Lindsay Blair, Jane Duffy, Stefanie Landsman, Colleen Ruppert University of Connecticut The Evolution of Technology and Student Affairs.

Lindsay Blair, Jane Duffy, Stefanie Landsman, Colleen

RuppertUniversity of Connecticut

The Evolution of Technology and Student Affairs

“In order to foster student development, information technology must encourage and foster the development of social connections between and among individuals and groups. Rather than replace the college campuses, information technology must be designed to strengthen and expand on the college learning community.”

-Treue & Belote, 1997, p. 22

Program Overview• Introduction• Technology and its Impact on

Student Affairs:1. Marketing 2. Customer Service 3. Community Building 4. Interactive Multimedia5. Assessment and Evaluation

• Closing Thoughts

Computer Technology Timeline• 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh computer

• 1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released • 1987: Email link established between Germany and China• 1990: Toshiba announces the SPARC LT, the first SPARC laptop

computer • 1990: First Microsoft Windows of PowerPoint created• 1991: World Wide Web launched to the public• 1992: Jean Armour Polly coins the term “surfing the Internet”• 1994: Yahoo! created• 1995: DVDs invented• 1996: More email is sent than postal mail in the US; Google created• 1997: America Online Instant Messenger (AIM) launched• 1998: Internet weblogs (blogs) begin to appear• 1999: Napster created• 2001: iPod introduced by Apple• 2004: Facebook.com created• 2007: Microsoft SharePoint Server created

IntroductionToday’s Students• The use of technology is a key characteristic of the millennial

generation, students born between 1980 and 2000 (Raines, 2002).

• Today, traditionally-aged college students often have technology seamlessly woven into their daily lives and take it for granted.

The Numbers• In a 2007 study conducted by the EDUCAUSE Center for

Applied Research (ECAR), 98% of the 27,846 college student respondents reported owning at least two technological devices, most typically a cell phone and computer (Caruso & Salaway, 2007).

• In respect to using these forms of technology, students reported a mean of 18 hours per week and median of 14 hours per week.

• Approximately 6% spend more than 40 hours per week engaging in some type of online activity (Caruso & Salaway, 2007).

Professional Considerations• For student affairs professionals today, this creates both

challenges and opportunities for engaging students and enhancing current programs and services.

Reaching Students

MarketingPurpose: According to the American Marketing Association (AMA),

marketing is “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.”

Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that the organization continues to meet the needs of customers and benefits from the relationship with the customer.

Marketing is usually focused on one product or service. Thus, a marketing plan for one product might be very different than that for another product.

Each student service is a product whose value is determined by the marketplace, college students who frequently question the purpose of these services and other administrators who wonder how to measure their effectiveness (Culp, 1987).

MarketingPast• In the past materials promoting student services included

brochures and flyers, reaching students and parents through direct mailings and postings.

• However, printing is expensive and wastes both human and environmental resources. Posting flyers is not an effective way to reach students, and this static form of marketing may not be accessible to the entire student population.

Present• The interactivity of websites allow for bi-directional

communication between students and student affairs professionals. Now, a larger number of students can have access to the information provided by a department website.

• Customers know where to go and expect to find information about services on designated sites.

• College networked sites give access to multiple services in one location.

• Emails, list-serv information, online college events calendars, and advertisements on student-run television and radio stations are effective marketing methods of increasing student awareness about available programs and services.

Using Web Sites for Marketing

• Today, the internet is the first place people look to find information about a college.

• Mission statements, services, locations, and professionals can all be located on a college website (Greenfield, 2007).

Successful Student-First Websites

• Developing a successful website to promote student services requires three distinctly different skill sets: (1) Excellent technology (2) Superb graphics (3) Meaningful content.

• Typically one individual would not possess all of these. For example, an IT specialist, graphic designer, marketing specialist, and Director of Student Activities all contribute specific knowledge.

• Creating a cross-functional web-management leadership team with a variety of skill sets enables a college to incorporate various skills and talents in order to provide students am effective centralized location for receiving information.

• For example, creating a common user-friendly website where each student can personalize the information they wish to receive. In addition, designing one format for all websites at the college would create a streamlined visual experience for users.

• However, “the challenge is to make it easy to do business with the organization in any way they want, at any time, through any channel, in any language or currency and to make [students] feel that they are dealing with a single unified organization that recognizes them at any touch point” (Pirani and Salaway, 2005, p 9).

From Static to…?

Stage One Websites include the conversion of static brochures and program information to electronic formats. This is also known as one-way publishing. Anything in paper format can be posted online. Many departments create separate sites with little coordination between other departments and services (Kleeman, 2005).

Why do I have to print this form? Why can’t I fill it

out on the website and email

it to you?

Four stages of website development on a college campus:

Where Many Colleges Are Today

Stage Two Websites become more interactive and transactional. The ability to conduct business, such as filling out forms, ordering and receiving services, and paying fees are incorporated. Information is still organized based on departments and not personalized for each user.

Stage Three Websites are experienced differently by each student. Personalized and customized websites allow the user to receive information based on their needs and wants. This begins to establish a more personal relationship between the student and the institution.

This is fine, but I just want to talk

to someone online right now!

Customizable Websites and Beyond

Fourth Stage Websites are highly customized. The use of interactive formats such as e-portfolios, video demonstrations, and instant messaging with student affairs professionals allow for the development of relationships and an enhanced community (Kleeman, 2005).

This is great! The website lets me

access the information I need

and chat with a career consultant.

Serving our Students

Customer ServiceCustomer Service: assistance and other resources that a

company provides to the people who buy or use its products or services.

Role in Student Affairs: • Personal interaction has been the main means of

providing student services. • This is a crucial feature; however, technology offers

many opportunities to complement and streamline some aspects of student affairs work, which would result in more quality time to interact with students (Moreno, 2007).

• This enables customer access at the student’s convenience. This is particularly important with the millennial generation.

• With increasingly more online course offerings, providing adequate student services through technology is necessary.

Customer Service and Technology

Past:• Many services were provided by paper and pencil, such

as record keeping, copying, database management, and registration forms.

• These have been moved to digital platforms. While the process has not changed, the use of technology has increased efficiency of these processes (Barrett, 2001).

“Systems and services need to appear seamless... Students need to be able to access their personal information on-line through some self-service technology… students can have access to their personal records and information 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This reengineering of service processes gives the student access to the right information quickly and efficiently.” - Aoki & Pogroszewski, 1998, p. 5

Student Affairs Examples• Career Services: Alumni network

– Create an alumni network for career opportunities, internships and job postings for alumni and current students.

• Counseling and Mental Health: Virtual counseling center – Provide students, faculty, and staff with an increasingly important resource

for efficiently delivering content and services.• Student Activities: Club and organization information

– Provide online resources for student organizations and advisors.Student Activities: Scheduling events– Provide direct access to students to post events on a campus-wide activities

calendar.• Student Affairs: Student involvement transcripts

– Create an application to track student involvement with clubs and organizations.

– Utilize online portfolios.• Student Affairs Information Technology: Customized homepage

– Create website based on an individual’s interest: For example, a psychology major can have the department news and updates on the side of his or her homepage.

• Student Health Services: Appointment scheduling – For example, provide direct access to students to schedule appointments

with student health services.• Student Union: Online room booking

– Provide direct access to students to book rooms.– This increases student involvement and empowerment.

Customer Service and Technology

Additional benefit:• In addition to increasing efficiency, many offices have saved paper

products and money on mailings because information and services have been moved online (Barratt, 2001).

Potential challenges:• Student affairs professionals may not be adequately trained to

incorporate technology into their work to the degree of expertise that students expect.

• Need for improved speed, reliability, and support of services provided online.

• Increase awareness about how students differ in their technological ability and ensuring that resources are accessible to all students (Caruso & Salaway, 2007).

• Often there is limited communication and coordination between offices, with some offices lacking strength in providing customer-service.

• Typically academic and service units are organized into vertical functional silos, but students are best served across horizontal functional silos (Kleeman, 2005).

“If that experience is convenient, efficient, and student-centered, they have a positive reaction. If it provides a virtual runaround and inaccurate or outdated information, they have a negative one.” - Shea, 2005, p. 15

Building the Campus Community

Community Building“Community is no longer defined as a physical place, but as a set of relationships where people interact socially for mutual

benefit” - Andrews, 2002, p. 64

Purpose:

• Community building happens in the context of interactions between student affairs professionals and students on a campus. It is important in the higher education realm to improve student engagement and retention as well as information sharing between professionals.

• “Key reasons people participated [in community activities – in person or online] were to fulfill personal needs, to learn, and to advance the common good” (Ludford et. al, 2004, p. 632).

• “Cohesive web-based services and community-building tools are no longer a convenience; they are a necessity that is critical to student achievement” (Blackboard, 2007, n.p.).

Evolution of Community Building

Past: • Social networking was limited to primarily your own

physical community prior to the wave of technology and computer access.

• According to Mitrano (2006), initial forms of social networking technologies included programs such as: online multiplayer games, bulletin boards, news groups, and mailing lists.

Present: • These initial technologies are nearly outdated, but

provide a relevant backdrop to newer websites such as MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook.

• As technology advances, people continue to have the opportunity to make connections around the world.

• Online communities have become a social norm among students.

Student Affairs Examples

• Blackboard/Vista– Online training for judicial affairs and resident assistance courses.

• Facebook, MySpace, Friendster– Student organizations can advertise events on Facebook.– Many new student orientation programs discuss the ethical

components of online social networking.• Customized Websites

– Resident assistants can create their own webpage to advertise events, send updates, and collect feedback from residents.

• iStudentAffairs.com, LinkedIn – Student affairs professionals at different institutions can share

resources and discuss hot topics.• Departmental Software: Judicial Action, The Housing Director,

etc.– These programs are used within a department to share information

regarding students’ housing or judicial standings.• Microsoft SharePoint

– A new tool used across institutions that enables file sharing, online committee work, group discussions, and blogs.

• Second Life– An online 3D virtual community that allows students to simulate

interactions with others through personal avatars (virtual personas).

A Closer Look“Facebook is nonetheless the most significant [social networking

technology] to higher education because of its original focus on the college or university market.”

- Tracy Mitrano, 2006, p. 22Facebook:• Prior to online social networking, students came to college and had a bound “face

book” for all first-year students including name, photo, area(s) of interest, and hometown.

• Today students typically set-up an account on Facebook before they even arrive on campus for first-year move-in.

Areas of Interest for Student Affairs Professionals: • Online social networking raises questions about personal safety, content

moderation, and the relationship between institutional missions and the millennial generation’s expectations of privacy.

• Institutions are receiving many roommate change requests before students arrive on campus based on Facebook impression of the assigned roommate, resulting in some institutions “placing a moratorium on roommate change requests…until a required period of time spent living together” has been met (Mitrano, 2006).

• Colleges need to be clear about how these social networking sites may impact their student employee hiring process.

• Administrators need to be upfront with the consequences of online computer policy violations for both students as well as faculty and staff.

• Student engagement can be enhanced by utilizing social networking technologies such as Facebook because of students’ reliance on technology.

The Wired Campus

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to

go beyond them into the

impossible.” - Arthur C. Clarke, Technology and

the Future

Interactive MultimediaPurpose:

• Student affairs utilizes interactive multimedia to engage various learning styles by presenting information in ways that stimulate different senses.

Past: • Programs, services, and information were presented

through lecture, one-way, and linear communication techniques.

Present: • Computer programs (PowerPoint), multimedia downloads,

blogs, vlogs, instant messaging, podcasts, webinars, touch screens, interactive kiosks, and online trainings all promote active learning.

• Companies such as e2Campus provide colleges with a mass notification system utilizing text messages, emails, digital signage throughout campus, loudspeakers, PA systems, and school websites in order to create a safer and more connected campus community.

Multimedia Definitions• Blog: provide commentary or news on a particular subject;

others function as personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.

• Vlog: a blog whose medium is video.• Instant messaging: a form of real-time communication

between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the internet.

• Podcast: a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

• Webinars: a type of web conference that can include polling and question and answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter.

Why are these useful? – Provide bi-directional forms of communication, which

allows for opinions and immediate feedback.– The language used can be more informal and digestible

(Dowdell, 2006).

Blogging Limitations

• Time can be wasted reading and creating ineffective blogs.

• Validity of source: – authors opinions

may be biased.– posting may not

always be appropriate and/or reflect the views of the institution.

– information may be incorrect (Dowdell, 2006).

Student Affairs Examples

• Orientation Services– Student orientation leaders blog about their experiences

on campus.

• Judicial Affairs– Downloadable video segments help students understand

the judicial process.

• Career Services– Students can blog about their internship experience or

use instant messaging to receive immediate feedback on questions.

• Student Health Services– Staff create podcasts of quick recipes for healthy eating.

• Residence Life– Downloadable PowerPoint presentation about life on

campus with movie clips.

The Evolution of Assessment

Assessment and Evaluation

Purpose: • “Assessment is a means for focusing our collective

attention, examining our assumptions, and creating a shared culture dedicated to continuously improving the quality of higher learning” (Angelo, 1995, p. 11).

• Assessment is critical for student affairs professionals in order to demonstrate the value of their programs and to continue to receive funding, support, and room for growth in their institution.

• Technology has revolutionized the way student affairs professionals:

1. Evaluate programs and services.2. Provide assessments for students.

Assessment AreasProgram Assessment: provides the opportunity for the

evaluation of what services and programs are currently doing, how well they are accomplishing goals, what is still needed for students, and the potential for growth in their program.

Web-based Surveys: • Utilized by student activities, residential life, dining

services, academic departments, and other student services programs to obtain feedback from students on programs and services.

• Statistical analysis programs, such as SPSS, revolutionized the ability for professionals to assess greater numbers of respondents and utilize the information more efficiently.

Assessment AreasIndividual/Self Assessment: is the process of gathering

information about yourself or an individual in order to make an informed decision. An individualized assessment could include reviewing the following: values, interests, personality, skills, ability, at-risk status, or mental health conditions.

Online Screening and Evaluation Assessments:• Often utilized by career services, counseling and

mental health, student health, disability services, and orientation services.

• Provides faculty and staff the ability to review warning signs or to assist students in identifying their strengths and weaknesses.

• Provides students the ability to identify their own struggles and/or areas for improvement.

• Also provides appropriate resources in a timely manner for students to access both on-campus and off-campus.

The Evolution of Assessment

Assessment has grown tremendously through technology advancements over the last twenty-five years.

Past: Assessments were paper-based or face-to-face interactions.

• Required experts to collect data, analyze data, create feedback and reports all by hand.

• A great deal of time from one employee or department needed to be dedicated to the process to collect the information and to utilize it properly.

Examples: • Resident assistants handing out floor surveys to ask

for programming ideas or feedback.• Orientation leaders handing out paper-based

evaluations to assess the effectiveness of the orientation sessions.

The Evolution of Assessment

Present: The internet has impacted the distribution, presentation, and quality of assessment of student services.

Characteristics of Online Assessment:• Survey large numbers of students quickly and accurately.• Receive timely feedback and opportunity for improvement of

services.• Responses can be monitored on an ongoing basis and

collectively at the end of the assessment with ease.• Assessments can be stored and used again in the future.• Result comparisons can be done more efficiently and with more

flexibility by the assessment team.• More sustainable and cost effective option for institutions to

gather information.• Web-based surveys do not over extend the information

technology department or monopolize the time of one individual or department to do the process well.

• More departments and individuals have the ability to create assessment tools.

• Survey anonymity and security are issues that must be controlled (Moneta, 2005).

Closing Thoughts• As technology continues to evolve, student affairs professionals

need to stay current with technological advances in order to provide the most efficient service to meet students’ evolving needs.

• Although technological advances provide opportunities for a new delivery of services, it is important to remember that technology can never completely replace face-to-face interaction and interpersonal relationships.

• An effective student affairs professional will need to maintain a balance of both technological and personal interaction when working with students.

“Information technology in student affairs has the potential to provide student services, programs, and activities that promote learning while also improving the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of administrative operations. The senior students affairs staff set the tone for how information technology is introduced in the division and possibly the greater campus community.”

- Karley Ausiello, 1997, p. 79

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