Social+Media

Project: Howard University- Calculus, Physics, Chemistry Program (CP2), Main Presenter: Grant Warner

Background info: The majority of students use some form of social media. They are constantly connected. In a study 50% use to communicate with peers about coursework but few like to use it to communicate with faculty. (Facebook?). Students and faculty use different social media tools so they chose QuickConnect which integrates with your learning management system and send information out to preferred social networking tool. @http://www.connectyard.com/info/widget.php. He did use it with Blackboard- it integrates with Blackboard but is a separate platform. On another note students did not necessarily want faculty to have access to their wall. They did have a training session. (One). Cost to institution is 2500 for 1000 students.

Discussions are stored on the server and are searchable. System can also provide some trend analysis (most popular topic). Allow for backchannel during discussion session allows for students to chat during the session. It sounds like this is monitored and converges or augments discussion thread. He uses Chatzy.com. Use of these tools supported achievement, motivation, and retention.