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Engaging Alumni on Social Media: Sample Posts from 5 Small Colleges

by Timothy Ponisciak

Recently, I partnered with Academic Impressions to survey over 100 institutions about how they engage alumni on social media. By far, these institutions had seen the most success via Facebook, and I invited them to submit their most popular Facebook posts — those that drew the most reaction (Likes) and engagement (Comments) from alumni. I published the aggregate findings in the paper Engaging Alumni on Social Media: What Works, and I will discuss best practices (informed by this survey and other research) in the upcoming webcast Strategizing for Social Media in Advancement. Today, though, I want to share a few of the popular Facebook posts that survey respondents highlighted. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your own alumni-facing Facebook page, check out these examples from five small colleges that are keeping their alumni engaged via their social channels. Whether you’re looking for questions you can toss to your alumni, #tbt posts, or giving-day campaign ideas, here is a sampling of how other small colleges are talking with their alumni. Example 1: Augustana College Alumni Augustana showcases just how much of a connection athletics success can bring between a school and it’s alumni base. You don’t have to play at a Division […]

The Current State of Competency-Based Education in the US

by Daniel Fusch

Recently, I had the privilege to sit in on a press release of the very preliminary findings from a joint Eduventures/Ellucian survey reporting on institutions’ level of commitment to competency-based education (CBE). The full report on the survey will not be released until June, and in fact the survey is still open. But as of late April, 261 institutions have responded, representing a diversity of Carnegie classifications and institutional types, and some of the findings are illuminating. The findings listed below were shared with me by Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer at Eduventures, and Carie Ann Potenza, Director of Academic and Grant Services, Teach and Learning, Ellucian. I have also asked several leaders of innovative CBE programs (who will also be speaking at our upcoming conference Developing and Managing Competency-Based Education) to comment on the initial findings, and their comments are also below. Findings: Everyone is Interested in CBE, Few are Scaling It First, some quick demographics. Of the 261 early respondents: These are preliminary findings only, and the survey’s administrators haven’t yet segmented the data to learn more. However, Richard Garrett has noted that preliminary segmenting by Carnegie classification has revealed very little variance in response across types of institutions. […]

5 Strategies for Leading Change

by Marilu Goodyear, Jenny Mehmedovic

Addressing the challenge of institutional change is necessary and difficult. Each institution has a unique path forward; the ones most successful at moving forward are those that match their unique organizational strengths to a compelling vision of the future. Implementing change within our diffuse decision-making structures requires an approach anchored in social science, communication studies, and organizational management disciplines. Drawing on the academic literature from these disciplines, in this article we discuss five strategies that leaders can employ to effect change at their institutions: 1. Be clear about the purpose for the change and paint a picture of the new reality. If leaders fail to communicate clearly why a change is needed, the change effort will suffer both from a lack of focus and also from a lack of compelling reasons for the organization to participate in the change process. It’s important to articulate the need for change within the context of the institution’s broader environment and the outcomes you hope for in the future. The more you can describe how current trends influence the direction you need to take (or what might happen to the organization if you don’t change), the more likely people are to help you get […]

Students with Goggles: Virtual Reality and Adaptive Learning in the Classroom

by Daniel Fusch

I was recently invited to visit Ellucian’s Innovation Lab to speak with Brian Knotts, Ellucian’s Chief Data Scientist, and to sample some emerging learning technologies first hand. We discussed machine learning, virtual personal assistants, and I had the chance to don a set of virtual reality goggles to experience what it might be like for college students participating in a virtual reality simulation. After I adjusted the focus (I am afflicted with very poor eyesight), I was at once confronted with what appeared to be skittering, giant cockroaches. To my relief, the scene quickly shifted to a sandswept environment populated by cloaked figures that looked as though it had been plucked from the pages of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Two things struck me as I looked up, down, and around in these VR goggles: How Colleges are Already Using this Tech In fact, some colleges and universities are already putting the technology that we currently have to use, both in and out of the classroom. For example: Brian Knotts explained some of the affordances to me, with a sense of childlike wonder I could easily appreciate: “You fired arrows at targets. Now imagine you were doing something less martial. Suppose you stepped […]

Leveraging Parents as Allies in Student Success

by Daniel Fusch

by Daniel Fusch (Academic Impressions), interviewing Marjorie Savage (University of Minnesota) While some colleges are seeking positive ways of managing parent involvement throughout the college years, others have established farewell rituals near the start of a student’s first term to deliver the message that parents are expected to let go and step back. These separation programs range from a formal ceremony at Morehouse College to sessions on “Letting Go” during orientation at other institutions. Not Just About Letting Go Although introducing programming to encourage parents to “let go” may be a way to define the separation process for both students and student services staff, this approach (especially if adopted in isolation from a more holistic strategy for parent engagement) precludes opportunities to leverage parents as key resources in promoting the academic and social success of your students. Marjorie Savage, researcher on the topic of parent/college relations and author of the books Not Helicopters but Allies: Partnering with Parents to Better Support Students (Academic Impressions, 2016) and You’re on Your Own (But I’m Here if You Need Me) (Simon & Schuster, 2009), suggests that parents can be an asset to the institution and play a key role in student success — if that role and the […]

Engaging Alumni on Social Media: What Works

by Timothy Ponisciak

Social media strategies for engaging alumni: Read the findings from a survey of 109 professionals at nonprofit colleges and universities who are tasked with engaging alumni on social media. Social media tools provide more opportunities to engage alumni. Yet, pressed for time, alumni relations and annual giving professionals often approach their efforts to engage alumni on social media with some basic uncertainties: In December 2015, Academic Impressions and Tim Ponisciak partnered in a survey of 109 professionals at nonprofit colleges and universities who are tasked with engaging alumni on social media. In our survey, we asked respondents about: We also collected examples of high-engagement posts and analyzed them for commonalities in topic, tone, and approach. We wanted to know what types of posts appeal the most to higher ed alumni, in order to share with you what has beenworking best for your peers. In this member exclusive paper, we want to share with you seven key findings. Read the paper. ________________________________ You can also learn more in the recorded webcast Strategizing for Social Media in Advancement or in Tim Ponisciak’s book Innovative Strategies for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations: Lessons from the Corporate World. Get Tim Ponisciak’s Book

Presidential Dialogues: Lessons on Effecting Change

by Amit Mrig

10 Lessons on Effecting Change in Higher Education Change is here to stay and it will be more complex, ambiguous, and fast paced than ever before, and presidents are feeling tremendous pressure to significantly reshape their institutions. We wanted the inside story—how do you manage the people, politics, and process of change? For our second event in our series, Presidential Dialogues: Focus on the Future, we wanted to convene a group of presidents who have achieved (but not necessarily mastered) real change efforts on their campuses. Platitudes and pontifications and pithy quotes don’t matter when attempting to achieve difficult and meaningful change, but hard-won lessons and strategies from practitioners can contribute to our knowledge and leverage our efforts. We wanted to discover what success looks like from a president’s perspective because both success and failure leave clues. A number of invaluable lessons surfaced in our conversation. In this report, we share the ten most important. We hope their advice will be useful to you. In this paper, hear from: Through this ongoing series, we will continue to convene leading minds in higher education to uncover those skill sets and ways of rethinking the president’s work that will educate boards and inform and empower aspiring presidents. Watch for future papers from this series. Read the report. _________________________________________________________ Image Credit: […]

Start a Young Alumni Council? Yes or No?

by Ashlyn W. Sowell

WHERE THIS ARTICLE BEGAN… Ashlyn Sowell was a faculty member at AI’s conference on Strengthening, Strategy and Growing Engagement for Alumni Boards. This article was sparked by conversation among schools at the event who were considering the next steps for adding a board or council to their young alumni programs. Some critical questions were raised; here, we start to answer them. Should You Start a Young Alumni Council? The Answer is Maybe Volunteer groups can be a great asset, but do require cultivation and meaningful work to engage with your institution. Here we will talk more about how Gettysburg College made its decision and what the outcome has been. Gettysburg College has a strong history with its alumni board, dating back many years. Around 2008, alumni relations staff began thinking about ways to engage young alumni who made up a large percentage of the overall alumni population and had  unique ways that they wanted to interact with their alma mater.  As such, a proposal was made to the Board of Trustees, and we created the BOLD Council (Burgians of the Last Decade), a young alumni council of 25 members. The council’s strategies include ways to engage alumni through communications, interaction […]

How RIT is Building An Adjunct Community

by Lisa Cook

MORE FROM RIT RIT’s strategic plan calls for the institution to become a “model of inclusive excellence for all faculty and staff in the areas of professional development.” Here are further examples of what RIT has been trying recently: Beyond Workshops: How RIT Incentivizes Faculty Development “George”: How RIT is Encouraging Interdisciplinary Collaboration When thinking about a student issue or working on a syllabus, faculty members often seek the advice of a colleague — usually by just walking to the office next door. For adjunct faculty, however, the colleague next door has often left for the day and administration offices may also be shut. Adjunct faculty often operate largely on their own, and have a difficult time meeting colleagues who can provide feedback and support. When institutions deliberately build adjunct communities, this allows the faculty to support each other, helps make adjunct faculty feel appreciated and rewarded, and improves adjunct teaching and student success in the classroom. The Rochester Institute of Technology is working to build an adjunct community to foster the kinds of relationships that many full-time faculty and staff take for granted. We talked with Anne Marie Canale and Cheryl Herdklotz, Faculty Career Development Consultants, to learn more about the […]

For Fundraisers: How to Build a Successful Partnership with Your Athletic Director

by Josh Azer

It doesn’t matter if you are a Major Gift Officer working as a liaison to the athletic department or a Director of Athletic Development. Now more than ever, to effectively raise money for your college athletic department you must have a successful partnership with your Athletic Director. Many advancement professionals working with college athletic departments do not have a background as a coach or an administrator. So how can you, as the athletic fundraiser, build a successful partnership with your Athletic Director? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to help build this relationship, but here are four steps you can take to get started: 1. Schedule a weekly meeting with your Athletic Director. If a weekly meeting isn’t possible, then make sure it is at least bi-weekly. These meetings will ensure that you, as the frontline fundraiser for the athletic department, have a strong understanding of the current needs of the department. While you’re meeting, you’ll also have the opportunity to coordinate upcoming travel and additional events that require the Athletic Director’s attendance. It may also be helpful for you to attend athletic staff meetings and for your Athletic Director to attend development meetings going forward, to further strengthen the connection […]

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