Archive for 2009
And, that's just for January, February, March and April 2010. I've tried to put a program that will help you do your job even better at a time where you are asked to do a lot more with a lot less (time, money, staff...) As usual, places are limited, so it's always wise to register ahead of time if you want to secure a spot for your team. You can register by visiting each of the dedicated web addresses of the series. And, if you have any questions, feel free to email karine@higheredexperts.com - always happy to help. Start The (Word)Presses: How...
Read MoreWhile I was working on the web redesign of Higher Ed Experts those past few weeks, I received a few interesting tips about creative projects created by 3 different institutions. Patric Lane, Health and Science Editor at UNC News Services, sent me this first tip. Santa is ready to ride! is a YouTube video about the big chubby guy in red and white. Produced by the medical school from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it features a UNC cardiologist, geneticist, psychologist, endocrinologist and Santa's very own family physician. Published on YouTube on December 7, the video got close to...
Read MoreWow, I haven't blogged for the past 2 weeks... Anyway, I just want to make a quick post to thank you all the 559 persons who took the Higher Ed Experts/eduStyle/Uwebd/Collegewebeditor.com Survey and let you know that the official list of the 14 winners of the prize drawing is now available on Higher Ed Experts' new website. Higher Ed Experts You might have already seen it if you follow me on Twitter or read my email newsletter, but the new Higher Ed Experts' website is what kept me from this blog, my Twitter account and sometimes even my email box for the past...
Read MoreHave you watched "Reading Season, The Musical" yet? This YouTube video was brought to my attention yesterday over Twitter via a quick post from TargetX Jeff Kallay. As you've probably noticed, I always try to keep an eye on online videos produced in higher ed. So, I watched it and immediately felt compelled to share it over Twitter: Twitter / karinejoly: Wow, Udel has some real talent in the Admissions Office This morning, I even got an email from a reader of the Higher Ed Experts newsletter who felt the same way and shared the link to this video. It's fun, under-5-minute long and is a...
Read MoreMy latest UB column is now available in the November/December issue as well as online: "How to YouTube with Success: Six tips for optimizing online videos" Here are the 6 tips: 1. Get listed on YouTube EDU. 2. Make videos that are easy to share. 3. Choose keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and tags for the videos. 4. Produce context-rich videos. 5. Don’t ignore your most fervent video fans—and critics. 6. Add closed-captioning. University Business: How to YouTube with Success I wrote this column a couple of months ago, after writing this post on how closed captioning can make a big difference but long before YouTube made...
Read MoreOnce again, I've rallied Mark Greenfield, the driving force and new owner of the Uwebd Ning website and Stewart Foss, the owner of eduStyle to create a single survey to poll our respective community members (that would be you ;-). As we did last year, instead of polling our respective members in our own little corners of the Web, we agreed to launch a grouped survey to find out what makes the higher ed web and communication community ticks and how our respective websites can better serve this group. Higher Ed Experts/eduStyle/CUwebd Survey - 2009 :: This survey has about 25 questions (but...
Read MoreIt looks like the incredible success of the lipdub produced by students from UQAM in Montreal, QC (more than 2.5 million views as of this writing) has pushed some institutions in the US to finally join the university lipdub movement. Texas State University in San Marcos did its lipdub on November 8th in the LBJ Students Center with about 30 students. Lisa Duncan, University Marketing videographer was behind the camera. Twitter / kymfox: @TXSt students are doing a lipdub The lipdub is available on Vimeo: Texas State University - San Marcos Lipdub There is also an interesting making of produced by the University...
Read MoreThis year, several institutions have chosen to produce special videos to welcome freshmen on campus. I've already written about "It's Your Turn" from Missouri S&T, but today I'd like to share the video from Imperial College London in the UK. At 3 minutes and 36 seconds, this video does a great job at presenting the institution, its history (that part actually is reminiscent of Missouri S&T video's treatment), its academic programs, facilities and even main research projects. So, just take the time to watch it, it's really worth it. This video was created and produced by Pamela Agar's team at Imperial College. Pamela and...
Read MoreSince I started this blog in February 2005 with its version 1.2, WordPress has become one of (probably the) best online publishing tool out there. Can you believe version 2.9 will be released in a couple of months? Naturally, as higher ed print magazines have started to go digital or even paperless, more and more college editors choose WordPress to power the online version of their publications. Swarthmore College Bulletin is a good example of this trend. Swarthmore College Bulletin (October 2009) That's why I asked Nathan Stazewski, Web Multimedia Specialist at Swarthmore College's Communications/News & Information Office, to answer a few...
Read MoreHave you seen NC State's Twitter page yet? Launched last month, it aggregates all the official twitter accounts on a single easy-to-use web page. NC State on Twitter - NC State University It looks sharp and really user-friendly. Wish you could have a similar page for your institution? Well, stop dreaming and send a thank-you email to the nice folks at NC State as they have decided to open-source the code powering their neat Twitter page. But, before downloading the code, take a minute to read the short interview I conducted with Jason Austin, Senior Solutions Implementation Engineer NCSU - OIT - Outreach Technology (that's...
Read MoreAfter Bates College last month, Duke University unveiled its new homepage on October 1st. The last design was done in 2006 and had definitely a Google-ish kind of look. Duke Homepage (2006) With the new design Duke's homepage look and feel is less unique, but it is definitely more user- and content-friendly. Stories - told through text, photos and videos - are a big part of this new homepage (like for Bates). Home | Duke University (2009) What is also great about this new homepage is that it is running on the open source CMS, Drupal and was mostly developed internally. Ben Riseling...
Read MoreLast week, I attended the rehearsal of Dave Olsen's webinars on how to create a mobile website for your university in 24 hours or less. And, I'm happy to report that he has really done a lot of work to make the implementation of MIT Mobile Web very easy through the integration of some Google services. In just a few edits, you can get a mobile website for your institution complete with a campus directory, news, campus map and a calendar of events. It is really amazing and definitely worth the registration fee with the time you will save -...
Read MoreA frightening and yet interesting thing happened to Rachel Reuben from SUNY New Paltz a few days ago. The Facebook page she created 2 years ago for her university disappeared. Rachel tried everything to get the page back as she explained in a post she wrote last week:Feeling Naked: A Tale of the Disappearing Facebook Fan Page. Long story short: Rachel finally got her page back but not the 5,000 fans - although Facebook has since let her know that they are investigating the issue. SUNY New Paltz | Facebook This incident and especially the lack of responsiveness from Facebook definitely put...
Read MoreMy new UB column is now available in the October issue as well as online: "Social Media Measurement 101: A seven-step plan to set up (and benefit from) a simple social measurement program " Here are the 7 steps: 1. Define measurable goals for social media activities. 2. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) carefully. 3. Plan ahead and properly set up the right measurement tools. 4. Capture the data at preset intervals. 5. Don’t forget some benchmarking. 6. Share your measurement data. 7. Use measurement data to craft your next moves. Social Media Measurement 101 If you are a University Business reader who...
Read MorePreviously AVP of Marketing and Public Relations at his alma mater, the University of Florida, Joe Hice started to work as the chief communications officer at NC State University last week. What's really interesting here is that Joe has decided to share his first 100 days on the job through his new professional blog (he used to blog at The Gator Grotto) cleverly named HiceSchool Blog. HiceSchool Blog So, if you ever wondered how it felt to start a new job at this level, check out the blog. You might learn a thing or two along the way. You might even offer...
Read MoreThis is one of these posts I have to write as soon as possible. I was working on my weekly newsletter when I checked very quickly Twitter and saw this tweet from Mike Richwalsky about an online video: Twitter / Mike Richwalsky: Great 1-take video from UQAM. Great coordination + shooting. Mike knows online videos, so I checked it out and you should too (if you haven't already seen it on CNN): It's a great 1-take 4-minute video that was produced in just 2 hours and 15 minutes. Really great work with close to 200,000 views on YouTube at the time of this writing. But,...
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I wrote about Dave Olsen's achievement in developing a mobile website for West Virginia University in just 19 days using MIT Mobile Web open-source platform. Dave spent some time customizing the existing code (that's the beauty of open-source projects) to integrate Google services and reduce the implementation process to just a few hours. I followed his progress very closely and asked him if he would be willing to share lessons learned and his shortcuts with the higher ed community. Dave agreed. As a result, he will present a 2-webinar series next month on how to build a...
Read MoreHave you seen Bates College's new homepage? You should check it out. It is really different and innovative. Bates College Not because it uses fancy graphics or animations, but because Jay Collier and his team at Bates College have decided to make this redesigned homepage more than just a collection of the usual navigation scheme, useful links and beautiful campus photos. So, what makes it so different? Among other things: The way stories - real stories about students, faculty and staff told through blog posts, photos and news in a section called Bates Views - are featured on this homepage. The navigation scheme The...
Read MoreI'm postponing the registration deadline for next week's webinar series: Online Videos 360 (September 15, 16 & 17) to this Friday (September 11) at 1PM ET. For more info and to register, you can visit www.higheredexperts.com/onlinevideos360 This 3-webinar series will be presented by Mike Richwalsky (Allegheny College), Liz Giorgi (University of Minnesota) along with one of the biggest names in higher ed web accessibility, Glenda Sims, from the University of Texas at Austin. Register for Online Videos 360 Webinars! "Online Videos 360" is a 3-webinar series intended to teach you how to improve your web videos to help you reach more viewers by...
Read MoreTwo days ago, I had the chance to attend the rehearsal of the webinar Glenda Sims will present on September 16: ADA-Compliant Web Videos 101: How to produce and publish online videos accessible to people with disabilities Glenda is a true accessibility champion. Her presentation does a great job at providing the reasons why accessible online videos are important and how easy it can be to provide closed captioning. Lately, I've been browsing some of the YouTube channels listed on the YouTube EDU portal, and out of the 40 I've reviewed up until now, only 2 or 3 offer videos with closed...
Read MoreConcordia University's John Molson School of Business has used online videos to promote its Graduate Program in Business Administration with great success. I stumbled upon this mini-series composed of 4 different YouTube videos last week and found it very compelling. What I like about these videos is their punch, simple call-to-action (go to the website) and authenticity - it doesn't get more authentic with current students from JMBS talking right to prospective students. Really great work and great acting talent. That's why I contacted the manager of Concordia's YouTube channel to find out more about it. Shelagh Peden, Information & Project Coordinator at...
Read MoreYep, you've read correctly. It's not a typo. Web Services professional technologist Dave Olsen managed to develop the mobile version of his institution's website in 19 days thanks to a lot of hard work and Mobile MIT, the platform developed for its own use and made available earlier this year for free by MIT. Launched today along with an iPhone application developed separately by a WVU student, the mobile version allows users to search the WVU directory, stream WVU radio station U92, browse a campus events calendar, get University news and sports updates and link to WVU’s You Tube channel. You can check...
Read MoreLast week, Andrew Careaga, director of communications at Missouri S&T, shared on his blog a really great video his team had developed to be played at convocation at the request of the alum association. Didn't get a chance to watch the video? Take 4 minutes to watch a really cool take on 140 years of history at Missouri S&T: This video was the result of the hard work of Mindy Limback (who wrote the script) and Tom Shipley, Mr. Video Production at Missouri S&T. Tom was nice enough to answer a few questions about how this video was produced, so you can...
Read MoreDon't know if you've noticed but YouTube released about a month ago a new feature available by default for all the videos it hosts (unless you disable it): Data and Statistics. As explained on the YouTube Help Center's section about Data and Statistics, this new feature is meant to "show you what factors are driving the video viewcounts on the site" and can be used to better understand how other videos became popular and learn how to grow your own audience and increase the popularity of your uploads. When available, Statistics and Data can actually tell you a lot about how...
Read MoreIf you read this blog, there is no doubt you know how important online videos have become in the higher ed marketing and communication mix. With YouTube, iTunes and others, your target audiences have come to expect to be able to watch news and interesting things happening at your institution. Anybody can now upload a video to YouTube (even from a mobile phone) or Facebook, but what does it take to create better and more viral videos? Moreover, as most universities and colleges (especially public ones) need to make sure their web content complies with the American Disability Act (ADA), what...
Read MoreDuke University has done it again. With "Office Hours," a new series in partnership with Ustream launched today at noon ET, the institution has found another great way to showcase the expertise of its faculty. The idea - put a professor in front of the camera for an informal Q&A with the university community and Ustream viewers - looked interesting on paper (well, I mean on the web) when I saw the announcement yesterday on Duke Today. Ariely to Launch ‘Online Office Hours’ Series Friday at Noon That's why I was in front of my screen today at noon ET to see if its...
Read MoreLately, the higher ed community has been taken by the Twitter storm. I've heard and read a lot about the importance to add Twitter to the communication mix with students, alums and other target audiences. While I'm a big fan and a daily user of Twitter (you can follow me @karinejoly), I'm still not sold on the rapidly spreading idea that it should be a priority to set up a "Twitter plan" for an institution. If your institution has done everything else, I guess it does make sense to go for the extra credit. However, if your website is a...
Read MoreI love conferences. Unfortunately, I can't go to all of them - especially when they take place in Europe. So do most of you, I bet. That's why I really enjoyed watching earlier this morning the live stream of the keynote given by Professor Derek Law (University of Strathclyde) at the IWMW 2009 conference held until July 30 at the University of Essex in the UK: Headlights on Dark Roads Headlights on Dark RoadsView more presentations from Iwmw Iwmw. IWMW is THE web conference in the UK. The organizers have done a great job at integrating social media and video streaming to...
Read MoreMy fifth UB column for 2009 is now available in the July/August issue as well as online: "The ABCs of Mobile Marketing: Words to know in exploring this new frontier in higher education marketing" The ABCs of Mobile Marketing I added a QR code to the column, but it got resized at printing time - which made it impossible to be properly decoded (a real shortcoming of the technology, BTW) by the QR code reader on my iTouch . This is why I'm adding it below if you want to test the technology. The QR code above points to the page featuring...
Read MoreAs reported on the Chronicle's blog, Campus Wired, the giant of online course management system, Blackboard, has announced yesterday at its user conference BBWorld its acquisition of the start-up Terriblyclever Design LLC specialized in mobile application development and behind the MobilEdu suite. Blackboard paid about $4 million for this small company started by students from Standford. In May this year, while I was working on my upcoming column about mobile marketing for University Business, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions to one of the co-founders of Terriblyclever Design, Kayvon Beykpour. 1) Before launching your business, you were students....
Read MoreUPDATE: I've decided to postpone the initial registration deadline to this Friday - July 3rd, 2009 - to allow you to use your 2009-2010 professional development budget if you're interested in this series. To register, visit www.higheredexperts.com/stopthepresses Just a quick reminder about the next 3-webinar series (an updated version of the series that was given last year) I put together for Higher Ed Experts: Stop the Presses: How to go digital with your magazine or newsletter. July 7, 8 & 9, 2009 - Registration closes on June 29 (next Monday) www.higheredexperts.com/stopthepresses This series should interest you if you're in charge of news-oriented print publications...
Read MoreWhat I really like with Twitter is that it's a great medium to get answers to most questions. Earlier this week, I asked a quick question to the people who follow me on Twitter - and the general Twitterverse: Twitter / karinejoly: Quick question: Why and what do you retweet? I got a few answers to my question, but nothing that could help me get a better understanding of the practice of retweeting. @mgraca: @karinejoly Any message I want to spread from the Wheaton College account, as well as interesting items from people I follow. #pleaseRT @davidlmulder: @karinejoly I retweet anything that...
Read MoreIn higher education, we don't like to talk about money, especially about how much students have to pay to get an education. Until recently some institutions didn't even want to display a clear price tag on their offerings (to avoid sticker shock?), and made prospective students and their parents chase the information about costs on their website after a real treasure web hunt. Things are changing though - because of the economic situation, but not only - as more and more university websites now feature cost and financial aid calculators demanded by students and their parents. While most non-profit institutions don't like...
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