Blogs & Wikis

I stumbled on the UBC Admin Blog thanks to Martine Lafleur who shared its link on Twitter.

Yesterday, I took the time to explore this recently launched group blog aimed at enabling further dialogue between senior administration and students at the University of British Columbia.

While president blogs have been around for some time (President Michael Crow from ASU was one of the trailblazers, President John Meada at RISD has also been doing a great job at blogging), I hadn’t come across a blog by senior administrators that hold as many promises as the UBC Admin Blog (Well, Joe Hice’s Hice School is also a great blog, but I’ll put it in another category as Joe is a communicator by trade).

Frankly, what I found really surprising and interesting in the UBC Admin Blog was to find UBC VP of Finance, Resources, and Operations among the bloggers.

In those tough budget times in higher education, it’s pretty rare to see the people in charge of budget cuts get up front and personal to try to initiate open dialogue with students and other constituents.

The UBC Admin Blog — The administration connecting with students online.

Anyway, here are a few things UBC is doing right with this blog:

• A short video introduction from each blogger on the About page of the blog.
  It helps put a face on a name and can also help promote civility by reminding readers they are interacting with real human beings.

  Here’s the video introduction from Pierre Ouillet, the Finance VP.

• A great moderation policy highlighting in plain English what is ok and what is not when it comes to comments and available from one of the top navigation tabs of the blog.
  
• A conversational tone as shown in the first post written by Ouillet, From transparency to dialogue, and the direct reply to the comment of an international student about budget on his second post.

What do YOU think? Has your institution done something similar? Let us know by posting a comment!

You’ve probably heard about the eduStyle awards. There has been a lot of buzz around these awards organized by eduStyle.

Well, now is the time for you to vote and choose the people’s choice awards in different categories including the two in partnership with this blog and yours truly.

So, without further ado, here are the nominees in these 2 blog categories:

For the Collegewebeditor.com Best School Sponsored Blog Award (including blogs submitted in the student and institutional blog categories – Cast your vote!):

Biola University – Biola Blogs

Cornell University – Lab of Ornithology – Round Robin Redesign Blog

Imperial College London – Student blogs

For the Collegewebeditor.com Best Higher Ed Blog Award (Cast your vote!):

.eduGuru

Karlyn Morissette

mStonerblog

SquaredPeg.com

Tales From Redesignland

You might have heard that tomorrow (April 15, 2009) is the last day to nominate blogs for the eduStyle annual awards.

This year again, I’m supporting the blog category of the awards.

As I explained in a previous post, anybody can nominate blogs in the student and institutional categories by just following the instructions on this web page.

For both categories, there will be 2 winners: the people’s choice and the choice of a panel of judges (including yours truly).

For the best higher ed blog award, it’s even easier. You just need to fill out a simple online form with the name and web address of your favorite blog. You can even nominate several blogs.

In this last case, this is only a popularity contest as the Collegewebeditor.com Best Higher Ed Blog award will only be awarded by a popular vote (but, there’s nothing wrong with that, right? ;-)

You need to nominate higher ed blogs though by tomorrow (April 15, 2009). In the sake of helping you with your picks (hey, especially since THIS blog is excluded from the contest because it has already its name on the award), here’s a list of 10 deserving higher ed blogs (in no particular order) that haven’t – to my knowledge – ask for your nomination yet.

I’ve taken the time to set up the links for you, so you just have to click on the “Nominate it” link(s) and hit submit to nominate any (or all of them):

BUT, FIRST MAKE SURE YOU’RE LOGGED IN IN THE EDUSTYLE WEBSITE.

• Andrew Careaga’s blog – Higher Ed Marketing: Nominate it!
• Andy Shaindlin’s blog – Alumni Futures: Nominate it!
• Lev Gonick’s blog – Bytes from Lev: Nominate it!
• Drew Stephens’ blog – College Web Guy: Nominate it!
• Tony Dunn’s blog – Tales from Redesignland: Nominate it!
• DW’s blog – The Old College Try: Nominate it!
• Michael Stoner’s blog – mStonerBlog: Nominate it!
• The Chronicle’s blog – Wired Campus: Nominate it!
• University Business’ blog – UB Buzz: Nominate it!
• Nick DeNardis’ video blog – EDU Checkup: Nominate it!

If you want to help other blogs to get more nominations, feel free to post your pitch and a link in the comments below. Just make sure you do it by April 15, 2009 – end of the day.

I had 2 announcements related to higher ed blogging awards, so I thought it made sense to bundle both in a single post.

First, I’d like to announce the 20 finalists of the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest “popularity” phase that ended yesterday:

• al-jamiat.com
• blogs.oc.edu
• christine.smcbloggers.com
• dontwasteyourtime.co.uk
• eironae.com
• elearningpundit.com
• heidicool.com
• highedwebtech.com
• highered.prblogs.org
• higheredmarketing.blogspot.com
• isupportuoregon.org
• karlynmorissette.karlyn.me
• killjill.wordpress.com
• learnqtp.com
• murcha.wordpress.com
• nick.smcbloggers.com
• sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org
• simpsonscarborough.com/blog
• teachingcollegeenglish.com
• ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

The next step will be for the judges of the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest (Matt Herzberger, Stewart Foss and yours truly) to evaluate the quality and originality of the entered blog posts. After compiling these evaluations, we will announce the winner of the grand prize – the $1,500 scholarship – as well as the lucky winner of the 2 other prizes – the $500 door-prizes – drawn among all the contest entries on April 15.

You have until April 15 to nominate your favorite higher ed blogs (institutional, students and best higher ed blog) to participate in another popularity contest (well, the institutional and student blogs will be judged, but as far as the best higher ed blog goes, only a popular vote will be used): the collegewebeditor.com/eduStyle blogging awards.

Here’s the page explaining how you can nominate a blog for the CollegeWebEditor.com Best Student Blog and Best Institutional Blog and here’s the online form for the CollegeWebEditor.com Best Higher Ed Blog.

For this last category, the rules are a bit different:

This category will be awarded as a “people’s choice” award only (not judged). Any blog related to higher-ed qualifies. Blogs maintained by judges of the eduStyle awards may win this award with the exception of “CollegeWebEditor” and the “eduStyle Blog”. Judges have no influence over the winner in this category. You may:

* Nominate as many blogs as you like
* Nominate your own blog
* Use any means you can conceive to encourage people to nominate your blog

Limit of 1 entry per blog per user of eduStyle.

I got the tip about AU web redesign launch yesterday in an email from Maralee Csellar, Acting Director for Media Relations at American University.

As explained in the top news story available on the homepage, New Site Launches, Will Change AU Communications, the whole redesign process started in the summer of 2006 took more than 2 years.

The project required well over 25,000 hours work by more than 125 AU staff members in 20 departments across the university before coming to fruition on March 30

Interesting features of this redesigned website include:

• AUpedia, a wiki directly integrated in the website and available right from the homepage
• An amazing virtual tour section including a virtual map integrated with “My 5 Faves” videos as well as several other videos including close captions and the whole shebang – probably an example to follow if you’re working in virtual tours although I can’t imagine how much such a beautiful thing costs.
  
• The section AU by the numbers at the bottom of the homepage – it’s easy to implement and quite powerful.
  

What do you think?

About 2 months ago, I was interviewed for a CASE Currents’ article about digital magazines for alums.

The article written by Douglas Vaira, Living a Digital Age, has been published in the March issue (but is only accessible to CASE members), so I thought some of you might be interested in my answers to Vaira’s questions.

As far as digital magazines, where does the future lie?

I think we’re going to see more integration between print and digital publications. Given the shrinking budgets reported by many higher ed institutions, print magazines are going to take a hit in circulation, size, etc. When it was asked to find ways to save money to face a state funding cut in 2007, the University of Florida decided to take a hard look at its publication budget. At that time, I was asked to conduct a comprehensive audit and provide recommendations. Using this study as a starting point, UF has since been able to save more than 1 million in printing, postage and related costs.

However, I don’t think digital magazines should/will replace their print counterparts or even just mirror them. There is an opportunity to provide an even better experience to readers in a more cost-efficient way by making both media work together. Until digital paper becomes a fact of life – which will happen sooner than we think, it makes sense to keep printing magazines for alums, but maybe not as we’ve been doing it for the past 15 or 20 years. I think we really need to start designing magazines using an integrated approach with print and digital sections, with monthly/quaterly more in-depth features and daily/weekly electronic updates, with great copy and beautiful photo spreads and shorter text augmented by videos or slideshows.

What are some of the advantages of going digital?

There are several advantages of going digital. With digital magazines, institutions can skip altogether the costly and time-consuming printing process (as well as the increasing postage costs). It becomes possible to cover events in a timelier manner. Space isn’t limited by a set number of pages anymore. You can also provide a more comprehensive experience to readers including text, images (lots of images), video or audio interviews but also welcome/nurture instant feedback. Digital magazines especially in the form of Websites can become 2-way communication channels. Another advantage of digital magazines is the fact that you can get a very good idea of what your readers are actually viewing/reading. With the technologies available on the Web, it’s easy to find out where readers are clicking, how long they spend on a page, and the type of topics they are interested in by just checking analytics reports. Readers can also access very easily archives.

What are some of the issues or challenges you’ve seen with the format?

However, there are also some disadvantages with digital magazines. With so much information – and so many distractions – available on the Web, there’s a bigger chance to miss the reader. Even if you publish the best digital magazine in the world, you’ll still need to attract – and retain – readers. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to digital magazines or websites. It’s true that people can find you on the Internet easily by using a search engine, but you got to give them a compelling reason to search in the first place. That’s why these digital magazines require to be promoted on other channels: emails, postcards or other mailings. When an alum gets a print magazine in the mail, s/he won’t probably throw it right away into the recycling bin even if s/he doesn’t have time at that specific moment. A digital version might not be that lucky.

What are some best-practice ideas you might be willing to offer?

The recommendation I would make is to try to come up with an integrated approach using print and (a real – i.e. web-based) digital versions altogether, build both version as distinctive but complementary parts of a same magazine. Ithaca College has done something very interesting with a magazine targeted to prospective students, FUSE, that includes a print version and a digital version built using their web content management system. The digital version is updated more often, but the print version has definitely its place. The readers — the famous digital natives — have expressed a strong interest in the print version, proving that this isn’t the dead medium we thought it was.

It’s also important to offer possibilities for readers to subscribe to updates on their terms via email, RSS or even by pushing updates on Facebook and other social media tools (Twitter comes to mind). If you can keep printing your magazine, ask readers if they would prefer to receive it in their inbox instead. Some might find it more practical and more environment-friendly. Don’t launch a digital magazine without incorporating from the beginning some ways to measure traffic, reader behaviors, etc. If you have to go paperless (from print to digital only) for budget reasons, tell your readers in the print magazines and offer them the opportunity to be notified by email about new issues.

If you’re planning to go digital or paperless with your magazines, you should consider attending “Stop the Presses,” a 3-webinar series presented by editors who took this path. You can get more info about it at www.higheredexperts.com/stopthepresses

Isn’t this headline quite a teaser?

I stand by it though as this is also a good way to look at the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest.

As I’ve explained on this blog a few weeks ago, I’m managing this contest targeted to edu bloggers. It’s open to the “usual suspects” of the higher ed blogosphere (you know who you are – and if you aren’t registered yet, hope you’ll do it before the deadline next Tuesday), but also to any of the bloggers writing for your institution.

The only 3 requirements to enter this contest are 1) to write a post about online education or education online, 2) to include the contest badge in the entry and 3) to fill out the form available on the contest page.

While the contest is sponsored by Online College, a website about online education, these posts written for the contest don’t even have to be in favor of online education – and can also help promote what’s going on at YOUR institution.

• If your student bloggers think that studying on campus is the only way to get an education, they can discuss their opinion in their contest post.
• If some of your faculty bloggers teach online classes at your institution and want to write about their experience in a post, they can enter the contest.
• If some of your staff members passionate about academic technology want to blog about the future of education in this online world, they can submit an entry for the contest as well.

What I’m trying to say is that there is plenty that can be written about education online or online education, and I’m sure the folks blogging for your institution would love to get an opportunity to win one of the 3 scholarships.

Think it’s not even worth trying because of the numbers of A-list bloggers already entered in the contest?
Even if I find it hard to understand, as of this writing, we only have a dozen entries – which means that with 3 prizes to win, any interested edu blogger has a very high probability (we’re not even talking about chances) to grab at least $500.

I know most edu bloggers don’t do it for the money (hey, if we were we would be blogging about something else), but I would really love to see a bit more entries for this contest, you know, just to keep things interesting for the jury.

So, go read the rules on the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest page. Share this post with your bloggers or go write your own entry if you’re a blogger.

The deadline is next Tuesday – March 17.

This is the third installment of my new series dedicated to vendor deals and other bargains to help you survive and thrive with tighter budgets.

After a very interesting offer to send up to 10,000 email per month for free for institutions with non-profit status and a discount on a conference fee for the next Xpert Summit taking place in Las Vegas later this month, I’m writing about an offer to try a new blogging hosted service based on WordPress MU and especially customized to the needs of students blogging program: MyCollegeBlogger.

Created by Tom Williams’ company, Innogage, MyCollegeBlogger looks like a good solution to implement quickly a blogging program for prospective students by current students – if you don’t have web servers supporting PHP and MySQL or the geeks who go with the server and are looking for an out-of-the-box solution.

Here’s a 90-second video presenting the service:

I met Tom last November at the AMA Symposium, and he talked about his service over the dinner we shared with Karlyn Morissette.

While Tom picked up the tab for that dinner, you probably know – if you’re a regular reader – that it does take far more for a vendor to be highlighted in a post on this blog (actually, the only way is to offer you, my dear readers, a good deal). But, when I announced the new vendor deal series, Tom emailed me with a nice offer for you – hence, today’s post.

What’s the deal?

Tom is extending an extra free month of service (regular beta users get 3, you’ll get 4) and has agreed to wave the custom set up fee – a value of $2,500.
So, if this service is a good fit for your institution, you get to save close to $5,000.

What does the fine print say

You’ll have to provide some feedback to help Innogage improve the service.

How do you get started?

If you’re interested, just email Tom and mentioned you’re a reader of collegewebeditor.com.

And, if you’re a vendor or a consultant and would like to be featured in a next post of this series, just prepare your best special offer and email karine@collegewebeditor.com

I’m currently working on my next column for University Business to be published in February 2009. This article will present 10 very practical tips to do more (or as well) with less (budget, people, time, etc), which explains why my main focus lately has been on the economic downturn and its consequences for higher education.

Even though economic crises can usually translate into positive outcomes (increased enrollment with many laid-off workers going back to college to upgrade their skill set), I have serious doubts about it in this specific case.

Didn’t the whole thing started with a financing meltdown?

The New York Times seems to agree with me today (not personally, but still) on this point in an article about a recently released report, article published today on its website: “College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.”

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all started to feel the pinch that is going to spread to our profession and industry. But, I’m wondering if you’ve already been asked to work on a similar type of the crisis communication website I stumbled upon this morning: Wesleyan’s “Securing The Future” website.

In the last update dated November 25, 2008 of this website launched in October, Wesleyan President Michael Roth even went on camera – in a short online video – to share an update about the current situation of the college budget and finances.

The website includes updates by the president, frequently asked questions and links to several posts Roth wrote about the topic on his blog, Roth on Wesleyan.

Have your top executives started to use the Web to communicate on this tough topic as well?
Do you think this is a good idea? Tell us by posting a comment.

Here are the slides and links for this workshop I gave on November 16, 2008 at the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education

Workshop Slides

Workshop Links

All the links
Blogs examples
Interesting articles

UPDATE: after my workshop, I was invited by Tom Williams from Innogage to answer a few questions live on Ustream. Tom decided to cover the conference by broadcasting some live videos with speakers over his Ustream channel every day – There were a few people asking questions via chat and the session was recorded. I’m addressing a few points about blogging and you can also see what a 4-hour long workshop can do a speaker ;-)

Live TV : Ustream