EDUInsight.com
"Covering Innovation and Best Practice in Online Student Communication"
Journal of College Student Retention and Recruiting for both On-Campus and Online Universities
"Students want to search for schools online, look at school web sites and apply online"
Mark Shay
Chief Academic Liasion
EducationDynamics
Has e-mail peaked?
- The Chronicle of Higher Education asksis email for old people?
- According to a 2005 Pew Internet and American Life study, almost half of Web-using teenagers prefer to chat with friends via instant messaging rather than e-mail.
- Business 2.0 describes a comScore report that statesteen e-mail use was down 8 percent, compared with a 6 percent increase in e-mailing for users of all ages.
Archived Articles
Communicating with Students
How Much is Too Much Time Spent Online - The BlogAbroad.com experience
A central issue for discussion in EDUInsight.com is the intersection of technology, marketing and education. This topic encompasses innovative uses of online education not just as a way to deliver courses, but also as a way to interconnect students and extend their educational experience. One area in which there seems to be huge opportunity to utilize communications technology is international education.
Traditionalists suggest current technologies such as blogging detract from the study abroad experience by keeping the student on the computer as opposed to immersing themselves in the culture of their host country. Despite these criticisms, online blogs like those at BlogAbroad.com have been shown to not only enhance student interconnectedness while requiring less time online, but also to encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and truly experience their new home abroad.
An initiative created by StudyAbroad.com, BlogAbroad.com has been addressing this issue the past few years. It is an advocacy effort designed to prepare prospective students firsthand to the realities of studying abroad. Each season BlogAbroad.com provides a heart-felt honest chronicle of four students as they go through the excitement, fear and ultimately triumph of being away from home and in a foreign environment.
Researchers at BlogAbroad.com have found that most bloggers spend less time on e-mail and instant messenger than they would if they didn’t have blogs. Through BlogAbroad.com, they can update all of their friends and family at once. This gives them the opportunity to spend more time experiencing their host country, instead of cuddling up to a computer, communicating with people one by one. It also keeps the family members happier, because they get a more detailed report, complete with pictures. A student may not have the time or bandwidth to send long summaries and loads of pictures through e-mail, but a blog makes it possible.
Additionally, blogging forces the students to get out more; to see more of their country, to travel more, experience more, speak with more people. Their contract with BlogAbroad.com requires it and their online following comes to expect it. They have to break out of their comfort zone and truly become a member of their new community, telling the folks back home all about it. This can happen faster, and to a greater extent, than it would if the students were just there on their own, moving at their own pace.
Finally, blogging can enrich the students’ lives and careers. A blog becomes a chronicle of all that they did, all that they accomplished. It becomes a testament to who they are and what they want through; something to be treasured and to reflect upon for years to come. And it also hones many important skills, in addition to giving them recognition and a certain sense of fame. Tammy Newcomer, a season three blogger who studied in Costa Rica, landed a job a job because her future employer followed her stories and knew that Tammy has the skill set needed for the position. Through blogging, she was able to show that she’s not afraid to take risks, is able to adapt to change, can successfully report on her actions and is one terrific writer. Thanks to BlogAbroad.com, not only does she have an online keepsake, but she has a new career.
Current technological trends in international education, like BlogAbroad.com, demonstrate the inherent relationship between technology, marketing and education in higher education. The blogabroad.com technology represents a marketing technique that appears to recruit prospective study abroad students, and has also been shown to enhance the student experience in their host country. Such positive experiences, combined with a unique method of recruitment, should lend to the rising numbers of students choosing to take to the skies and study in another country.
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Additional sections of this journal address student recruiting and student retention. We have also placed all articles with a common theme of online education and distance education programs in a separate portal. New articles will be posted each Monday, please check back by bookmarking this site or placing a link to this Innovative Practices in Communicating with Students portal.
Mark Shay is the founder of EDU - a leading academic advertising provider, - part of EducationDynamics, a leader in student lead generation and enrollment management services.
