Lindsay Blair, Jane Duffy, Stefanie Landsman, Colleen Ruppert

1
The Evolution of Technology and Student Affairs

• Lindsay Blair, Jane Duffy, Stefanie Landsman,
  Colleen Ruppert
• University of Connecticut

2

• In order to foster student development,
  information technology must encourage and foster
  the development of social connections between and
  among individuals and groups. Rather than replace
  the college campuses, information technology must
  be designed to strengthen and expand on the
  college learning community. -Treue Belote,
  1997, p. 22

3
Program Overview

• Introduction
• Technology and its Impact on Student Affairs
• Marketing
• Customer Service
• Community Building
• Interactive Multimedia
• Assessment and Evaluation
• Closing Thoughts

4
Computer Technology Timeline

• 1984 Apple introduces the Macintosh computer
• 1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released
• 1987 Email link established between Germany and
  China
• 1990 Toshiba announces the SPARC LT, the first
  SPARC laptop computer
• 1990 First Microsoft Windows of PowerPoint
  created
• 1991 World Wide Web launched to the public
• 1992 Jean Armour Polly coins the term surfing
  the Internet
• 1994 Yahoo! created
• 1995 DVDs invented
• 1996 More email is sent than postal mail in the
  US Google created
• 1997 America Online Instant Messenger (AIM)
  launched
• 1998 Internet weblogs (blogs) begin to appear
• 1999 Napster created
• 2001 iPod introduced by Apple
• 2004 Facebook.com created
• 2007 Microsoft SharePoint Server created

5
Introduction

• Todays Students
• The use of technology is a key characteristic of
  the millennial generation, students born between
  1980 and 2000 (Raines, 2002).
• Today, traditionally-aged college students often
  have technology seamlessly woven into their daily
  lives and take it for granted.
• The Numbers
• In a 2007 study conducted by the EDUCAUSE Center
  for Applied Research (ECAR), 98 of the 27,846
  college student respondents reported owning at
  least two technological devices, most typically a
  cell phone and computer (Caruso Salaway, 2007).
• In respect to using these forms of technology,
  students reported a mean of 18 hours per week and
  median of 14 hours per week.
• Approximately 6 spend more than 40 hours per
  week engaging in some type of online activity
  (Caruso Salaway, 2007).
• Professional Considerations
• For student affairs professionals today, this
  creates both challenges and opportunities for
  engaging students and enhancing current programs
  and services.

6
Reaching Students
7
Marketing

• Purpose
• According to the American Marketing Association
  (AMA), marketing is the process of planning and
  executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and
  distribution of ideas, goods, and services to
  create exchanges that satisfy individual and
  organizational goals.
• Marketing is the wide range of activities
  involved in making sure that the organization
  continues to meet the needs of customers and
  benefits from the relationship with the customer.
• Marketing is usually focused on one product or
  service. Thus, a marketing plan for one product
  might be very different than that for another
  product.
• Each student service is a product whose value is
  determined by the marketplace, college students
  who frequently question the purpose of these
  services and other administrators who wonder how
  to measure their effectiveness (Culp, 1987).

8
Marketing

• Past
• In the past materials promoting student services
  included brochures and flyers, reaching students
  and parents through direct mailings and postings.
• However, printing is expensive and wastes both
  human and environmental resources. Posting
  flyers is not an effective way to reach students,
  and this static form of marketing may not be
  accessible to the entire student population.
• Present
• The interactivity of websites allow for
  bi-directional communication between students and
  student affairs professionals. Now, a larger
  number of students can have access to the
  information provided by a department website.
• Customers know where to go and expect to find
  information about services on designated sites.
• College networked sites give access to multiple
  services in one location.
• Emails, list-serv information, online college
  events calendars, and advertisements on
  student-run television and radio stations are
  effective marketing methods of increasing student
  awareness about available programs and services.

9
Using Web Sites for Marketing

• Today, the internet is the first place people
  look to find information about a college.
• Mission statements, services, locations, and
  professionals can all be located on a college
  website (Greenfield, 2007).

10
Successful Student-First Websites

• Developing a successful website to promote
  student services requires three distinctly
  different skill sets (1) Excellent technology
  (2) Superb graphics (3) Meaningful content.
• Typically one individual would not possess all of
  these. For example, an IT specialist, graphic
  designer, marketing specialist, and Director of
  Student Activities all contribute specific
  knowledge.
• Creating a cross-functional web-management
  leadership team with a variety of skill sets
  enables a college to incorporate various skills
  and talents in order to provide students am
  effective centralized location for receiving
  information.
• For example, creating a common user-friendly
  website where each student can personalize the
  information they wish to receive. In addition,
  designing one format for all websites at the
  college would create a streamlined visual
  experience for users.
• However, the challenge is to make it easy to do
  business with the organization in any way they
  want, at any time, through any channel, in any
  language or currency and to make students feel
  that they are dealing with a single unified
  organization that recognizes them at any touch
  point (Pirani and Salaway, 2005, p 9).

11
From Static to?
Why do I have to print this form? Why cant I
fill it out on the website and email it to you?
Four stages of website development on a college
campus

• Stage One ? Websites include the conversion of
  static brochures and program information to
  electronic formats. This is also known as one-way
  publishing. Anything in paper format can be
  posted online. Many departments create separate
  sites with little coordination between other
  departments and services (Kleeman, 2005).

12
Where Many Colleges Are Today
This is fine, but I just want to talk to someone
online right now!

• Stage Two ? Websites become more interactive and
  transactional. The ability to conduct business,
  such as filling out forms, ordering and receiving
  services, and paying fees are incorporated.
  Information is still organized based on
  departments and not personalized for each user.
• Stage Three ? Websites are experienced
  differently by each student. Personalized and
  customized websites allow the user to receive
  information based on their needs and wants. This
  begins to establish a more personal relationship
  between the student and the institution.

13
Customizable Websites and Beyond

• Fourth Stage ? Websites are highly customized.
  The use of interactive formats such as
  e-portfolios, video demonstrations, and instant
  messaging with student affairs professionals
  allow for the development of relationships and an
  enhanced community (Kleeman, 2005).

This is great! The website lets me access the
information I need and chat with a career
consultant.
14
Serving our Students
15
Customer Service

• Customer Service assistance and other resources
  that a company provides to the people who buy or
  use its products or services.
• Role in Student Affairs
• Personal interaction has been the main means of
  providing student services.
• This is a crucial feature however, technology
  offers many opportunities to complement and
  streamline some aspects of student affairs work,
  which would result in more quality time to
  interact with students (Moreno, 2007).
• This enables customer access at the students
  convenience. This is particularly important with
  the millennial generation.
• With increasingly more online course offerings,
  providing adequate student services through
  technology is necessary.

16
Customer Service and Technology

• Past
• Many services were provided by paper and pencil,
  such as record keeping, copying, database
  management, and registration forms.
• These have been moved to digital platforms. While
  the process has not changed, the use of
  technology has increased efficiency of these
  processes (Barrett, 2001).
• Systems and services need to appear
  seamless... Students need to be able to access
  their personal information on-line through some
  self-service technology students can have access
  to their personal records and information 24
  hours a day 7 days a week. This reengineering of
  service processes gives the student access to the
  right information quickly and efficiently. -
  Aoki Pogroszewski, 1998, p. 5

17
Student Affairs Examples

• Career Services Alumni network
• Create an alumni network for career
  opportunities, internships and job postings for
  alumni and current students.
• Counseling and Mental Health Virtual counseling
  center
• Provide students, faculty, and staff with an
  increasingly important resource for efficiently
  delivering content and services.
• Student Activities Club and organization
  information
• Provide online resources for student
  organizations and advisors.
• Student Activities Scheduling events
• Provide direct access to students to post events
  on a campus-wide activities calendar.
• Student Affairs Student involvement transcripts
• Create an application to track student
  involvement with clubs and organizations.
• Utilize online portfolios.
• Student Affairs Information Technology
  Customized homepage
• Create website based on an individuals interest
  For example, a psychology major can have the
  department news and updates on the side of his or
  her homepage.
• Student Health Services Appointment scheduling
• For example, provide direct access to students to
  schedule appointments with student health
  services.
• Student Union Online room booking
• Provide direct access to students to book rooms.
• This increases student involvement and
  empowerment.

18
Customer Service and Technology

• Additional benefit
• In addition to increasing efficiency, many
  offices have saved paper products and money on
  mailings because information and services have
  been moved online (Barratt, 2001).
• Potential challenges
• Student affairs professionals may not be
  adequately trained to incorporate technology into
  their work to the degree of expertise that
  students expect.
• Need for improved speed, reliability, and support
  of services provided online.
• Increase awareness about how students differ in
  their technological ability and ensuring that
  resources are accessible to all students (Caruso
  Salaway, 2007).
• Often there is limited communication and
  coordination between offices, with some offices
  lacking strength in providing customer-service.
• Typically academic and service units are
  organized into vertical functional silos, but
  students are best served across horizontal
  functional silos (Kleeman, 2005).
• If that experience is convenient,
  efficient, and student-centered, they have a
  positive reaction. If it provides a virtual
  runaround and inaccurate or outdated information,
  they have a negative one. - Shea, 2005, p. 15

19
Building the Campus Community
20
Community Building

• Community is no longer defined as a physical
  place, but as a set of relationships where people
  interact socially for mutual benefit
• - Andrews, 2002, p. 64
• Purpose
• Community building happens in the context of
  interactions between student affairs
  professionals and students on a campus. It is
  important in the higher education realm to
  improve student engagement and retention as well
  as information sharing between professionals.
• Key reasons people participated in community
  activities in person or online were to fulfill
  personal needs, to learn, and to advance the
  common good (Ludford et. al, 2004, p. 632).
• Cohesive web-based services and
  community-building tools are no longer a
  convenience they are a necessity that is
  critical to student achievement (Blackboard,
  2007, n.p.).

21
Evolution of Community Building

• Past
• Social networking was limited to primarily your
  own physical community prior to the wave of
  technology and computer access.
• According to Mitrano (2006), initial forms of
  social networking technologies included programs
  such as online multiplayer games, bulletin
  boards, news groups, and mailing lists.
• Present
• These initial technologies are nearly outdated,
  but provide a relevant backdrop to newer websites
  such as MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook.
• As technology advances, people continue to have
  the opportunity to make connections around the
  world.
• Online communities have become a social norm
  among students.

22
Student Affairs Examples

• Blackboard/Vista
• Online training for judicial affairs and resident
  assistance courses.
• Facebook, MySpace, Friendster
• Student organizations can advertise events on
  Facebook.
• Many new student orientation programs discuss the
  ethical components of online social networking.
• Customized Websites
• Resident assistants can create their own webpage
  to advertise events, send updates, and collect
  feedback from residents.
• iStudentAffairs.com, LinkedIn
• Student affairs professionals at different
  institutions can share resources and discuss hot
  topics.
• Departmental Software Judicial Action, The
  Housing Director, etc.
• These programs are used within a department to
  share information regarding students housing or
  judicial standings.
• Microsoft SharePoint
• A new tool used across institutions that enables
  file sharing, online committee work, group
  discussions, and blogs.
• Second Life
• An online 3D virtual community that allows
  students to simulate interactions with others
  through personal avatars (virtual personas).

23
A Closer Look

• Facebook is nonetheless the most significant
  social networking technology to higher
  education because of its original focus on the
  college or university market. - Tracy Mitrano,
  2006, p. 22
• Facebook
• Prior to online social networking, students came
  to college and had a bound face book for all
  first-year students including name, photo,
  area(s) of interest, and hometown.
• Today students typically set-up an account on
  Facebook before they even arrive on campus for
  first-year move-in.
• Areas of Interest for Student Affairs
  Professionals
• Online social networking raises questions about
  personal safety, content moderation, and the
  relationship between institutional missions and
  the millennial generations expectations of
  privacy.
• Institutions are receiving many roommate change
  requests before students arrive on campus based
  on Facebook impression of the assigned roommate,
  resulting in some institutions placing a
  moratorium on roommate change requestsuntil a
  required period of time spent living together
  has been met (Mitrano, 2006).
• Colleges need to be clear about how these social
  networking sites may impact their student
  employee hiring process.
• Administrators need to be upfront with the
  consequences of online computer policy violations
  for both students as well as faculty and staff.
• Student engagement can be enhanced by utilizing
  social networking technologies such as Facebook
  because of students reliance on technology.

24
The Wired Campus

• The only way to discover the limits of the
  possible is to go beyond them into the
  impossible.
• - Arthur C. Clarke, Technology and the Future

25
Interactive Multimedia

• Purpose
• Student affairs utilizes interactive multimedia
  to engage various learning styles by presenting
  information in ways that stimulate different
  senses.
• Past
• Programs, services, and information were
  presented through lecture, one-way, and linear
  communication techniques.
• Present
• Computer programs (PowerPoint), multimedia
  downloads, blogs, vlogs, instant messaging,
  podcasts, webinars, touch screens, interactive
  kiosks, and online trainings all promote active
  learning.
• Companies such as e2Campus provide colleges with
  a mass notification system utilizing text
  messages, emails, digital signage throughout
  campus, loudspeakers, PA systems, and school
  websites in order to create a safer and more
  connected campus community.

26
Multimedia Definitions

• Blog provide commentary or news on a particular
  subject others function as personal online
  diaries. A typical blog combines text, images,
  and links to other blogs, web pages, and other
  media related to its topic.
• Vlog a blog whose medium is video.
• Instant messaging a form of real-time
  communication between two or more people based on
  typed text. The text is conveyed via computers
  connected over a network such as the internet.
• Podcast a collection of digital media files
  which is distributed over the internet, often
  using syndication feeds, for playback on portable
  media players and personal computers.
• Webinars a type of web conference that can
  include polling and question and answer sessions
  to allow full participation between the audience
  and the presenter.
• Why are these useful?
• Provide bi-directional forms of communication,
  which allows for opinions and immediate feedback.
• The language used can be more informal and
  digestible (Dowdell, 2006).

27
Blogging Limitations

• Time can be wasted reading and creating
  ineffective blogs.
• Validity of source
• authors opinions may be biased.
• posting may not always be appropriate and/or
  reflect the views of the institution.
• information may be incorrect (Dowdell, 2006).

28
Student Affairs Examples

• Orientation Services
• Student orientation leaders blog about their
  experiences on campus.
• Judicial Affairs
• Downloadable video segments help students
  understand the judicial process.
• Career Services
• Students can blog about their internship
  experience or use instant messaging to receive
  immediate feedback on questions.
• Student Health Services
• Staff create podcasts of quick recipes for
  healthy eating.
• Residence Life
• Downloadable PowerPoint presentation about life
  on campus with movie clips.

29
The Evolution of Assessment
30
Assessment and Evaluation

• Purpose
• Assessment is a means for focusing our
  collective attention, examining our assumptions,
  and creating a shared culture dedicated to
  continuously improving the quality of higher
  learning (Angelo, 1995, p. 11).
• Assessment is critical for student affairs
  professionals in order to demonstrate the value
  of their programs and to continue to receive
  funding, support, and room for growth in their
  institution.
• Technology has revolutionized the way student
  affairs professionals 1. Evaluate programs and
  services. 2. Provide assessments for students.

31
Assessment Areas

• Program Assessment provides the opportunity for
  the evaluation of what services and programs are
  currently doing, how well they are accomplishing
  goals, what is still needed for students, and the
  potential for growth in their program.
• Web-based Surveys
• Utilized by student activities, residential life,
  dining services, academic departments, and other
  student services programs to obtain feedback from
  students on programs and services.
• Statistical analysis programs, such as SPSS,
  revolutionized the ability for professionals to
  assess greater numbers of respondents and utilize
  the information more efficiently.

32
Assessment Areas

• Individual/Self Assessment is the process of
  gathering information about yourself or an
  individual in order to make an informed decision.
  An individualized assessment could include
  reviewing the following values, interests,
  personality, skills, ability, at-risk status, or
  mental health conditions.
• Online Screening and Evaluation Assessments
• Often utilized by career services, counseling and
  mental health, student health, disability
  services, and orientation services.
• Provides faculty and staff the ability to review
  warning signs or to assist students in
  identifying their strengths and weaknesses.
• Provides students the ability to identify their
  own struggles and/or areas for improvement.
• Also provides appropriate resources in a timely
  manner for students to access both on-campus and
  off-campus.

33
The Evolution of Assessment

• Assessment has grown tremendously through
  technology advancements over the last twenty-five
  years.
• Past Assessments were paper-based or
  face-to-face interactions.
• Required experts to collect data, analyze data,
  create feedback and reports all by hand.
• A great deal of time from one employee or
  department needed to be dedicated to the process
  to collect the information and to utilize it
  properly.
• Examples
• Resident assistants handing out floor surveys to
  ask for programming ideas or feedback.
• Orientation leaders handing out paper-based
  evaluations to assess the effectiveness of the
  orientation sessions.

34
The Evolution of Assessment

• Present The internet has impacted the
  distribution, presentation, and quality of
  assessment of student services.
• Characteristics of Online Assessment
• Survey large numbers of students quickly and
  accurately.
• Receive timely feedback and opportunity for
  improvement of services.
• Responses can be monitored on an ongoing basis
  and collectively at the end of the assessment
  with ease.
• Assessments can be stored and used again in the
  future.
• Result comparisons can be done more efficiently
  and with more flexibility by the assessment team.
• More sustainable and cost effective option for
  institutions to gather information.
• Web-based surveys do not over extend the
  information technology department or monopolize
  the time of one individual or department to do
  the process well.
• More departments and individuals have the ability
  to create assessment tools.
• Survey anonymity and security are issues that
  must be controlled (Moneta, 2005).

35
Closing Thoughts

• As technology continues to evolve, student
  affairs professionals need to stay current with
  technological advances in order to provide the
  most efficient service to meet students evolving
  needs.
• Although technological advances provide
  opportunities for a new delivery of services, it
  is important to remember that technology can
  never completely replace face-to-face interaction
  and interpersonal relationships.
• An effective student affairs professional will
  need to maintain a balance of both technological
  and personal interaction when working with
  students.
• Information technology in student affairs
  has the potential to provide student services,
  programs, and activities that promote learning
  while also improving the quality, efficiency, and
  effectiveness of administrative operations. The
  senior students affairs staff set the tone for
  how information technology is introduced in the
  division and possibly the greater campus
  community.
• - Karley Ausiello, 1997, p. 79

36
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