2012 Student Affairs
Virtual Case Study
Presentation Created By:
Chris Hardin,
Ross McClure, Britteny Alspach, & Ashley Cooper
Introduction: Middle College Social Media
Proposal
Objectives:
• Highlight effective/cutting edge ways social media can be used for
student learning and co-curricular development on campus
• Help educate students about “professional consequences” and
incivility in an appropriate and developmental manner
• Utilize past literature and best practices
The following Presentation includes student development theory and
past literature highlighting the pros and cons of social media, effective
uses of social media, and guidelines to policy making concerning social
media. The presentation also includes screen shots and links to the
Middle College website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pintrest accounts
where the students and campus members may actively engage in
educating themselves on the challenges and benefits of social media,
as well as using it responsibly.
Theoretical Basis
• Astin’s Theory of Involvement and Kuh’s Theory of Student Engagement
• Both theories are formed by research focused on examining the level of
involvement or engagement the student experiences throughout their
collegiate career
• Researchers found that student learning is directly proportional to the
quality and quantity of student involvement
• The effectiveness of an institution/practice is about the capacity of the
institution/practice to use the level of involvement to increase student
development
• Knowing the research supporting Kuh’s and Astin’s theories, institutions,
departments, and university professionals can utilize social media to foster
student involvement
• Social media can provide opportunities for students to connect to faculty,
other students, student affairs professions, course material, study aids,
and much more
Middle College Website
(See following slide)
• Our group has created Middle College website
in order to provide a visual aid.
• Off of this main website page, students could
navigate to a social media headquarters site
containing pros and cons to social media
usage and a civility pledge for those who
choose to use social media.
Positives of Utilizing Social Media
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Making connections and building relationships
Visual & Graphic presentations
Empowers individuals to absorb and create content
Encourages creative branding
Ongoing feedback
Fosters the sharing of knowledge & resources across
platforms
• Easy for alumni to stay in touch with each other and
the campus
• Helpful for job searching or networking opportunities
Issues of Utilizing Social Media
• Misuse or poor displays of social media
etiquette
• Eliminates face to face interactions
• Not everyone is familiar with social media
• Social media can be distracting from work,
academics, etc.
Positives of Face to Face
• Proxemics
– Study of nonverbal communication
– Large contributor to the understanding of
conversations
• Relationship building
– Relationships are primarily formed from face to
face interaction, not in the use of social media
Working Together
• Social media complementary to face to face
conversation
– Social media allows instantaneous communication
• Advertising
– Face to face for personal interactions
– Social media is useful in mass communication
• Information Sharing
– Social media is used to share topics and passions
with followers
How to Avoid Pitfalls and Focus on
what’s Important
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Introduce the purpose of social media
– Policy should focus on what employees can rather than what they can’t do
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Be responsible for what you write
– Representatives should take responsibility for what they write and exercise
good judgment and common sense
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Be Authentic
– Include your name and when appropriate, your company name and your title.
People believe those who they know and trust
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Consider your Audience
– Remember that your readers include current students, potential students as
well as current/past/future employees. Make sure you aren’t alienating any of
those groups
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Exercise Good Judgment
– Good judgment is paramount regardless of whether an employee/student’s
online comments relate directly to their job.
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Understand the concept of community
– Your community shouldn’t be an environment where competition is
encouraged or emphasized but rather a platform where your
students/employees feel comfortable sharing, connecting and receiving help
Guidelines for Policies
• Familiarize employees/students with the employment/student
agreement and policies included in handbooks
• Policy applies to multi-media, social networking websites, blogs and
wikis for both professional and personal use
• Postings should not disclose any information that is confidential
• The disclaimer should contain something like, “the views expressed
are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Middle
College”
• Internet postings must respect copyright, privacy, fair use, financial
disclosure and other applicable laws
• Middle College reserves the right to request that certain subjects
are avoided, withdraw certain posts, and remove inappropriate
comments
Questions Regarding Consequences
and Social Media Guidelines:
• How do we respond to negative comments
online?
• What is the line between professional and
personal?
• How will we monitor and enforce the policy?
• Do we need a different policy for students, staff
and administration?
• How will we evaluate new social media tools as
they come up?
Social Media on the Cutting Edge
• Experts can only hypothesize what the next social
media website will be.
– While not being able to predict the next website, they
can identify trends.
• The current large scale social media sites are
striving to improve engagement.
– It’s no longer about just posting content, but being
able to integrate everything.
– Through this, they tailor the experience to each user
through data collection.
– For example, “your friend read this article, maybe
you’d be interested too.”
Social Media on the Cutting Edge
• Utilizing already popular sources of social
media, student learning can be enhanced
through creativity.
– Use YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook,
FourSquare, and Daily Booth to post:
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Notes
Study guides
Homework
Chat topics
Check Us Out!
• Middle College Website Link
• Middle College Twitter Link
• Middle College Pintrest Link