The Future of Student Services Will Be Decided By Today

1
The Future of Student Services Will Be Decided By
Todays First Graders

• Susan Hallenbeck, Ph.D.Product Manager,
  StudentDatatel, Inc.

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The entering class of 2020 was born in 2002

• This was probably the last year of the Millennial
  cohort (which started in 1982)
• We dont know what the next cohort will be called
  yet

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Demographic Realities
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U.S. Public Non-Public HS Graduates
Source Knocking at the College Door, 2008
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On the other hand
Source National Center for Education Statistics
Projections of Education Statistics to 2014
(September, 2005)
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The MillennialsUnique Cohort Characteristics

• Sheltered
• Special
• Confident
• Team-Oriented
• Conventional
• Pressured
• Achieving

Source Millennials Go to College (2nd Ed.), by
Neil Howe William Strauss, 2007
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The MillennialsProtected/Sheltered

• Perception of children shifted with this
  generation
• Parents saw school and societal violence,
  disappearing children, and child predators as
  real threats
• Children take fewer physical risks, have less
  unstructured time

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The MillennialsSpecial

• Parents and family life focused on the children
• Parents are more involved with their childrens
  lives and decisions
• 54 of parents report spending more time with
  their kids each week than their parents spent
  with them at the same age

Source Millennials Go to College (2nd Ed.), by
Neil Howe William Strauss, 2007
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The MillennialsConfident

• Millennials are optimistic, and parents seem
  intent on keeping them that way
• 1.9M Google hits for teenagers confidence
• In 2006, 78.2 of female teenagers said they were
  definitely or pretty sure they would achieve
  their ideal jobs (65.5 for males)

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The MillennialsTeam-Oriented

• Expect group projects, used to playing on teams
• Peer pressure is usually positive
• Social networking reflects their passion for
  staying connected
• Believe that people should be concerned about
  others and respect one another

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The MillennialsConventional

• Very close ties to parents
• Share important information, feel they can
  confide in parents
• 76 of teens say their values are very or
  mostly similar to those of their parents

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The MillennialsConventional

• Believe that government, teachers other
  authority figures have the answers
• Value traditions and rituals
• 61 of college freshmen say they pray weekly 28
  pray daily

Source The Spiritual Life of College Students,
HERI (2004), available at http//spirituality.ucl
a.edu/spirituality/reports/FINAL_EXEC_SUMMARY.pdf
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The MillennialsPressured

• 53 of GenX parents say they push their kids
  harder to do well in school than their parents
  did
• 75 of parents and 81 of students strongly
  agree/agree that Having a college degree is more
  important today than it was for my generation/my
  parents generation

Source Millennials Go to College research (2007)
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The MillennialsPressured

• Want to avoid making mistakes
• Academic major
• Career
• Not interested in winging it
• Concentrate on résumé-building
• Tend to have long-term plans for their lives

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The MillennialsAchieving

• Want/need lots of feedback
• Expect to be rewarded
• Want to be challenged
• Until 2005, SAT scores showed steady increases
  for Millennial cohorts

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MillennialsNot Just Students

• By 2020, the oldest Millennials will be 38
• The primary cohorts among parents of college
  students will be Millennials and Generation X

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How is Life Different for Millennial Kids?
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What is it about online gaming?

• Fast-paced
• Highly interactive
• Artificial intelligence
• Socially engaging

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From Knowledge to Search

• Weve reached the point in our cultural
  adaptation to computing and communication
  technology that the younger generations are so
  empowered they are impatient and ready to
  jettison institutions most of the rest of us
  think of as essential, central, even immortal.
• They are ready to dump our schools.
• - Robert Cringely

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Communication patterns are changing

• e-mail
• Texting
• IMing
• FACEing
• Blogging

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9 out of 10teens use Social Networking sites to
keep in touch with those they see frequently
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Its about keeping it real

• Emotional
• Unpredictable
• Always different
• Colorful characters
• Authentic

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Where are Students Going for Info?

• Turning to social networks
• Younger audiences trust peer networks over
  professional marketers
• They will create extensive communities and seek
  information from these networkseven though they
  have never met IRL

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Social Media Generational Differences

• As customers, Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers are more
  volatile and high-maintenance than any other
  generation in history. They are voracious in
  their desire for immediate information and have
  sophisticated behavioral approaches to filtering
  that information, no matter how many sources it
  comes from.
• Paul Gillin, The New Influencers (2007)

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What kind of address book would you give to this
generation?
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Over 300 Million accounts worldwide
and over 45 million UNIQUE visitors in October,
2007
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• I used to use Instant Messenger, but now I
  mostly use Facebook to communicate with people.
  I use email for, like, reaching my coaches or
  uncles older people. Otherwise its either my
  cellphone or Facebook.
• -- Emily Siegel, 16, Alexandria, VA
• Source The Washington Post Magazine, March 16,
  2008

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Blogs
Technorati tracks over 112 MILLION blogs
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Sample Blogs
8,979 results for college admissions
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Seeking authentic voices
One of my seniors is trying to decide between
ABC University and University of XYZ. Both great
schools. But she is worried that XYZ is out in
the boonies and that she will be missing some
opportunities. So we start looking at what
opportunities she is seeking and how to check
this out. We checked both schools. XYZ had
blogs...students writing about their experiences
at college.
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• The XYZ blogger just happened to blog about a
  couple of things that were key to my student
• Internshipswhat are the opportunities
• Grad schoolspecifically getting into an
  MSW--again she helps make real that you can
  study anything and still go into an MSW
• Residence hallsmy student has been led to
  believe that the residence halls may be party
  places....but she blogs about the different
  residence halls and offers up her opinion.
• Now, I do not know if my student will take XYZ
  over ABC, but that is not the point. The point is
  that she has found authentic voices to explore
  her interests and concerns through.

Source NACAC listerv, April, 2008
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• 48 of Internet users have visited video-sharing
  sites
• Daily traffic to such sites has doubled in one
  year
• 15 of respondents said they had visited such a
  site the previous day

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Student Life Videos

• Short, to the point
• Probably aimed at prospective students
• Could also be useful during student activity
  fairs, etc.

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E-Commerce and Lifestyle Retail

• Amazon, iTunes, Netflix
• Predictive
• Adaptive
• Based on collaboration filters
• Uses the community to help drive sales

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The key theme for social networking is

• Collaboration and communication

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Implications for Higher Education
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Students First

• Build, maintain and reinforce community
• Use technology to enhance on-line and off-line
  relationships
• Blogs
• Portfolios
• Discussion forums
• Online personas
• And keep it highly interactive

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Students First

• Use learning communities, first-year experience
  programs
• Provide frequent feedback, inside and outside the
  classroom

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Students First

• Concentrate on the future Heres where we will
  take you
• Customized communication keep it personal from
  admissions prospect to graduation
• Continually demonstrate the value and benefit for
  the individual (WIIFM?)

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Remember Demographic Issues

• Increasing college participation from lowest two
  quintiles of SES
• Potentially underprepared
• Will need extra guidance and advising, increased
  learning support services
• Customer service expectations

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And Then the Parents

• Remember that Millennial and Gen-X parents will
  be the norm
• Students and parents will likely demonstrate a
  lot of the same characteristics and expectations

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Helicopter Parents
becoming personal trainers
I tend to use the phrase parents as personal
trainers. Its more than just hovering. In
deans offices, its much more common to meet a
student and have a parent sitting there join the
meeting as well. The student says I invited my
parents to the meeting because I think it would
be good for them to hear how I am doing. - Fred
Wood, Vice Provost, UC Davis
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NSSE Results Parental Involvement

• 13 of first-year, 8 of senior-year students
  reported parents frequently intervened on their
  behalf
• Both first-years and seniors had frequent
  contact with parents/guardians, and pattern of
  contact was consistent

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NSSE Results Parental Involvement

• Students with helicopter parents
• Reported higher levels of engagement more
  frequently using deep learning activities
• Had greater satisfaction with their college
  experience
• Reported greater gains on several desired college
  outcomes
• Had significantly lower grades

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Recommendations for Parents

• Show/demonstrate the social aspects and outcomes
  of your college as well as the academic
• How will their children fit in?
• What social/networking opportunities exist?
• What are the professional/grad school attendance
  rates?
• Career opportunities/achievements of graduates?

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Recommendations for Parents

• Find a way to deal with FERPA issues
• Develop a streamlined waiver process
• Review curriculum does it address career
  preparation/grad school prep concerns of parents
  and students?
• Emphasize career counseling services

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Recommendations for Parents

• Be aware of financial concerns
• Be prepared to demonstrate ROI
• Show concrete benefits
• Parents will increasingly demand accountability
  and transparency
• Parents expect real-time results, customer service

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Theyre on their waywill you be ready?
Susan Hallenbeck, Ph.D.Product ManagerDatatel,
Inc. slh_at_datatel.com