Social media in learning, especially as a component of student recruitment and engagement is immediately relevant to my current workplace. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the student recruitment team mainly pursued in-person opportunities such as university fairs, campus open house events, and school visits (travelling to high schools and colleges to present to students.) Since the implementation of multiple lockdowns, recruitment has relied heavily on online recruitment events, webinars, virtual college fairs, and social media. Where students used to call or email the admissions team with their inquiries, they can now contact the team through email, live chat, and social media. What is integral to our functions is that the general email inquiries, live chat, and social media posts are created and responded to by current students. In regards to our work-study students who are trained to provide correct admissions information and appropriate guidance to prospective students, the impact is two-fold: firstly, the prospective student is able to obtain answers to their questions quickly; secondly, they are able to connect and hear from a current student directly. This reflects Weller’s note about the use of social media to increase student recruitment as the voice of our current students can provide valuable insight into their student life and experience. We consider this a value add and will purposefully ask our student staff to provide suggestions for future projects, and review our webpages and flag any information that is confusing from the student perspective.
On the contrary, the university remains steadfast in their traditional approach to undergraduate education. Weller (2020) indicated that one of the three aspects of Web 2.0 that can impact higher education is granularity. In other words, dividing the learning content into smaller chunks and repackaging the degree to be finished within a more flexible timeframe as students migrate into the online learning environment. For years, the university has offered online lecture recordings to supplement physical lectures, as well as some fully online courses. Additionally, in the current pandemic situation, many of our international students are unable to arrive on campus for their first class in September. As such, the university is offering the majority of the Fall semester courses online. This way, students are able to begin their studies on time. However, the university maintains that they are a brick-and-mortar institution and students are expected to attend the physical campus in January. Surprisingly, this lack of flexibility and granularity resonates in some of our students’ responses as well. Many of our international students who need to study online for the first semester are upset that they cannot attend the campus. They indicated that if they had to study in an online program, they would not have chosen to attend our university. This raises many questions about the students’ motivations to attend our university, and potential reasons behind the institutional decision to remain “offline” despite the growing interest in online education.
References
Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of Ed Tech. Athabasca University Press.
Hi Jolee,
thank you for sharing an insightful post relevant to the work you do. I found interesting the responses you are getting from your international students, you mentioned “They indicated that if they had to study in an online program, they would not have chosen to attend our university”. I personally do not think that your University is doing anything wrong by offering an online solution due to the current pandemic, out-of-control situation we are living in. In fact, in many cases it has been the only way to continue offering programs under current circumstances. On the other hand, I do believe that one of the biggest motivators for International students that pursue higher education here in Canada is the opportunity to work at least part-time while taking full-time course loads of Post-Secondary Education (not English courses). Students from some countries may not be able to afford fully the cost of a program if they were to work while studying in their countries of origin. I think that those comments are coming more from external considerations rather than the offerings of the university you represent. I would love to know your opinion.
Thank you for sharing!
Luis raises an important point with respect to the many reasons that different groups of students choose different kinds of programs, universities, locations, and modes of study. It is difficult to separate the pandemic – and the current state of it – from all this, so it gets messy. However, the socialization aspects of university are important to some students, and for international students being able to participate in a different culture is significant. Is there something specific about your institution that makes you question why students would want to attend in person?
Hi Luis and George,
Thank you for your comments and great insight on some of the potential sources of motivation for international students. Through my experience with the recruitment team at this campus, I know that a large component of our sales pitch is the campus experience. Additionally, there are certain disciplines in which students would benefit more in-person, such as our biology and chemistry courses that are accompanied by practical lab sections. I think my question is not so much about why the university wants students to attend physically, but more so, why the university is not offering more courses online in addition to their on-campus sections. For example, our introductory psychology lectures are routinely recorded for students to review the lecture online. Aside from hosting the 300-seat lecture sections, why not allow students to choose the online section as a standard option beyond the pandemic? Typically, the course follows the format of 3 hours of lecture per week followed by a multiple choice mid-term and final exam. With the right technology and access, a student with the appropriate technology and internet access could technically complete the entire course online.
Thank you for this Jolee!
When you talked about a “lack of flexibility and granularity”, it reminded me of recent remarks made by the President of the organization where I work. She spoke about the certification training process to become a senior level manager in a nuclear power plant. It is a very rigid process that does not permit time, for example, for a woman to take maternity leave, or she would be “booted from the program”, which has become a career breaker for many women over the years. Combine that with the historical construct of university undergrad programs that you’ve mentioned, as well as Khoo’s remarks about the broken nature of education that we saw in LRNT 521, do you feel that the current pandemic is enough to break up these old, patriarchal, and misogynistic practices, or will we just go back to the old practices as soon as possible? Your comment about the university maintaining that it is a “bricks and mortar” institution and resistance to being fully online, plus the new openness to student communication in the first half of your post is what got me thinking about this.
References:
http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/presentations/president-velshi-remarks-nea-gender-balance.cfm
https://oer19.oerconf.org/sessions/welcome-from-the-co-chairs-and-keynote-by-su-ming-khoo/
Thanks for your connection to the certification training process of your organization. I am wondering what that training program looks like – how much of it could be completed online? What is the reason for the time restriction on the completion? I feel that the current pandemic has opened up the opportunity for institutions and employers to think about new (and more flexible) practices. Yet, just this week, I have been asked to return to the physical office again even though I could perform my entire role from home. Once a week for September, twice a week starting October. I want to point out that not every employer is scrambling to go back to the old ways though. My previous employer announced more than half a year ago that staff are not required to work in the office unless they want to. Instead of continuing their lease on a second office space to accommodate all of the employees, they are investing in work from home technology because their metrics have shown that employees are equally (if not more) productive working from home since the first lockdown. In terms of education, I think there will be many factors to consider. We may see a shift in the domestic cohort if online learning became the norm and they could now access international universities with ease. On the flip side, factors like the campus experience, preference for learning in person, and the need for hands-on experience in labs and tutorial sections will continue to drive the need for on-campus learning.
My employer has also announced that we’ll not be required to go back to the office and that managers who go back to the office won’t be requiring their direct reports to go in just because “the boss” is in. For someone like me who works at a regional office and not at HQ, this is HUGE and has already opened up opportunities that I would not have been able to access before.
The issue with the training program that I referenced is that it’s heavily regulated and making changes will require by-in from the regulator, as well as large organizations like Crown Corporations. Needless to say, this will not happen quickly, which means that perhaps one more generation of women will lose out on opportunities needlessly.
We’ve made lots of changes in the past year and a half and we have more to make, but it’ll take time. The “traditional approach” you mentioned isn’t going away just yet, for undergrads or professionals.