Passive Counseling:
A Plan to Supplement the
OSU Student Counseling Center
Using Social Media
2011 Virtual Case Study Team:
Léna Kavaliauskas
Scott Busiel
Jennifer Conyac
Bryan Hinnen
Oklahoma State University
Student Counseling Center Mission:
“The mission of the Student Counseling Center is
to enhance human development and maximize
students’ problem solving and decision making
capabilities so that they can make more effective
and satisfying life choices.
In accordance with this mission, the SCC acts to
support and enhance the personal, social, and
intellectual functioning of OSU students.”
Focus of Our Goals:
“…enhance human development…”
“…maximize problem solving/
decision making…”
“…support and enhance the personal,
social and intellectual functioning…”
“Enhance Human Development”
The importance and impact of counseling in is heavily supported in
human development theory- including college student development
theory- in the areas of psychosocial, cognitive, and moral
development.
Principles and best practices have parallels in general counseling and
student development literature, and indeed, are asserted in our
mission to “support and enhance the personal, social, and intellectual
functioning” of our students.
Some noteworthy examples in theory can be found on the next slide.
Numerous examples also exist in sub-areas of development, such as
racial and sexual identity development within the area of social
growth.
“Support and Enhance Personal, Social
and Intellectual Functioning”
Psychosocial: Healthy transition is guided by “situation,
self, support, and strategies” (Schlossberg, 1995)
Cognitive/Intellectual: Development is facilitated by
validating students, encouraging their voices, through
confirmation, contradiction, and continuity (Baxter
Magolda, 1992)
Moral/Personal: Exposure to conflict of opinion and
reasoning leads to moral development (Kohlberg, 1976)
“Maximize Problem Solving and
Decision Making”
Again, we can turn to student development theory to support the role of
counseling in aiding students’ decision making. Among the eleven
suggestions on how to best teach students to make reflective judgments:
“…introduce students to ill-structured problems…”
“…provide encouragement for students to explain what they believe…”
“…recognize that challenges and supports can be grounded emotionally…”
“…nurture a climate that encourages thoughtful analysis…”
(King and Kitchener, 1994)
Why Use Social Media,
(Referenced in field as “Passive Counseling”)?
• No social media is currently being utilized within the Student
Counseling Center at OSU, yet is heralded as the new frontier for
communication and revenue in mental health care (Martinez Aleman and
Wartman, 2009)
• Social media can provide additional support, or better reach students for
counseling topics such as substance use (Abar and Maggs, 2010)
• Departmental assessment has identified this as an area of growth, but it
has not yet been researched nor implemented
• Social media meets students at their generation’s preferred means of
communication (Martinez Aleman and Wartman, 2009)
• It reaches students who would not otherwise seek resources (Farrell, 2005)
• Social media is effective as marketing tool and as a supplement to other
more direct means of contact (Kraus et al., 2004)
Social Media Application Trends
in University Counseling:
Live chat: Students interact live with in-house or off-site counselors
through a secure chat link. Interaction occurs in real time.
Leader in the Field: University of Texas
Online self-assessment: Students complete an electronic survey to
determine their needs. This can be used as an intake tool or to
encourage foot traffic to SCC.
Leader in the Field: University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Electronic appointment scheduling: Students access counselor
availability through an online schedule and request system.
Leader in the Field: Coastline Community College
Strategic Plan:
Implementation at Oklahoma State
1. Utilize online self-assessment
2. Generate live chat forum
3. Establish electronic scheduler
4. Create Facebook page as marketing tool
Plan for Implementation:
Prototype for OSU Counseling Home Page
To conserve resources and encourage student traffic on the familiar
site, we have simply modified the existing Oklahoma State Student
Counseling Center site.
Original Artwork
by S.B.
 The new home page will feature links for new online counselor chat,
online assessment, appointment scheduler, link to Facebook page
1. Utilize Online Self-Assessment
Online self-assessment is a tool used to assess students’
needs of counseling resources, whether general (staff
appointment) or specific (substance use cessation) .
Such assessments are a means of allowing students to
determine their own level of need and validating their
concerns, as well as a way to encourage students to
traffic the SCC. Depending on the assessment specificity,
it can be used for client intake.
The assessment queues an automatic follow-up to
further encourage students to pursue resources in the
SCC.
Prototype of Self-Assessment Page
The orange button begins the assessment, which is a series of
questions designed to determine student need of SCC resources.
Artwork
by S.B., inspired
by UW- Eau Claire
Counseling
Services
 Progress is tracked on the right. When the assessment is complete,
students are be provided with information to schedule an appointment, if
one is needed.
2. Generate Live Chat Forum
The purpose of the Live Chat is to provide fast,
convenient outreach to students, particularly those
whom might not otherwise seek out counseling
resources.
The Live Chat Forum will be monitored and used
by SCC counseling staff, as well as graduate
student intake staff.
Live Chat will field student concerns and
encourage students to follow-up with more active
resources, including face-to-face contact with a
counselor.
Prototype of Live Chat Page
 Students can contact counselors via instant messenger. Clicking
on the home page link directs them here:
Original Artwork
by S.B.
The central box serves as the client/counselor dialogue area. Links to
additional SCC resources are provided on both margins.
3. Establish Electronic Scheduler
The Electronic Scheduler will be utilized by
students in order to schedule face-to-face
appointments with Student Counseling Center
staff.
Student client s will be able to see the availability
of multiple counselors in order to accommodate
their schedules. This will combat one commonly
cited reason for not utilizing the SCC: scheduling
concerns or perceived availability.
Prototype of Online Scheduler
 Employing the same system used by Oklahoma State academic colleges
and advising, this online scheduler gives students access to counselor
availability, and will be easily implemented into the SCC site by the OSU IT
team.
Artwork
by S.B., inspired
by online scheduler
 Student can click on allocated appointments. Once a time is taken, it
is shaded so to indicate that it is occupied. Students can reference their
selected time(s), indicated by the orange blocks on the schedule.
4. Create Facebook Page as Marketing Tool
Because of the risks of using a non-secure social
media tool in the sensitive area of student
counseling (see later slides), the purpose of a
Facebook group page is for marketing uses only.
The goal is to provide information about
programming, existing services, and resources
available to students.
The link to Facebook on the SCC website will
provide a marketing tool to students with
resources by harnessing a student trend.
®
Strategic Plan:
Cost Projection
• Live Chat Forum: While dozens of software companies contract to
create these, OSU IT can create and implement this using the secure
campus server at the cost of staff labor.
• Online Self-Assessments: This will be the most time-consuming step
of implementation, and may have up to a semester-long projection of
part-time labor before readiness.
• Electronic Scheduler: Several campus departments currently use this
technology, and IT has acknowledged that it is quickly and readily
adaptable for the SCC.
• Facebook Page: No cost; created and monitored by SCC graduate
student intake staff
*** Implementation of social media/passive counseling will have a very
low cost of implementation, and the investment of IT labor is a wise
investment for the promotion of SCC resources and the health of our
students.
Strategic Plan:
Timeline
March 2011: Strategic plan approved by Vice President for Student Affairs
April 2011: Meeting of Director of Counseling Services, Webmaster, and
OSU IT staff to discuss implementation
Summer 2011: Beta run of Online Scheduler; Development of Live Chat
and Online Assessment
August 2011/Fall 2011: Beta run of Live Chat and Online Assessment
May 2012: Meeting of Director of Counseling Services and Institutional
Research to determine effectiveness of social media/passive counseling
in Oklahoma State Student Counseling Center
Challenges and Questions of Implementation
(With informed rebuttals)
*Are we meeting students where they are, or enabling a
culture of socially deficient students? (Martinez Aleman and
Wartman, 2009)
*Assessment: new technology = difficult to assess
This is new territory, but the lack of social media
use in the SCC affords us the opportunity to find other
ways to meet student needs
*Availability of funding and personnel
See Cost Projection- little to no cost is anticipated!
Challenges and Questions of Implementation
(Continued)
*Legal implications of passive counseling: confidentiality,
information security
The newness of this technology and lack of legal
precedent has resulted in our use of all secure sources and
reserving Facebook use for marketing, not counseling
*Passive counseling is not as effective as face-to-face contact,
as it is important for counselors to understand to
implications of their words due to the lack of ability to
read non-verbal cues (Kraus et al., 2004)
We use it as a supplement and means of encouraging
and funneling student traffic to the SCC
Challenges and Questions of Implementation
(Continued)
*Possibility of technological failure
 Staff will discuss reliability with patient prior to the
chat or discussion, as well as provide a plan of action
including phone numbers or other ways of contact
(Kraus et al., 2004)
*User comfort with technology
Training sessions will occur prior to the use of online
counseling, and sources made easy to use for clients
and counselors (Kraus et al., 2004)
Conclusions
The use of social media is unforged territory for the Oklahoma State University
Student Counseling Center.
As evidenced by collegiate counseling centers across the country, supported
by student development theory and literature, and identified by our own
departmental assessment as a logical next step, use of this resource will allow
us to reach a wider range of student-clients, as well as to bolster our offerings
with an alternative ways of providing consistent care.
Each of the challenges of implementation and use can easily be combated,
further asserting the potential for social media use in our organization.
Current in time and technique, and with a low to zero cost of implementation
and overhead, social media meets the SCC’s budget constraints.
 Evidence overwhelmingly supports the implementation of social
media/passive counseling in the Oklahoma State University Student
Counseling Center.
References
Abar, C. and Maggs, J. (2010). Social influence and selection processes of normative
perceptions and alcohol use across the transition to college. Journal of College
Student Development, 51, 5, 496-508.
Baxter Magolda, M. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: Gender-related patterns in students’
intellectual development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Farrell, E. (2005). Need therapy? Check your inbox. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 52: 17,
A35.
King, P. and Kitchener, K. (1994). Developing reflective judgment: Understanding and promoting
intellectual growth and critical thinking in adolescents and adults. San Francisco: JosseyBass.
Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental approach.
In T. Lockona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior: Theory, research, and social issues
(pp. 31-53). New York: Holt.
Kraus, R., Zack, J., and Stricker, S. (2004). Online counseling: A handbook for mental health
professionals. London: Elsevier.
Martinez Aleman, A., and Wartman, K. (2009). Online social networking on campus:
Understanding what matters in student culture. New York: Routledge.
Schlossberg, N. (1995). Counseling adults in transition (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
Special thanks to the staff of the Oklahoma
State University Information Technology
Help Desk for answering our budgeting
questions
All embedded artwork by S. Busiel