Transcript Slide 1

Social Media and the Residence Life Department
Jesse Saunders, Student Success Learning Community member
INTRODUCTION
The Residence Life department is one of the most criticized
departments on campus, mainly because students spend
most of their time here on campus in the residence halls.
We can’t do much about some of the criticism of their
experiences living in the residence halls. For example,
according to the Educational Benchmarking, Inc. (EBI)
surveys that we conduct every year with our residents,
dining services and timeliness of repairs are some of the
residents’ main concerns about living in the residence halls.
However, there are a few things that our department can
certainly improve in, and communication with residents is
one of those things.
According to our EBI survey results, a few of the residents’
main concerns have to do with communication between
residents and residence hall staff members. For example,
the greatest negative statistically significant difference
between our data and our select 6 institutes’ data (colleges
that we selected who are closest in profile with our
university) is for the following question: “How satisfied are
you with your student staff member on your floor regarding
efforts to get to know you.” Of the top ten questions with
the greatest negative statistically significant differences
for our university as compared to our select 6 institutes,
eight have to do with the interaction between residents
and residence hall staff members. Some other examples of
questions we didn’t score very well on are:
“How satisfied are you with your student staff member on
your floor regarding communicating rules and regulations?”
(On a scale of 1-7)
“How satisfied are you with your student staff member on
your floor regarding efforts to get to know you.”
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Select 6 Institutions
“How satisfied are you with your student staff member on
your floor regarding gaining your respect.”
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“How satisfied are you with your student staff member on
your floor regarding helping with a problem.”
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Select 6 Institutions
“How satisfied are you with your student staff member on
your floor regarding availability.”
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SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION
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A recent study done at Johnson and Wales University
revealed that 68% of students spend more than 6 hours on
social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter daily.
Only 12% of students spend less than 2 hours on social
media websites daily. Other studies mirror the same results
which is that today’s college students are hooked on social
media websites. The question now is not whether we
should use social media to reach out to college students,
but how well we can use it.
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RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2011
www.PosterPresentations.com
Select 6 Institutions
1) A thriving dorm community in which residents and
residential advisors keep in touch through social media
and in-person contact.
2) An improvement in the data from the 2011-2012 EBI
surveys as compared to the data from the 2010-2011 EBI
surveys.
3) Results from the end of the Spring 2012 semester survey
showing that residents see an improvement in the
effectiveness of the partnership between residents and
the Residence Life department.
RESEARCH QUESTION
1) Do you want to see the Residence Life department set
up a presence on a social media network?
2) Which social media network would be most appropriate
for the Residence Life department?
3) Would you use the Residence Life’s social media page as
a way to keep informed about Residence Halls policies
and procedures?
4) Would you be willing to keep in touch with your
Resident Advisor through a social media website?
Based on the information gathered, my proposed research
question is to look into the use of social media (i.e.
Facebook and Twitter) as a way to establish a better and
stronger interaction between the Residence Life
department and the residents of our residence halls.
Select 6 Institutions
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Our intended results are:
SAMPLE OF SURVEY QUESTIONS
The following are some sample questions I plan to ask:
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INTENDED RESULTS
Some schools experience great success with the use of social
media websites but others struggle to get their efforts off
the ground. Some of the strategies that schools have found
to be effective include:
1) Develop a strategy and set goals.
2) Pick and choose a platform.
3) Bring together people through already existing
communities online.
4) If using Facebook, pick between a user page, group page,
fan page and update often.
5) Write about things that people ask your department about
often.
6) Allow Residential Advisors to build a relationship with
residents through social media.
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Facebook is the most common social media website used
with 98% of universities using it. Twitter is the 2nd most
popular social media website with 84% of universities using
it.
The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth has
conducted studies over the past few school years to
determine how many universities were using social media
as a way to reach out to prospective and current students.
In 2007-2008, 61% of universities reported some usage of
social media. In the most recent study done in 2010-2011,
100% of universities reported the use of social media.
OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
Currently, the Residence Life department has no social
media accounts. I’d like to take a look at Residence Life
departments at other universities and see how they are
using social media to form better connections with their
residents. I’d also like to see if there is any data out there
that shows an improvement in residents’ satisfaction with
their universities’ Residence Life departments after the
implementation of social media as a way for residence hall
staff members and their residents to communicate and
interact.
My objectives are:
1) Survey residents and Residential Advisors in all dorms
and ask if forging a connection through social media will
help build a stronger and more effective partnership
between residents and residential advisors.
2) Set up appropriate social media accounts (i.e. Facebook
and Twitter) as a way for Residence Hall staff members to
forge connections with their residents
3) Use social media accounts as a way for residents to
communicate their concerns, feedback, and so forth with
specific dorm staff members.
4) See an improvement in the data from the 2011-2012 EBI
Residents surveys as compared to the data from the 20102011 EBI Residents surveys.
5) Conduct a survey at the end of the 2012 Spring Semester
to see if the use of social media has impacted the
effectiveness of the partnership between residents and
residential advisors.
REFERENCES
Lytle, Ryan. 2011. Imagining College Life Without Social
Media. US News and World Report. Retrieved from
http://www.usnews.com/education/bestcolleges/articles/2011/10/28/imagining-college-lifewithout-social-media
Klamm, Dan. 2011. Six Best Practices for Universities
Embracing Social Media. Mashable Social Media. Retrieved
from http://mashable.com/2011/10/10/universities-socialmedia/
Barnes, Nora and Lescault, Ava. 2011. Social Media
Adoption Soars as Higher-Ed Experiments and Reevaluates
Its Use of New Communications Tools. UMass Dartmouth.
Retrieved from
http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesandresearch/socialme
diaadoptionsoars/
Cabellon, Ed. 2011. Residence Life 2.0: Community
Building. Prezi. Retrieved from
http://prezi.com/5jsa8v_brz12/residence-life-20community-building-through-social-media/