How Social Networking Made the Class of 2013
About Ithaca
College
 Private, residential
undergraduate
liberal arts college
in upstate New
York
 Comprehensive,
masters one
institution
 5 schools, over 100
degree programs
 Centralized IT
organization
Faculty
463 FT / 216 PT
Staff
800 FT / 190 PT
Student FTE
Undergraduate
Graduate
6,000
400
Presentation Roadmap
• About the myIthaca Portal
• Technologies
• IC Peers
• Social Integration and Features
• Involving the Campus Community
• Outcomes & Stats
• Transition to myHome campus portal
About myIthaca
Ithaca College’s Prospective Student Portal
myIthaca Funnel
Inquirer
Applicant
Accept
Paid
Matric
myIthaca Features
Personalized Information
• Articles
• Majors of Interest
• FAQs / myFAQs
• Important Dates and Deadlines
Utilities
• Application Checklist
• Targeted Announcements
• IC Peers Social Network
• Subscribe / Comment on fuse
Technologies
Architecture
Presentation Layer (XHTML,
Javascript, CSS)
Application Processing (PHP)
LDAP
Communication (SOAP Web
Services)
Authentication
for Current
Students, Faculty,
and Staff
Business Logic (Banner APIs)
Banner (Oracle)
mySQL
Activity Logging
Social Features
User Preferences
IC Peers
Accepted / Paid Student myIthaca & Social Network
IC Peers Dashboard
• Focus on Utility
•
•
•
•
Important Dates
News Channels
Planning Guide
Places
• Focus on Community
• Social Activity
• Notifications
• Status
Social Platform
• Used a limited vendor solution in 2007 and 2008
• Don’t build it!
• Researched options (php/mysql/integrateable / ning)
• Selected SocialEngine
(socialengine.net)
• Primary effort: Integration and Data Synchronization
Why do this?
• With everyone in the world on Facebook,
why would we bother to build our own
social network?
• Limited community
• Safer / Controlled Environment
• Limited but relevant interaction with faculty
and staff
• A place to ask questions and get good answers
• Relevant search tools (that didn’t include
gender)
Benefits of Social Networking
• Enhanced communication
• Facilitates connections
• Cohesiveness of incoming class
• Smooth transition to college
• Enrollment predictions
• Potential tool for retention
Social Network Features
Private Messaging
Personal Profile
People Search
Photo Albums
Become Friends
Discussion Forums
Profile Wall Comments
Personal Status
Groups
Profile Photo
Integration
Data, Design and User Experience
Data Integration
NIGHTLY JOB
User Profile Fields
Banner
ON LOGIN
Userame
johndsmith
Major:
Biology (B.S.)
AIM:
johnnyman93
Hometown:
Boulder, Colorado
ID Number
mySQL
Session Integration
SESSION
• We linked the SocialEngine session to the myIthaca
session.
• Logging in and out affected both applications.
Design Integration
• Social Engine uses the
Smarty Template Engine
• Applied our design to Social Engine pages.
• Displayed a “user bar” which was persistent on all pages
that pulled out social network info.
Seed Users
Involving the Campus Community
Seed Users
• Alternate Login Interface
• Accounts reconciled against LDAP
• Faculty, Staff & Student
• Username format (ic_username)
• Role Badges
Seed User Activity
• Seed users were selected based
on their ability to address
known topics of interest.
• 45 Faculty and Staff seed users
selected and trained.
• All were given a specific role / responsibility
• In January, added 80 Student ambassadors
• The top 20 seed users (including six students) logged in
3135 times.
What Happened?
Reporting
• Tracking social activity
• Custom interface for extracting data (banner id)
General Stats
Activity
Count
Non-Seed User Logins
192,441
Comments Made
84,562
Friendships Made
52,716
Private Messages Sent
5,260
Profile Photos (at close)
1,824
Album Photos Uploaded
6,258
Groups Created
141
Number of Seed Users
164
Forum Topics
133
Forum Posts
778
Friendships made over time
Logins per day (by gender)
Popular Discussion Topics
• Are you coming . . .
For real?
• Admitted student
programs
• Housing conversation
• Financial aid discussion
• Orientation
• Dates, session they are attending, how to register
• Are you going to leave your boyfriend?
Outcomes
Targeted Incoming Class
1600-1750
Actual Incoming Class
2000+
45% of accepted students engaged in IC Peers,
and more than half of them chose Ithaca.
Some Feedback
• “The more friends I make on here, the more inclined I am to go
to Ithaca. it's so awesome.”
• “myIthaca is an awesome website.... helps one to get a feel of
what the Ithaca atmosphere is.”
• “Props to you and the rest of the team that created myIthaca
and IC Peers. It's a really great and unique thing for accepted
students.”
• “Thanks for helping to create myIthaca, I'm loving Ithaca more
and more every day!”
• “I wanted to say that I'm really impressed with myithaca and
its been really helpful, so thanks alot!”
Transition to myHome
Ithaca’s Portal for Current Student, Faculty, and Staff
Seamless-ish Experience
• What data should we convert?
•
•
•
•
User profile information
Friend connections
Wall comments
Photo Galleries
• Some other considerations
• Custom username -> IC username
• FERPA
Questions?
( P.S. - Thanks for coming <3 )
Benjamin Costello
bcostello@ithaca.edu
Twitter: BenjCostello