Archive for June, 2010
What's great about flying across the country to attend a conference is the quality time I can get with my laptop. I meant to post about this great initiative for more than a month now, but I couldn't find enough quiet time to write it. My apologies. Back in April, Nicole Sweeney Etter from Marquette University's magazine brought to my attention a great online video that had been produced by a group of current students. Marquette Magazine published an article about this group, The Spanish O'Donnells, as it had "developed quite a campus following for their pop parodies and YouTube music...
Read MoreThis week, I spent a couple of days at The Mirage in Las Vegas to attend the Educomm conference, the conference put together by University Business publisher. Originally EduComm was targeted to AV, IT and academic computing teams. They still seem to compose the majority of the conference attendees (with a total close to 1,000 according to UB Editor, Tim Goral). However, the conference has been trying to attract the Web Marketing and Communication crowd for the past couple of years. With 2 of the 5 tracks focused on social media and digital marketing, EduComm has made a real effort to provide...
Read MoreAs you've probably noticed, online videos are used more and more by universities and colleges trying to reach (and entertain) prospective students and their parents. According to a report released last Thursday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, The State of Online Video, 69% of online adults now watch videos online. The use of musical videos is more recent and seems to have been inspired by a few very successful lipdubs as well as the phenomenal success of the TV show Glee. Yale's video comes to mind, but it hasn't been the only one. I posted about Delaware, The Musical...
Read MoreYou might have heard about it after Facebook developer conference, F8, back in April but the new Facebook Analytics dashboard was officially rolled out on all accounts a few hours ago. You can access it from www.facebook.com/insights. One of the really cool new feature is the possibility to add a bit of code to your website to link it to Facebook Insights to get some real data on how your fans interact with your own web content. Want a quick (well, 15-minute long) tour of this new feature? Just watch this video recorded at F8. Fast forward at 4'30 and stop around...
Read MoreMy latest UB column is now available in the June issue as well as online: "Embracing Web Analytics: Why and how to get a web analytics revolution started at your institution" In this column, I'm trying to make the case for the Higher Ed Online Analytics Revolution I mentioned last month on this blog. Among other things I share a few examples of how some institutions used insights provided by Web Analytics to improve their websites or their online videos. If you're trying to convince your boss or your team that using Web Analytics should be at the top of your priority list...
Read MoreI'm really excited to announce that Dave Olsen from WVU has finally decided to blog at Mobile in Higher Ed. Dave did a tour-de-force last summer by developing in 19 days WVU mobile website. Last year he used the MIT Mobile platform. He has kept modifying the platform ever since to make it easier to adapt. Mobile in Higher Ed - for when i need more than 140 characters On August 4, Dave will present an updated and improved version of the 2-webinar series he gave last October for Higher Ed Experts, Going Mobile: How to Develop your Higher Ed Mobile Website. The...
Read MoreWith all the current buzz around the professional use of Twitter, Facebook or YouTube in admissions, alum offices or institutions at large, it's hard to believe that social media has been around in higher ed for 5 years or so. While MySpace isn't the talk of the (campus) town anymore, it played an important role - a few years ago - in this social media tsunami. At that time, danah boyd was already studying and researching these websites -- and her work made me think about the possibilities for admissions marketing practices back in February 2006. More recently, I shared...
Read MoreWhether you're working on a big redesign project or have embraced a more iterative redesign approach, usability testing should be considered as one of your web work cornerstones. I'm sure you've already read or heard that testing with only 5 users will provide you great insights to improve the usability of your website (Gosh, I even wrote a post about a conference session about this -- 5 years ago ;-). That's why there is no reason for skipping Do-It-Yourself usability tests. In a column about the topic published on May 24, 2010, usability expert Jakob Nielsen explains that it's a good idea...
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