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Post-secondary institutions are traditionally both risk averse and slow adopters of new technologies. In facing the rapid adoption rate of mobile technologies by the general population, it can be difficult to know where to start and how to know whether your initial efforts are working. But this is the time to jump in and learn. These technologies are evolving, and your institution will need to evolve with them—but you will only be positioned to do so if you are already working with these technologies, testing what is and isn’t effective for your students and alumni, and working proactively to identify those opportunities to leverage mobile technologies to move your institution forward—whether in recruitment, teaching and learning, or advancement. “Don’t be afraid to get started. It’s easy to get afraid because things are moving so fast. But if you don’t jump in, you are really just doing a disservice to your end users, your students and your alumni. At least you can be addressing their needs and moving in the right direction, even if you need to evolve over time. Mobile devices aren’t going away, and you need to keep your website and your other interactions with students relevant and accessible […]

Here is a showcase of examples from different institutions that have found relatively inexpensive ways to use mobile devices to add real value to key interactions with students and alumni — for example, during the campus tour, in the classroom, and at alumni events such as reunion and homecoming. Fully Leveraging the Power of the Mobile Campus Map “Our campus footprint is tremendous. Getting onto campus as a visitor, a new student, or a new prospective faculty member, is daunting, overwhelming. Providing a mobile version of our campus map with wayfinding may sound trivial, but actually it’s critical. You can use this to create a positive first-time experience on your campus … or a positive ongoing experience.” Ted Hattemer, Ohio State U Using GPS and location-based technology, you can offer a mobile app that not only pinpoints where a visitor or member of your campus community is, but also provides wayfinding information. The possibilities are extensive. Ted Hattemer and Brett Pollak offer these examples: Chart different possible routes onto and through campus. Offer GPS tracking on campus or city buses, so that a student can access realtime data on where the next bus is, and how long it will take […]

But how urgent is it to move on mobile technologies? Let’s review the data. Mobile Technologies in the Eyes of Students and Alumni In June 2010, Ball State University released a study showing that of college students owning phones, 49% owned smartphones. An ECAR report released a few weeks ago documented that this number has since risen to 62% — showing a rapid rise in adoption. A study by the Pearson Foundation found that a quarter of college students owned a tablet as of January 2012, a population that has been growing at 400% yearly. Projections by technology researchers over the past year confirm the immediacy of this trend: In a May 2011 survey, Gartner Inc. reported that the amount of time people currently spend reading on a digital screen is nearly equal to the amount of time spent reading print IDC reported last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections According to a 2012 survey released a few weeks ago from ECAR, 75% of students surveyed indicate they believe that technology is critical to their academic success; 45% cited tablets as important to helping them […]

Recent projections by technology researchers confirm that mobile devices and tablets are seeing rapid adoption — and that more prospective students and alumni are first viewing your institution’s website from a mobile device. For example, market research firm IDC reported last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections. And Brett Pollak, director of the campus web office for the University of California, San Diego, reports that in past months, UCSD has seen an average increase of 0.5% each month in the number of website views from mobile devices. Now, nearly 20% of their web traffic is from a mobile device or tablet. Yet an informal May 2012 Academic Impressions survey of marketing professionals in higher education found that less than half have their website optimized or enabled for viewing on mobile devices. Reviewing the Options Not optimizing your site for viewing on mobile devices is no longer an option; as more students research your institution from a mobile device, it’s going to become increasingly critical that they are able to view and access needed information quickly and conveniently, that they are able to complete tasks (such […]

Market research firm IDC projected last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections, and many institutions are reporting sharp increases in the web traffic they are seeing from mobile devices. For example, Brett Pollak, director of the campus web office for the University of California, San Diego, reported that over the past two years, UCSD has seen an average increase of 0.5% each month in the number of website views from mobile devices. Now, nearly 20% of their web traffic (counting both prospective students, current students, and alumni) is from a mobile device or tablet. Curious to see how the majority of shops are responding to this increase in student and alumni reliance on mobile technology, we conducted an informal survey this month of annual giving and alumni relations professionals. The results are indicative of a gap between the technologies alumni are using to interact with their alma mater and the technologies the alma mater is prepared to use in reaching out to its alumni. Key Takeaways From the Survey When asked what percentage of their fundraising dollars are received through online giving, nearly one third […]

In Academic Impressions’ recent edition of Higher Ed Impact: Monthly DIagnostic, “Success Leaves Clues: Predictive Modeling in Higher Education,” we interviewed a number of experts to provide a conceptual overview of how institutions can take steps toward a more rigorous mining of their current and historical student data to identify predictors not only of which students will be at-risk — but predictors of success. Learning the shared characteristics of persistent and academically successful students can drive more informed investments in your recruitment and enrollment efforts. This week, we wanted to isolate one of the “big” factors — GPA — and take a brief look at how you can take a more sophisticated look at high school GPA and first term GPA as predictors. For a few tips, we interviewed Bernadette Jungblut, West Virginia University’s director of assessment and retention, and Jim Scannell, president of Scannell & Kurz Inc. Here are some of the thoughts they shared with us. Rethinking High School GPA “Don’t just rely on overall high school GPA,” Jungblut warns, noting that often one’s first impulse is to isolate high school GPA as a more effective predictor than standardized test scores and other frequently-used indicators. But Jungblut suggests […]

Few institutions are performing sophisticated predictive modeling on factors affecting student retention, and given how many factors there are (both within and outside the institution’s control), predictive modeling can appear quite daunting. But you don’t have to go from A to Z all at once. “Typically,” Jim Scannell, president of Scannell & Kurz Inc, advises, “we encourage institutions not to leap into predictive modeling immediately. Start by doing univariate analysis, collecting descriptive knowledge.” For example, out of an entire class, you could set out to describe: How many men retain versus women? How many men versus women achieved higher than a 3.0 GPA? How did your transfer students from two-year institutions perform versus your transfer students from four-year institutions? Students from public versus private high schools? Student cohorts based on race? Suppose you find that men in that class are, on average, achieving a lower GPA than women. Can you dig deeper? For example, if you have strong athletics, compare both the academic preparation of entering athletes versus non-athletes and the academic success of those two groups during the first year. Do you have a lower GPA for male students because you enrolled 100 football players who were less academically […]