-focused hashtags, and more.

While connecting with fellow higher ed folks on Twitter has always been rewarding, it has often been quite hard for those just starting out, as well as for more seasoned folks looking to connect with peers around very specific topics.

It’s for that reason we here at Higher Ed Live are excited to see FollowEDU open up its doors to the industry. To celebrate, we invited Mike to answer a few questions to give us a glimpse inside FollowEDU, what it can do and where he hopes it will go next.

1) What is FollowEDU and how does it work?
FollowEDU is a searchable directory of Twitter users in Higher Ed. It allows users to Sign In via Twitter and create an account and list their profile under Interests within higher ed, schools, companies, and more.

As higher ed Twitter users join the site, the categories within the site will continue to grow with influencers in certain topics. Whether you’re new to Twitter or a seasoned expert, you’ll be able to visit FollowEDU to find a new list of users to follow or even to learn more about the people you already follow.

2) What’s your vision looking forward?
After launch, FollowEDU will continue to evolve with new features for users. We’re currently working on more Twitter integration throughout the site, making it easier for FollowEDU members to follow Twitter users and even create Twitter lists right from our site. We’re also exploring better ways to measure impact that Twitter users have within certain topic areas and possibly allow users to customize their own FollowEDU lists.

FollowEDU will hopefully replace the need for shared google doc directories of Twitter users, clunky Twitter Lists, and other ways we try to crowdsource lists of higher ed staff, faculty and administrators on Twitter and other social sites. I’ll continue to get feedback from our community of FollowEDU members and build the features they find most helpful.

3) How was it built?
After I created the concept for FollowEDU, I collaborated with developers and designers at Stamats Catchfire to build the site. The site was built in WordPress in a custom theme we created. It uses the Twitter API and OAuth to allow Twitter users to join/sign in, pull information from Twitter, and make following new users from within FollowEDU simple. Twitter integration will continue to grow within the site.

4) How can people participate?
If you have a Twitter account and work in higher education, you can join the site by visiting http://www.followedu.com. After a very short sign-up process, you’ll have the ability to add your profile to “Interests” within FollowEDU. You’ll also be able to browse 350+ interest lists, look for new users to follow or connect with, and search all of FollowEDU to find lists of Twitter users in specific schools or companies.

Thanks to Mike for participation, and our congrats to him, as well as the Stamats Catchfire team.

Check out FollowEDU and let us know what you think in the comment section below.

This morning The Chronicle of Higher Education released an article highlighting slashes that are being made to higher education budgets after recovery-act funding has run out. Collectively, the nation plans to allocate 4% less to higher education than was allotted in 2007. Among those states noted for massive budget cuts, not including the impact of the federal stimulus, are California at more than 13% and New Hampshire at a shocking 41%.

The results are staggering across the country, showing an increase in state appropriations in only 9 states. What is more unsettling is the juxtaposition of these appropriations in relationship to the projections of high school graduates across the country. Only 5 out of those 9 states show an increase in funding to help support an increase in high school graduates. What’s more alarming is the budget appropriation cuts of more than 10% in Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado, states with projected increases in high school graduates of more than 15%.

This decrease in spending is sure to have damaging long-term effects impeding institutional advancements and college access for new high school graduates.

Projected Percentage Change in Public High School Graduates, by State: 2007-08 to 2020-21

When it comes to email marketing, we all do it, but most of us do it wrong. In this episode Georgia Price, email marketing manager at KIXEYE, a hardcore social-gaming company, and Karlyn Borysenko, director of social media at SNHU, shed light on the often misunderstood world of email marketing.

From list management to strategy and trends, it’s an episode full of practical information that can take your marketing efforts to the next level, today.

Thanks to our Sponsors
OmniUpdate is the leading web content management system (CMS) provider for higher education. The company’s web CMS, OU Campus™, is secure and scalable with great tools and features, deployment flexibility, and an awesome user community.
Inigral, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. A private Facebook community to boost enrollment and retention. Check out their webinar series about how private social networks can increase yield and retention. That happens every Wednesday at 2pm Eastern time.
SCVNGR is a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. See what @reyjunco is doing at Lock Haven University to use badges as a method for learning.

Weekly 5
@Chegg makes major eBooks announcement
Apple’s ebook bombshell announcement
UC Student-created proposal: No tuition, but pay 5% of annual income for 20 years
The role of for-profits w/the Romney campaign
Syracuse U. goes dark in response to SOPA

Yes, I followed the live blogging. And I watched the beautiful videos Apple put out. And I too, was really impressed…to a point.

But, here’s why iBooks won’t change everything.

1) Heavy Reading on an LCD Screen Sucks
In all of today’s demos, I saw a maximum of 40 words per page next to a 3D-interactive model or video. Using your finger to manipulate a cell. Learning physics through equations coming out of a skateboarder’s body. But, these are textbooks we’re talking about. 80,000 words. And you’re going to read all of that on an LCD backlit screen?

For you Kindle e-ink’ers, you may have forgotten what it’s like. And some people have no problem reading on an LCD screen. But for many, it’s not going to happen. The iPad is NOT a great reading tool.

While iBooks can magically bring interactivity and multimedia to traditional textbooks, I don’t see how they can “replace” them, unless we completely change what a textbook is – and take out a majority of the text…

2) Real Game Changers are Device-Agnostic
How many kids have iPads? How many kids have MACs at home?

As a company, it’s clear that Apple wants to outright own the device space. But pragmatically, this isn’t going to happen. They’re going to share it. So, by encouraging content development via an iBook app, native only to Apple, this is really a short-term and narrow solution.

Whereas, HTML5 books via Scribd are device-agnostic. And responsive web design best practices could make the book usable whether the student has an iPad, a laptop PC or a low-end smart phone.

Conclusion
We took a step forward yesterday. But, more in the direction of Apple than in the direction of mainstreaming the technological evolution of education.

Here’s where you tell me why I’m wrong.

About the Author
Eric Olsen is the Web Content Manger for Lewis University, a mid-sized Catholic and Lasallian
University near Chicago, IL.
Follow Eric on Twitter.

Michael Szarek, Founder of College Counseling for the Rest of Us, joins Admissions Live and reveals what the college admission process looks like through the eyes of first-generation families. From college search to those critical moments in the final decision making process, we discuss their concerns and offer strategies to help recruit this growing population of prospective students.

Thanks to our sponsors!
INIGRAL, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. Check out their webinar series about how private social networks can increase yield and retention. That happens Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern time.
SCVNGR, a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. Learn how Penn State leveraged the SCVNGR platform to engage prospective students during their Spend A Summer Day visit program.
WELCOME TO COLLEGE, who believes it’s all in the visit, has created web and mobile applications to help institutions measure and manage their most critical recruitment tool, the college visit. Now with over 15,000 ratings on the Welcome to College site, check out how prospective students and parents are rating their college visit experiences.
ZINCH.com, the leader in social admissions. Over 3 million students log-on world wide to Zinch.com and connect with over 1,000 colleges and universities from around the globe.  Zinch is changing the game in prospective student recruitment. To learn more about the largest college search social network, e-mail outreach@zinch.com or tweet @socialadmission.

[HEADLINES]
Virtual College Counseling for $100 an Hour via The Chronicle of Higher Education
Is College Worth It?  by Debra Sanborn
Five questions with Seth Godin  from Rob Zinkan

Unsolicited Shout-out of the Week
@Robin2go!
Robin is the premiere Disruptive Technologist at Penn State and a force to be reckoned within higher education. Join me in wishing Robin a very happy birthday!

Know that feeling you get in your stomach when a student intern generates a brilliant idea or completes an exceptional project? The feeling that some day that intern will have your job — and that he or she will deserve it? If you’ve experienced that mix of pride and panic, you know you’re maximizing the potential of your student workers.

At Drake University, student workers play a major role in departments from Marketing & Communications to Alumni Relations to politics, journalism and the sciences. Whether they are graphic designers, public relations writers, undergraduate researchers or caucus planning assistants, they play an integral role in many of the University’s most important pursuits.

To shed a bit of light on how we utilize them, here are five ways Drake is using students to advance institutional goals:

1) Snap news-making (and reputation-enhancing) photos
Student photographers have their boots on the ground and their eyes on campus goings-on — and they can save you a considerable amount of money on professional photography. Drake University’s Student Photo Bureau employs six part-time student photographers to chronicle everything from residence halls, to buzzworthy political appearances, to guest lectures and university milestones.

Not only are the costs low, the potential rewards are vast – like landing a mention of your Beautiful Bulldog Contest on Buzzfeed.

In December, we were lucky enough to land a spot in the exclusive photojournalist pool for a live, nationally televised debate on Drake’s campus. After much discussion, we decided to forego our full-time staff photographer and queue of freelancers — placing a student photographer alongside photojournalists for Reuters, The Associated Press and other top-notch news organizations. We could not have made a better decision. Our student’s snapshots garnered nearly 29,000 flickr views in a single day, and he gained valuable experience that will look great on a resume.
(Total photo views, including behind-the-scenes snapshots by our other student photographers, topped 50,000.)

2) Carry university publications to new horizons
Your part-time graphic designer may be the next Leonardo Da Vinci, but you won’t know it unless you assign projects that allow his or her creativity to shine through. While you may not have an intern building flying machines, you may find that their untapped skills can carry your day-to-day operations to new horizons.

One of Drake’s interns created four illustrations for the latest issue of Blue Magazine, the university’s official publication. The eye-catching artwork (pages 4, 11, and 23-28) helped snazz things up and break the visual monotony of photo after photo.

3) Curate a social media presence
Our marketing interns use Pinterest as a fun way to engage alumni, students and community members. They do a great majority of the hunting, pinning and captioning. Our full-time staff monitors the university’s presence closely to ensure a user experience that is positive and on-message, but we give the students a lot of freedom to be creative. We’ve had positive feedback, including from The Next Web, who recently named us one of “10 cool Pinterest accounts you should be following.”

4) Harness the power and potential of special events
When you find yourself in the middle of news-making events, students can help you maximize your institution’s presence and visibility. At Drake, we have the good fortune of being at the center of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus festivities. That means one thing above all: opportunities for students to get involved in the democratic process. Five students worked for the university this caucus season to develop and maintain the Iowa Caucus Resource Center, a web-based “field guide to the Iowa Caucuses.” With oversight from a Drake faculty member, students created and posted all of the site’s content, including an explanation of the caucuses and a digital map for the nationally televised Dec. 10 GOP presidential debate that took place on campus,. It’s a valuable resource for the community, but serves an equally important purpose: to advance students’ understanding of the caucus process and maximize their engagement in the process.

5) Recruit prospective students
Sometimes, students tell the Drake story better than anyone else — particularly to other students. That’s why we hire six or seven students every year to blog about their experiences. Their primary goal isn’t to sell or hype Drake, but rather to share an honest look into their lives: how they’re getting along in classes, what they like to do with their friends, where they find dinner… Our only requirement, beyond using appropriate language and subject matter, is that they post at least twice a month. (Frequently they don’t even specifically mention Drake, and that’s totally fine!)

We make a deliberate effort to select a diverse set of bloggers that represent the many facets of the Drake community — ages, home towns, areas of study, and more — to give a complete picture of the university experience.

It pays to have bloggers with a variety of interests and engagements: Ian Weller, an international relations major, made national news this year when he blogged from the protests in Egypt, where he was studying abroad.

Conclusion
Those are a few of the ways we’re transforming our interns into “Win-terns” — maximizing their effectiveness to advancing institutional goals. What are some of your students’ best contributions? Post your examples in the comment section below.

About the Author
Aaron W. Jaco is a digital media specialist at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Interested in learning how to shoot and edit your own video? Iowa State’s Travis Ballstadt and Xavier’s Cliff Jenkins share everything you need to know to get started in Video Production 101.

From hardware to software to production tips and tricks, this is the episode to watch if you’re interested in learning how to shoot and edit your own videos.

Thanks to our Sponsors!
OmniUpdate is the leading web content management system (CMS) provider for higher education. The company’s web CMS, OU Campus™, is secure and scalable with great tools and features, deployment flexibility, and an awesome user community.
Inigral, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. A private Facebook community to boost enrollment and retention. Check out their latest whitepaper on how schools are preparing for the mobile revolution in 2012.
SCVNGR is a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. Check out how LSU used SCVNGR to engage their fans in New Orleans leading up to their BCS Championship bout with Alabama.

Weekly 5
Miss #admissionslive? Check out The State of College Admissions
Take the 2012 State of the Mobile in higher ed survey
A Study of Four Textbook Distribution Models
Is Pinterest on your social radar? It is at Oberlin
Check out this collection of edu Pinterest pages, currated by CASE
Or can you ignore Pinterest? (for now)

Unsolicited Shout-out of the Week
This week’s unsolicited shout-out goes to anyone who has ever uploaded a tutorial video online to share knowledge. When it comes to video production – today’s topic – one of the best ways to teach yourself is to simply browse the myriad of tutorial videos available for free on YouTube. It’s thanks to the handwork and passion of so many individuals that so much professional development content is readily accessible.

In this inaugural episode of Admissions Live, Ashley Hennigan hosts Don Fraser in a discussion of the state of college admissions. Don Fraser is the Director of Education and Training at NACAC. Topics include changing demographics, economic impacts, and the relevance of higher education. Don predicts the biggest challenges and opportunities in 2012.

Thanks to our sponsors!
Admissions Live is sponsored four incredible sponsors this year.  Inigral, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. Their white paper “The Social Side of Student Retention” summarizes the research behind how social connections are critical to student success. SCVNGR is a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges, and earning points. Check out the recent article from The Chronicle of Higher Education about how Dartmouth College Admissions utilizes SCVNGR for fun admissions events and tours. Huge congratulations to Welcome to College. Who has been awarded the 2011 winners of FastCompany.com’s “Visualizing Success” national contest, based on how they build momentum and awareness around the importance of college visits. Also excited to be working with Zinch, the preferred destination by over 3 million students to research schools and scholarships, and to showcase themselves as more than a test score. Over 1,000 colleges and universities around the globe partner with Zinch to attract and enroll best-fit students on the largest college-search social network in the world. To learn more about Zinch e-mail outreach@zinch.com or tweet @socialadmission.
[HEADLINES]
Why College Is Still Relevant in the Age of Free Information, via Mashable.
FUTURE SHOCK: College for today’s newborns could cost as much as $422K, from The Daily.
Christina Quinn calls out 6 Biggest Lies in College Admissions.
Unsolicited Shout-out of the Week
Thank you Eric Clark for all your chatter and support over on our hash tag #AdmissionsLive. You rock!
Check out Eric doing great things over at @QuincyTutoring.

Starting the new year off with a bang, Hack Education‘s Audrey Watters joins the program to break down what’s in store for education technology in 2012. Covering everything from e-books to badges and gamification, Watters spills on what’s to come, as well as why we need to better evaluate the very criteria we use to evaluate #edtech success.

Thanks to our Sponsors!
OmniUpdate is the leading web content management system (CMS) provider for higher education. The company’s web CMS, OU Campus™, is secure and scalable with great tools and features, deployment flexibility, and an awesome user community.
Inigral, the creators of the Schools App on Facebook. A private Facebook community to boost enrollment and retention. Check out their latest whitepaper on how schools are preparing for the mobile revolution in 2012.
SCVNGR is a Google-funded mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. Learn how your institution can get started with SCVNGR, as well as read case studies and interviews with some of the 400+ colleges and universities who have already used the service, at SCVNGRU.com.

Weekly 5
#AdmissionsLive, a new live weekly web show from #higheredlive all about edu admissions
MIT launches MITx, a major online learning initiative
California’s community colleges may become more intentional about “rationing” access to education
Georgia University System Considering Merger of 8 Campuses Into 4
How to Sync Web Page Events With Embedded YouTube Videos

Unsolicited Shout-out of the Week
This week’s shout-out goes to opportunity and possibility, two great ingredients every New Year offers us

We’re excited to announce that the Higher Ed Live network is once again expanding. After an exciting and action-packed first full year, today we announce the official launch of Admissions Live.

A new live weekly web show exclusively covering the world of higher education admissions, Admissions Live will be hosted by none other than Rochester Institute of Technology’s Ashley Hennigan and will broadcast each Tuesday night at 7pm ET. Audiences will have the chance to not only watch feature interviews with industry leading experts, but also contribute to the show by asking questions, in real-time, via the show’s hashtag #admissionslive.

Many of you tuned in back in November when Ashley guest hosted a special Higher Ed Live episode, A Social Media Toolkit for Admissions. After the great job she did, Ashley and I spoke about the need for more comprehensive content specifically targeting the admissions space. It’s our hope this program will provide admissions professionals – and the broader higher education industry as a whole – a platform for continued dialogue around innovation, as well as best practices, tips and tricks.

Bringing the first ever admissions-focused live weekly web show to market comes with its challenges, and that’s why I’m happy to announce that Admissions Live is being sponsored by Inigral, SCVNGR, Welcome to College and Zinch. The generous sponsorship and support from these organizations will help us bring you the highest quality programming each and every week, and will allow us to remove the ads from Ustream to enhance your viewer experience.

The support from these organizations is evidence that they are not only committed to bettering our industry through delivery of their products, but that they are also committed to supporting dialogue and professional development opportunities for the talented folks who make our industry what it is today. Whether through a tweet, comment on this post or an email, please join me in thanking Inigral, SCVNGR, Welcome to College and Zinch, for their support.

And now, without further ado, please check out the below video from Ashley herself to get more information on the show, and make sure to mark your calendars for the inaugural episode of Admissions Live, bringing you the State of College Admissions with guest Don Fraser, NACAC’s Director of Education and Training, which will broadcast on Tuesday, January 10 at 7pm ET.

While Higher Ed Live launched in 2010, this past year really has felt like our coming out party. From conference coverage to special events and nearly 75 episodes, we brought industry news and analysis coast-to-coast, and experienced seriously exciting growth as a result.

As we look ahead to 2012 – and gear up for our next major announcement on January 3 – I thought it would be fun to look back on what the past 12 months has meant for the network.

Most Viewed Video Total Views: 54,715
Despite audio sync issues with the YouTube video, audiences ate up our interview with video master Tom Ska.

Most Read Blog Post
Why I Was Wrong About QR Codes

Most Frequent Guest
Mike Petroff set the regular record racking up three different guest appearances this year. The episodes he appeared in were Welcoming the Class of 2015, Innovation in Education: Where is the 21st Century University? and Virtual Campus Tours.

In-Studio Specials 7

Solo-Hosted Shows 6

Percentage of Video Views from a Mobile Device 17.7%

Top 5 Moments
It’s hard to look back on such a busy year and select just 5 top moments, but that’s the task I put before myself while reflecting back on 2011. For me, these are my top moments.

1) Launching Student Affairs Live
Without a doubt, the biggest moment of 2011 for me was having Eric Stoller join the family with the launch of Student Affairs Live. Not only was it a milestone to expand beyond a single offering and become a full-fledged network, but to be able to tap someone I look up to to team up with was awesome.

2) eduTweetup
Over the summer Higher Ed Live had a chance to host eduTweetup, an exciting event focused on innovation in edu, organized by Mike Petroff. It was an amazing night full of great speakers, exciting dialogue and an opportunity to meet so many of the folks who make our industry great. If you missed the event, definitely check out the great recap Mike put together.

3) Social Media and Your Campus
Despite all the great episodes we produced this year, the Social Media and Your Campus episode definitely stands out. A two camera production, we had a whopping three in-studio guests, a camera operator and a four person in-studio audience, all packed into our modest Los Angeles studio.

4) Live Broadcast with Marv from HighEdWeb 2011
Our special broadcast from HighEdWeb11 makes the list due to the exciting production challenges we faced, and the experience it gave viewers who tuned in. With just 30 minutes of pre-production time, we worked with Welcome to College to get internet access from Marv, their mobile automated research vehicle which was parked in a parking lot outside the conference hotel. With internet access secured, we went on to utilize a 30 foot firewire cable and battery-powered lighting. The result was something special. If you missed it the first time, definitely check it out below.

5) Interview with New York Times Columnist David Pogue
On a personal note, it was a real treat to get to interview the one-and-only David Pogue. Pogue’s NYT column is one that I’ve followed for a long time and the chance to meet and chat with him was definitely a highlight for me.

Looking Ahead
As we look ahead to 2012 I just want to share my deep and sincere thanks to all of you that help make this network great. Your contributions each and every week are what makes our shows so exciting, and we hope to continue to deliver high quality content for years to come.

Did you have a favorite moment of 2011 I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments!

“When I try to do everything on my own, too little gets done. When I empower those around me, I am surprised by how little goes wrong.”

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a rock star at your University. You’re excited about getting better – learning best practices – building things.

But, odds are you’re a control freak.

And here’s why that’s a bad thing. Because the most incredibly optimized version of yourself can’t
possibly get enough done on your own. Even if you’re a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. Even if you
determine the most valuable and necessary tasks at your University and exclusively focus your energy there.

With your manpower alone, you can only get around 40 hours of this amazing work done in a week.

But what if you created systems instead?

What if instead of personally replying to every comment on your University’s social networking sites – you empower others around you, much closer to the specific questions being asked to interact with? What if rather than re-writing every page of your 2,000 page site, you create a navigation framework and outline based on Web best practices and ask department chairs to help fill in the holes?

Will the results be slightly worse than if you had done everything yourself? No. Because the quantity getting done will be 10-20x what you could have produced on your own.

Sometimes, we work so hard to prove ourselves invaluable to our organization. But if we’re looking to create real value, we set up systems that won’t immediately die upon our departure.

Eric Olsen is the Web Content Manger for Lewis University, a mid-sized Catholic and Lasallian University near Chicago, IL.
Follow Eric on Twitter.

How does your institution use LinkedIn? In this episode of Higher Ed Live special guest host Fran Zablocki talks with guest Paul Prewitt, of Michigan State University, all about how colleges and universities can utilize the social networking site LinkedIn to engage their community.

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