Measuring Educational Success Thru Retention

Measuring success in business tends to revolve around the amount of profit a company generates. Lots of other calculations are used to measure the performance of a business, as an investment professional will surely say, but put simply the goal of business is to make a profit.

Education has not achieved such a focal point for measuring achievement. While some would surely argue that student's grades are the ultimate measure of educational achievement, many have pointed out that grades are influenced by many factors. Simply put learning is not easy to measure.

To help provide some measures of performance colleges and universities have tended to adopt the following three key performance indicators (KPI): retention rate, graduation rate and employment rate.

I have recently become curious to know how student service programs influence these KPI's, especially since university executive (and governments) have adopted retention, graduation and employment rates as some of the primary measures of success. To help understand the KPI's one of my staff has compiled a list of KPI's for Ontario universities. We are now working to gain an understanding of how some student service programs influence these measures.

I thought I would share the retention rate information here that was collected on Ontario universities to help raise awareness and see if others in Student Affairs understand how their work influences retention rate.

• Brock University (2007) - 86.6%
• Carleton University (2007) - 86.7
• Lakehead Univesrity (2007) - 86.7
• Laurentian University (2007) - 83.4
• McMaster Univesrity (2007) - 86.2
• Nipissing University (2007) - 84.5
• Ontario College of Arts & Design (2006) - 85.6
• Queen's University (2007) - 94.7
• Ryerson University (2006) - 87.4
• Trent University (2007) - 81.5
• University of Guelph (2007) - 90.2
• University of Ottawa (2006) - 87.6
• University of Toronto (2007) - 90
• University of Waterloo (2007) - 88.5
• University of Western Ontario (2006) - 91.1
• University of Windsor (2008) - 80.1
• Wilfrid Laurier University (2007) - 88.9
• York University (2006) - 87.9

Book on Canadian Student Services Coming

Check out this post from CACUSS Reads to find out about a forthcoming book on Canadian Student Services titled Achieving Student Success: Effective Student Services in Canadian Higher Education by Donna Hardy Cox and Carney Strange.  Its due out in February.  

Canadian Higher Ed Groups

Most student affairs professionals are aware of the associations that help us share knowledge, learn and network. In some ways its analogous to student groups that can be found on every college or university campus. I thought I would share a list of links to some of the associations in Canada that come to mind in case some people are not aware of them:

• Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC)
  
• Council of Ontario Universities (COU)
  
• Association of Universities & Colleges of Canada (AUCC)
• Canadian Association of College & University Student Services (CACUSS)
• Ontario Association of College & University Housing Officers (OACUHO)
• Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO)
• Colleges Ontario
• Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (STLHE)

Any additions?

Taking Orientation Online

I am fortunate to work with some highly committed and innovative people who produce some great programs, activities and services. One such area that has made great strides in recent years has been the orientation program. In fact, the O-team was approached by Academic Impressions to participate in a webcast so they can share some of the innovative approaches they used to develop their online orientation strategy this past year. The webcast is being offered in March 2010. Click here to find out more.

Painting the Picture of Higher Education's Future

Taken together the two article below paint one possible picture of the future for higher education. Jeffery Simpson's Tough times for public institutions provides a clear outline for one of the core challenges that colleges and universities in Canada, among other public institutions, must face in order to solidify their financial foundation. My Provost has made the same point on more than one occasion.

In Reigning in College Costs, Micheal Bassis describes a new model that he suggests will improve quality while cutting costs by leveraging new technology that is now available. Michael Bassis is the president of Westminster College in Salt Lake City.

To me it certainly seems like higher education is at the beginning or in the midst of some significant change if you consider the funding shortfalls and new technology available today that can (& will) enhance learning. One of my blog posts from this past February, called Student Affairs Needs Fundraising Staff, showed that funding for higher education in Canada has been falling for four decades and the recent recession would seem to indicate that it will not be reversed anytime soon.

The following quote from Bassis' article suggests that Student Affairs could have a place in his model because of our expertise in high touch interactions, "instruction combining online and face-to-face elements (called hybrid or blended learning) was more effective than either purely face-to-face instruction or purely online instruction. In short, the report documented that high tech plus high touch works best. " Student Affairs must make strategic choices to take advantage of this opportunity because, as Bassis points out "Ultimately, it is not the technology but the new practices that the technology enables which will revolutionize learning."

Are You Using Your Whuffie?

Was watching an episode of TVO's The Agenda a couple months back titled Wired 24/7 and one of the panelists was a Saskatchewan-born Marketing Consultant & author Tara Hunt. I had never heard of her before, but I was impressed with some of the things she had to say and I discovered that she had recently published a book. Curious to find out more I ordered her book which is called The Whuffie Factor.

After completing the first chapter I thought I'd share a few of my observations and thoughts on how I believe it can be applied to the work of student affairs professionals. Hunt has clearly written the book for business, especially those in marketing, but the concepts can easily be applied to higher ed.

She talks about using many Web 2.0 tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc. At first I thought she was not going to introduce many new concepts or ideas, but she started to share the little things people are doing to leverage the power of these tools. To many people these subtle changes in approach would not mean much, but its becoming clear to me that they can be quite powerful. For example, Hunt used her online network of people to help design the cover of her book. At first this may not seem like any great feat, but her approach increased her confidence in the message she was trying to convey, allowed her to leverage the expertise of others and she increased the sense of ownership others felt for her project. Outcomes many of us look for in our work.

She outlines whuffie as follows, "Relationships and connections over time lead to trust, which is the key to capital formation. The capital I'm talking about, though, is not of the monetary variety. It is social capital, aka whuffie, and a social capitalist is one who builds and nurtures a community, thereby increasing whuffie." This explanation seems pretty straight forward, but if we examine our approach to increasing whuffie in higher ed using Web 2.0 I think we would realize its not as easy as it may seem at first.

Let me wrap up this post by sharing one realization I've had about student affairs professionals using Web 2.0 to increase whuffie. One of the primary roles of a student affairs professional is to develop community at their school. In general this is accomplished by getting students and other community members together in a face-to-face environment. When it comes to using Web 2.0 we use it to support our traditional approach of bringing people together face-to-face. This is all fine and good, but Web 2.0 tools have a ton of potential to do more and create community in other ways. If you look at student affairs job postings today versus a few years back you likely would not see any substantial changes. Perhaps a phrase or duty has been added about using Web 2.0 tools, but no jobs have been posted with the purpose of creating a digital community. The unfortunate part is that their are thriving digital communities all over the internet, on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace etc, but Student Affairs professionals have tended to join these communities rather than create them.

For those of you following along on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn you can also read other posts at http://wepps.blogspot.com/

Product or Service?

I was recently writing a paper and I bumped into an issue that I have been contemplating ever since: Is education a product or service or should it be considered as a separate category?

This question is usually reserved for clasifying profit making companies. With the lines blurring between education and business I thought it might be interesting to share my internal debate with others to hear additional thoughts and ideas.

I usually consider a product to be tangible good that is exchanged for money whereas a service is something that is intangible that is given to one person or group for money. A quick google search reveals that service can be defined as "work done by one person or group that benefits another."

To my way of thinking education does not seem to fall nicely into either category. Nothing tangible exchanges hands, other than a degree or diploma at the end, so education is not a product. Staff and faculty certainly provide a service to learners and they share their knowledge, but students must actively participate in the process for learning to actually take place. Customers buying a service from a business do not have to put forward the kind of effort, if any, that students must put into their studies to make it worthwhile.

For these reasons it seems to me that education is neither a product nor service, but a separate category altogether. Do you agree or disagree?

For those of you following along on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn you can also read other posts at http://wepps.blogspot.com/

Expanding My World

Over the last few weeks I have had the good fortune of being able to attend two very good conferences within walking distance from my office:

1. Prepared Minds, Prepared Places - Hosted by the YMCA
   
2. Internationalization Effectiveness: Strategies for Success - Hosted by CBIE

One of the most impressive parts about each conference was the fact that participants came from all across Canada and beyond and a large number of people came from outside higher education. For instance, the Prepared Minds, Prepared Places conference had attendees come from the US and several European countries while the CBIE conference had a large contingent come from China and others from the US, Norway, Australia and other countries.

I took advantage of Twitter to share some of my thoughts already, but I wanted to highlight two of the speakers as they were the most memorable to me. Tricia Jenkins was one of the keynotes at the first conference. She has built a very impressive program that has helped several students reach PSE that would likely never have had that chance without her work. Check out Professor Fluffy to understand a little more about the reach of her work.

Dr John Hudzik, who is the Acting Provost at Michigan State University and President of the Association of International Educators, participated in a panel discussion at the CBIE conference. The panel was discussing how the current economic situation was impacting higher education. Dr Hudzik only had 15 minutes to speak and he took full advantage of the time. I took a few notes, but it was hard to keep up. I'm looking forward to accessing his PowerPoint notes once they are posted. He made the following statement, which I believe conveys a clear, concise and powerful idea about higher education for the coming century: To be an institution of value & distinction in the 21st century requires global reach & engagement.

Adapting to a New Network

How Much Are You Worth to Facebook? is an article by Adam L. Penenberg in the October 2009 issue of Fast Company. Penenberg adapted the article from his book Viral Loop where he explores how people will spread a message, usually on behalf of someone else, to their friends, family and colleagues because of their strong interest in the service/product/idea.

The article highlights how marketers use a few key pieces of information about people, such as age, gender and postal/zip code, that can found on a social network and direct a message at them. A few examples are used to highlight how effective this approach can be in spreading a message. Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook and its current CEO, is quoted to strengthen this point, "The message you get, in a lot of ways, is less important than whom you get it from."

While reading the aricle I tried to adapt it to the higher education environment, especially to the work that is done outside the classroom. We have a tremendous amount of information on students yet we study it very little, especially in Canada, and I'm not familar with anyone taking advantage of viral loops on a social networking site to share a message or advertise an event. This presents opportunities for those who hope to reach students in new and deeper ways. Student Life staff have a ton of experience spreading messages through networks at a peer level so it may not take much to adapt.

Learning from Harper

Let me be clear from the beginning: I'm not a supporter of Stephen Harper's politics. However, he has achieved success in that he has been our Prime Minister since February 2006. As such, I believe one can learn from his rise to power. Last week I finished reading Harper's Team by University of Calgary Professor Tom Flanagan who worked for Harper as his Chief of Staff during his campaign to become leader of the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party of Canada.

Some points from the book can be applied to many people or organizations, including a student affairs division in a college or university. Here are some of the points I pulled from the book:

• Collecting & Managing Data - Harper and his team develop a powerful set of data on his supporters which is used quite effectively to help him progress to leader and eventually Prime Minister.
  
• Understanding Grassroots Support - In his bid to gain the leadership of the Canadian Alliance and then the Conservative Party his resources largely come from grassroots support as opposed to corporations.
  
• Relationship Building - Harper does not have the knack for building bridges beyond his base, but he has been quite effective at relationship building within conservative circles. Flanagan points out that this has never been an easy task for Canadian conservative leaders with the exception of Sir John A. MacDonald. (We'll see if Harper can maintain his relationships over time)
• Using Strategy & Tactics - Harper is known widely for his strategic skills and the book highlights some points where he used them wisely and other times where he learned from mistakes.
  

In recent years assessment has become a hot topic in student affairs. To increase our influence and demonstrate the value that our work has outside the classroom, we need to collect more data and study it. This analysis will allow us to show the value we can bring to higher education. Furthermore, by sharing this information with our students we can seek them as partners in telling the story of the important work that happens outside the classroom, just as Harper understood and leveraged the support from his base.

Relationship building is one of our strengths, but our focus tends to be inward and it will become increasingly important to look beyond our traditional partners. For me this includes faculty and especially people and organizations beyond a school's borders. Experiential learning is one way we are doing this already, but seeking resources, such as funding, is one largely untested area for our field.

It would be hard to suggest that we do not use strategy and tactics in our work now. Every person in our field will undoubtedly have a few good stories to share. The coming years will stretch our thinking to new levels as resources continue to shrink and the academic core of a school will continue to press their case for having the lion's share of the resources. Therefore, we must continue to adapt, support one another and most importantly share our stories widely to show the powerful impact we have on learning.

Learner Centred vs Profit Centred?

Over the past couple of decades one important debate taking place in higher education has been teacher-centred education versus learner-centred education. A prominent point of discussion at the recently completed Unesco World Conference on Higher Education is the rise of private schools in the sector, as outlined in this Chronicle of Higher Education article. Several news reports highlight that a report from Unesco, named A New Dynamic: Private Higher Education, states that private higher education now accounts for 30% of the enrolment in higher education worldwide and in some countries it makes up 3/4 of the options.

Private schools certainly have a place in higher education, but for the landscape to change so rapidly is cause for concern. One reason for this concern is that one unmet goal of this gathering - and from a similar conference in 1998 - is ensuring access to traditionally underrepresented groups of people. Achieving this goal will be a challenge in an environment where profit becomes an increasing focus.

Getting involved in the dialogue will maximize the chance that important issues, like equity & access, will be considered as higher education evolves. For Canadian student affairs professional one place we should put this topic on the agenda is at any CACUSS gatherings.

ACUHO-I Continues to Impress

ACUHO-I continues to be involved in an impressive number of projects that are showing some real results for student housing professionals. The 61st Annual Conference & Exposition was held earlier this week in Baltimore, Maryland and more than 1,000 people attended the gathering.

The conference highlights for me included a keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., having the chance to hear Dr. Susan Komives share her research on student leadership and to hear Dr. Gwendolyn Dungy speak on trends in the education sector.

The business meeting provided a glimpse into some of the activities that the association has focused on over the past year. The following are noteworthy for me:

• Global Housing Summit & China Study Tour - Nearly 100 people gathered in Hong Kong to explore student housing issues and find ways of expand the association's reach beyond North America. Chinese higher education is expanding rapidly, with enrolment having increased 100% in four years to 26 million, so this is a crucial area for ACUHO-I to focus its growth.
  
• Strategic Planning - The Executive Board spends a significant amount of its time on strategic planning activities (likely 1/4 to 1/3 of its time) and this year their efforts were expanded to include a Knowledge Summit and Strategic Planning Summit so input could be gathered from a larger number of people.
• Fiscal Responsibility - The Executive Board & Central Office managed to find ways to cut more than $300,000 from the budget. No easy feat when the association has been pushing in so many directions and must continue to do so to remain current.
  

Perhaps the most impressive results come from the work of the Public Policy Advisory Committee. This group began its work less than two years ago and has already been able to influence the US federal government and legislation that would have an impact on student housing operations. Many people and groups hope to have this level of impact, but to actually make it happen multiple times, demonstrates the level ACUHO-I has been able to reach in its work.

Moving forward the work of the Credentialing Task Force on developing courses on assessment for student housing professionals will provide a depth of knowledge not previously available. In addition, the first Business Operations Conference in October will bring together staff in areas of student housing departments that have never had this type of opportunity to gather together before.

American's Studying in the Great White North

My first reaction to reading this article in the Globe & Mail about an increasing number of American student's enrolling in Canadian universities was surprise. I cannot completely explain this reaction. Perhaps it has to do with the media exposure that the US generally receives in Canada, the history of the US being the destination for many students from around the world or the fact that US students on Canadian campuses receive little profile compared to students from other countries. At my school students from more than 100 countries are represented it would be difficult for students from any particular country to receive all of the attention.

Towards the end of the article I began to realize it should not be that surprising considering the quality of our educational system and the proximity to the US. Increasing recruitment efforts would certainly contribute to this increase as well. I would be curious to know the outcome of the points raised around finances and whether schools receive more funding from an international student when compared to a domestic student. The point about school's not making money on international students because of increased expenses related to recruitment or services is not new to me.

From a learning and student life point of view bringing students from abroad is a great move. The different points of view and diversity that will be added to the campus will benefit the entire community and raise the level of learning for all students.

Details

Its been a while since I've posted any new material so I thought I'd share one of the projects that has occupied my time recently.

From 2006 to 2008 I had the opportunity to serve on the Executive Board of the Association of College & University Housing Officers, International (ACUHO-I). It has been one of the most powerful professional development opportunities in my career. The quality of the people I worked with on the board & in the central office was truly impressive.

When my term ended on the board I knew I wanted to stay involved, but was I was unsure of how I would make that contribution. Fortunately, I was invited to the ACUHO-I Knowledge Summit in September 2008. It was there that an opportunity presented itself - The Credentialing Task Force.

The Credentialing Task Force was created to explore new ways to provide more in-depth professional development opportunities for student housing professionals. The group has been in place for more then three years and the outcomes are becoming very real now. Assessment has been the first area of focus and a series of courses are now being developed.

Creating a course is an impressive process. The DACUM method has been adopted to develop the courses. In the fall a group of student housing professionals developed 51 tasks split into six categories that are required to carry out assessment in student housing. This past week another group of people, including me, further defined the tasks involved and we now have 189 tasks identified. Each task includes the desired outcome, the resources required, knowledge & skills required, behaviour needed, decisions to consider, cues to help guide decisions and errors that would result if the task is not done correctly.

Digging this deep into an issue is not normal work in the life of a staff member in higher education. I would imgaine that few people in our line of work have identified processes with nearly 200 tasks ;-)

"This is hard!" was our slogan as we worked toward adding content over our three days together. It was awkward work at first, but in the end we painted a very clear picture of what is involved in developing an assessment plan.

Cuts at the Wrong Time

This Globe & Mail article highlights some of the issues that colleges and universities are facing currently in Ontario/Canada. Unfortunately, the writer points out (likely correctly) that student service units will likely be an area targeted.

In a recent post I suggested that fundraising is something that Student Affairs needs to get involved in. The fact that PSE institutions in Ontario had to cut budgets last year, when the economy was in good shape, and must make deep cuts this year, when demand is going to increase more then normal, reinforces the need that alternative sources of funding must be sought out.

Taking the initiative now could prevent decision makers from making choices such as contracting out services. To some this may seem like a ridiculous suggestion, but food services, bookstores and residence operations have all been contracted out for quite some time. Employment firms, counselors and health care clinics are well established outside of higher education. It is not inconceivable that one day a President could take a risk and contract out a career centre to Work opolis, a counseling unit to private providers and student health operation to a local health clinic.

One Student Database

Accountability is a topic increasing in importance. With data becoming increasing easy to capture and analyze the push for one large database that contains all students, from elementary school to higher education, will intensify. This Inside Higher Ed article explores the issue a little and explains how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may have provided a path to a new solution.

Student Affairs staff and leaders in the field need to pay close attention to this issue in order to influence the type of data that is captured.

Creating a Creative Future for Education

Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, sought the advice of Roger Martin & Richard Florida from UofT on the future of the Ontario economy. Roger Martin is Dean of the Rotman School of Management, one of Canada's top business schools, and Richard Florida is a US born professor at UofT and author of several popular books. A report was prepared and made public recently.

Two education blogs I follow both put up postings about the report:

• Dale Kirby from MacLeans Oncampus
  
• George Siemens blog is elearnspace
  

I have yet to read the report, but I look forward to seeing what opportunities it contains for student affairs since we can be a rather creative bunch ;-)

The Road Ahead for Higher Ed

Gordon Gee is President of Ohio State University which is one of the largest schools in the US. This Inside Higher Ed article, called Gordon Gee's Call for 'Reinvention' of Higher Ed points out some of the highlights of a recent speech by Gee. I see two points worth noting for staff in student affairs:

• Interdisciplinary Approach
• Importance of Community Colleges
  

The interdisciplinary comments could have a direct impact on student affairs staff in that this presents an opportunity for work outside the classroom to increase in value, especially when Gee is quoted as saying "that faculty members need to be rewarded for contributions broadly, not just those that advance their own fields."

Gee's prediction that “the drivers of our future will be this nation’s community colleges,” speaks to the increasing importance of applied learning. Again, this line of thinking supports the focus on learning outside the classroom that student affairs staff are so heavily involved in.

Student Affairs Needs Fundraising Staff

My last post showed a chart outlining how the Ontario government allocates funding to various categories. Funding for post-secondary institutions in the 05/06 fiscal year amounted to 5.6% of the province's expenses. The revenue collected by a university comes from more then the province though.

As Daniel Lang, from OISE, has outlined the different sources of revenue for universities has fluctuated over time. This chart shows four points in time over a 40 year period beginning in the late 1950's:



The chart clearly shows a trend the governments are providing a lower portion of the revenue for universities in Canada. Some schools have been fortunate enough to receive major donations in the past decade from some of Canada's wealthy people such as Ted Rogers (Ryerson), Seymour Schulich (York, UWO, Calgary, McGill), George Vari (Ryerson, York, UofT), Richard Ivey (UWO), Wallace McCain (Mount Allison), Mike Lazaridis (Waterloo), Jim Balsillie (Waterloo, WLU) and others.

There is little reason to believe that the trend of declining government funding will be reversed in the near future, which means that Canada's post-secondary schools must continue to look to wealthy citizens. To date the vast majority, if not all, of the donations made to higher education in Canada have been directed to academic activities and faculties.

This last fact makes me wonder if student affairs is missing out on an opportunity. The work of student affairs staff can have a tremendous impact on a student's career and chances are that today's donors were likely heavily involved in activities outside of the classroom. For this reason it might be time that student affairs staff get involved in fundraising efforts.

(Source: Lang, D. (2004). Financing Higher Education in Canada. In Steve O. Michael (Eds.), International Perspectives on Financing Higher Education (pp. unknown). Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.)

Government Funding for Student Affairs

Have you ever wondered how much money government spends on post-secondary education? College and university staff and faculty in Canada should have an interest because our post-secondary education (PSE) model is heavily funded by the federal and provincial governments.

The 2005/2006 Ontario budget included about $84 billion in revenue. Approximately 5.6% of the provincial expenses was directed to PSE & Training. By far the largest category of expenses was spent on health care which amounted to nearly 40% of the Ontario's budget.

Daniel Lang, from OISE, has conducted research on funding for PSE and he points out that a great deal has changed over the past half century. In the mid 1960's there was no formal funding formula for universities (Ontario Colleges were introduced in 1966). A basic funding formula, especially when compared to today's standards, was introduced in the late 1960's and it has become increasingly complex. Today, in Ontario, 17 different "envelopes" exist in the Ontario Operating Funds Distribution Manual (03/04):

1.1 Basic Grants
1.2 Enhanced Accessibility for students with a disability
1.3 Performance Fund
1.4 Quality Assurance Fund
1.5 Expansion Funds (Accessibility; Medical Enrolment Expansion; Nursing Enrolment Expansion; Teacher Education Expansion)
1.6 Mission-Related Institution Specific (Northern Ontario Grants; Bilingualism; Differentiation; Extraordinary Grant to Algoma; Extraordinary Grant to Hearst)
1.7 Research Overhead's/Infrastructure
1.8 Special Purpose Grant
1.9 Institution-Specific Grants
1.10 Learning Opportunities Task Force
1.11 Partnerships Grants (Access to Opportunities Program; Graduate Scholarships in Science & Tech)
1.12 Enrolment Adjustment/Accessibility
1.13 Transition Grants
1.14 Program Adjustment
1.15 Library Enhancement & Student Equipment Fund
1.16 Pay Equity Assistance
1.17 Fair Funding for Universities

None of the envelopes provide dedicated funding for student affairs or for work outside the classroom. The government would likely suggest that a portion of various envelopes is used in activities outside the classroom. With the focus on student engagement and experience intensifying in recent years an argument could be made that the work of student affairs is increasing in importance and a dedicated envelop should be created.

Several associations in the US have been organizing themselves in the last five years for the purpose of lobbying government. Their work has influenced the political agenda. For example political discussion following the high profile shootings at Virgina Tech or Northern Illinois University was modified because of the work of association staff and other leaders in the student affairs' field. Student affairs staff north of the border could benefit from organizing for the purpose of lobbying the government as well. Organizing our field to develop a more formal relationship with the government would raise the value and profile of our work and could even lead to our own "envelope" in the future.

Student Community 2.0

As a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook which has revolutionized the way university and college students interact and communicate. This new tool is changing the way that student's develop community which means that colleges and universities, especially student affairs staff, need to adapt.

To date staff in student affairs have created profiles on Facebook and used features like the event planning tool to share what will be happening on campus and photos to post what's already happened. Both of these features are fairly basic applications within facebook. However, the site is designed to encourage others to add features, or applications, which provides for a dynamic online community. More than 52,000 Facebook applications have been developed to date.

Ontario universities and colleges have not taken advantage of this opportunity though. A quick search for Facebook applications designed by Ontario post-secondary institutions reveal that only a handful have been developed. Some examples include the University of Western Ontario and the University of Guelph had applications that allowed users to track news on their school while the Ryerson University Library designed a tool for users to access some of its resources.

This 2006 USA Today article states that online learning has been growing more then expected. A similar trend likely exists in Canada. The Online College Education Network outlines some of the advantages that online education has over traditional education. One disadvantage, not highlighted, is community development. Students that do not having an opportunity to interact face-to-face will have a more difficult time to develop community. And student affairs staff know that students that do not feel as though they belong to their school's community are at a greater risk of dropping out.

Online enrolment numbers are destined to collide with community development practices at colleges and universities. This is an important issue for staff that work in student affairs and student life. It will be interesting to see how this issue evolves and how staff take advantage of these new opportunities.

A Vision of Students Outside the Classroom

Nearly two years ago Web 2.0 became reality for me as I watched a video created by a Colorado school teacher that was called Shift Happens (here is version 2). Last year a friend and colleague from Clemson University shared a video called A Vision of Students Today that was created by a Kansas State University professor and his students.

Both videos deliver a powerful message in only a few minutes that was simply not as readily available five years ago. The videos have been a great educational tool for me so I wanted to highlight them in my blog. I have used the videos in student staff training and at the 2008 OACUHO Training Institute held at Carleton University.

When searching for the videos to create this post I discovered a new video called A Vision of K-12 Students Today. It was created "to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate district level leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so."

When I first considered blogging about higher education a few months ago I did not discover many blogs that focused on student affairs and/or student life. Most of the blogs related to higher education highlight the use of technology, admissions, marketing and higher education in general. Lots of blogs exist for primary and secondary education as well.

Student Life and Student Affairs staff make such a strong contribution to the college or university student's experience, yet we have not taken advantage of tools like blogs and videos like others in the education industry have.

Some new approaches seem to be emerging from our associations as can be seen with the launch of iStudentAffairs.com and the ACUHO-I Network. My hope is this will lead to more individual efforts so the story of what our students do outside the classroom can be shared with a larger audience through the various Web 2.o tools that now exist. Perhap one day soon we'll see a video called A Vision of Students Outside the Classroom.