Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney, Web Content Manager,
and Caitee Bloss, Web Production Assistant, Stein Communications

In previous issues of the Scoop, we’ve explored podcasting in higher education by admission offices and academic departments. While podcasts are most often created either for classes or as a recruitment tool, an increasing number of schools are expanding their student audience and including their university alumni.

The third in our series in podcasting in higher education, this article covers podcasting both with alumni and for alumni. We’ve shared several examples of alumni podcasts, in hopes of sparking ideas for your own institution so that you may better serve your alumni while also giving them additional outlets to contribute to their alma mater.

Podcasts designed for alumni:

While alumni and parent podcasting are often one and the same, several university alumni associations have created their own alumni-specific podcasts. They usually aim to keep alumni informed about campus news, recent research, higher education issues, and life-long learning.

Utah Valley State College publishes an alumni magazine, the Sequel. In conjunction with their magazine, they supplement each issue with audio and video podcasts. The audio podcasts contain readings of articles and other writing from each episode, while the vodcasts include interviews and “bonus coverage” of the articles.

The Alumni Association at the University of Michigan maintains a podcast, True Blue Podsquad. They record speeches, lectures, and interviews that provide “educational content on-demand and on-the-go.” In addition to lectures on career success and entrepreneurship, many of their episodes address common issues in parenting and post-graduate life such as adoption, child tantrums, learning difficulties, and self-esteem.

While less concerned with parenting and family life, Winston-Salem State University does specifically target alumni. Their WSSU Alumni Podcast helps alumni stay up-to-date and connected with the university through campus news and student spotlights.

Podcasts with alumni contributions:

In several university podcasts, alumni join faculty for interviews and lectures. This strategy allows universities to maintain alumni connections, utilize their research and knowledge, and exemplify the success of their own graduates. The promise of listening to an old classmate attracts alumni who may not otherwise subscribe to the podcast and the familiarity of the speaker invokes a greater audience interest in the subject matter.

Johns Hopkins has published a podcast containing a series of discussions over a range of topics, such as evolutionary biology, nation building, national security, and the U.S. healthcare crisis. In addition to contributing to the knowledge base, alumni are also included in panel discussion on campus affairs. Colgate University’s Colgate Conversations podcast follows a similar track. By spotlighting alumni and including them in their presentations, both universities are making statements about their continual interest and investment in their graduates.

With each successive graduating class being increasingly wired and web-savvy, podcasts hold much promise as a means of staying connected. Alumni podcasts are a great strategy for several reasons:

1. Subscription. The ability to subscribe to a feed ensures that alumni stay connected, even when they move or change email addresses.

2. Frequent updates. Offering short but frequent updates on campus news and recent research is relatively painless for both the university and alumni subscribers.

3. Multimedia. Podcasts can feature audio from familiar professors and video clips of campus events — elements not possible in as timely a manner in most other marketing mediums.

As universities increase their use of academic podcasts and more students encounter them in their classes, it is likely that graduates will be more interested in creating or contributing to podcasts as alumni.

In our next issue of the Scoop, we’ll tackle the fourth type of podcasting in our series — athletic podcasting. To contribute your college’s experiences, thoughts, and concerns about podcasting in education, please email mgwaltney@steincommunications.com.

Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney
Web Content Manager, Stein Communications

In the last issue of The Scoop, we talked about podcasting in higher education in terms of how it is being used as a recruitment tool. Admission offices across the country are hosting some amazing podcasts, with respect to content as well as design and production quality. In my opinion, the most effect podcasts, by far, are those created by current students, for prospective students.

Continuing our series of articles on podcasting in higher education, this article focuses on podcasting for academic courses, programs, and departments.

Podcasts for Course Lectures
Probably the first example that comes to mind when you think of academics and podcasting is course lectures. Remember the media buzz in 2004 when Duke University handed out iPods to every freshman student on campus? Their ongoing Duke Digital Initiative to improve technology-enhanced learning (including podcasting quite a few course lectures) has been and continues to be extraordinary, despite the challenges mentioned in their DDI End of Year Report (PDF).

Additionally, iTunes U made a big splash when Apple partnered with higher ed institutions such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business to provide them with their own school-branded version of iTunes. With iTunes U, course lectures and other campus recordings became even easier to deliver to students, faculty, and the community in both restricted- and open-access portals. What’s even better, it’s free — for the institution and the user.

While podcast lectures should not replace the experience of classroom learning and interaction, they have proved beneficial to students and faculty, particularly in the areas of music, performing arts, languages, and other disciplines with audible components.

Promotional Academic Podcasts
In addition to podcasting course lectures, some colleges are also using podcasts to promote specific majors or departments to prospective students, as well as to share research findings with the community.

For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosts a compilation of podcasts under the umbrella of AMPS: Academic Media Production Services. Users may subscribe to the podcasts for free from MIT’s web site or directly from within the iTunes Music Store. AMPS includes a small, but well-produced collection of video podcasts, all related to a research venture, an academic course, a performing arts event, or other on-campus events. Personally, my favorite is “2.007 Retrospective.” It documents in a fun, engaging way the thirty-year history of MIT’s famous undergraduate robot contest. Prospective students would do well to view the AMPS vodcasts to get a better feel for the types of projects they will work on as students.

Another great case in point: Asbury College’s broadcast journalism podcasts of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. The group of 29 students, three alumni, and one faculty member posted blog entries and podcasts on their web site. If this project isn’t an excellent opportunity to get real-world experience, I don’t know what is.

In the coming years, it seems like a given that an increasing number of colleges will begin to podcast more of their course lectures, whether it is through iTunes U or another method; I hope the same will prove true for the promotional academic podcasts. They have great value in providing an intimate, in-depth look into an institution’s academic programs in ways that even a campus visit may not provide. With a myriad of voices — students, faculty, alumni, and special event speakers — contributing to these productions, they have the potential to be an excellent marketing tool.

In our next issue of the Scoop, we’ll continue our podcasting discussion with a focus on alumni relations. To share your college’s experiences, thoughts, and concerns about podcasting in education, please email me at mgwaltney@steincommunications.com.

Stein’s CommunityYou web product is designed to help increase yield among your admitted students and increase retention of your newly enrolled students by providing them with their own online community created specifically for your institution. CommunityYou can be overseen and managed by your admissions staff. It also provides you with an additional forum to communicate important announcements to this critical audience. To learn more about CommunityYou, please contact Jenny Brower at 404.494.4393 or jbrower@steincommunications.com.

Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney
Web Content Manager, Stein Communications

In the last issue of the Scoop, we provided information about podcasting in education. After some great feedback about this article, we decided to extend our discussions about podcasting to include a new five-part series focusing on podcasting in higher education. Each article, beginning with this one, will focus on a specific area of colleges and universities, including admissions, academics, alumni and development, athletics, and public relations.

This series of articles does not provide technical, step-by-step instructions needed to create and publish a podcast; the intent is to highlight ways in which other colleges and universities are using podcasts and to offer a few helpful tips and suggestions as you consider what podcasting venues may be right for your institution.

What is a podcast?
In case you missed it in the preliminary article, you will need a brief definition of our subject matter: Podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) are audio or video files distributed over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for distribution on psp themes, mobile game devices, mobile applications and personal computers. Unlike streaming audio and video, podcast and vodcast files are downloaded to the user’s equipment, which allows the files to be played at any time, even when the user is not connected to the Internet.

In addition to being incorporated into Apple’s iTunes software and Music Store, podcasting has become a popular format for two main reasons:

• Podcasts are downloaded and stored directly to the user’s equipment, especially portable MP3 players, such as iPods. Therefore, podcasts can be accessed by busy individuals who are always on-the-go — in the car, at the gym, etc.
• Through RSS feeds, users can subscribe to a podcast feed in the same way that they can subscribe to someone’s blog. Depending on the preferences they set in software such as iTunes, users can download new podcast episodes automatically when they connect to the Internet. The subscription feature saves time because the user does not have to visit each of his or her favorite web sites to check for new podcasts; they are delivered automatically.

Podcasting in Admissions
Some of the most impressive college podcasts I have come across are those geared towards prospective students (and their parents, too, in many cases). The best podcasts, even if they’re not sophisticated with hip intro music or flashy graphics, are those created around their target audience’s preferences. Essentially, a good podcast excells in three areas: content, length, and speaker/source.

Content. Generally, you won’t find a lot of new, unique content in admissions podcasts. Many of the messages have simply been adapted from content already found in current print and web publications. What’s important is the fact that the content is now available in a format that is easier to access, and can be delivered at a very low cost on a regular basis. Many people prefer the podcast format for certain types of content because they can listen to it while participating in other activities, and because they gain a sense of personal intimacy through hearing the spoken word from one or more individuals.

Length. Many admissions podcasts are short in length, making them more convenient for students who are on-the-go and who have many other time constraints in their lives. Delivering short bursts of information on a scheduled basis keeps your institution connected to its prospects in a way that is helpful to them and does not encroach upon their already busy lives.

Speaker/Source. One factor that affects the success of a podcast is the person(s) delivering your message. Your podcast will benefit from a speaker who speaks clearly and whose voice engages audiences easily. Above all, your podcast speaker must be a good representative for your institution.

Current Student Podcasts
The current student podcast is a great example of an admissions podcast that is usually done well, even if it involved very simple production. Podcasts and vodcasts are simply new formats in which to deliver information that illustrates to prospects what it’s like to be a current student on campus. Until now, this information has often been delivered via an interview in a print piece or on the web, a student blog, a collection of student photos, a video on the institution’s web site, etc.

With minimal time, expense, and equipment, students can record and publish a podcast on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to convey to prospects the daily life of a college student, whether it be the class they skipped one morning, their first A+ in biology class, or the commencement address they heard at graduation. By listening to podcasts throughout the year, prospects have a better sense of what it’s like to be a student on campus.

Not only do podcasts share information, they also generate an emotional response, as the listener hears the student’s voice, accent, and attitude.

In many cases, admissions offices do not feel the need to censor current student podcasts, given that the admissions office has selected student podcasters based on quality of character and has conveyed to them the important responsibility of acting as representatives of the university.

For a great example of a current student podcast, listen to Amber’s podcast on the Houghton College web site: http://www.houghton.edu/admission/life/amber/index.htm

Promotional Admissions Podcasts
In addition to current student podcasts, admissions offices are creating podcasts that promote special aspects of the school, such as its location or its diversity on campus — again, many of the same topics you would read about in their print brochures. Because of the audio (and possibly video) element, a podcast or vodcast offers a more intimate way to deliver your message to prospects, especially those who can’t attend a college fair or visit campus before applying to your institution.

Campus tour vodcasts may also benefit your institution. Additional episodes would be helpful supplements to showcase the campus during special campus events, and could even include tours geared toward different audiences, including prospects, parents, alumni, community visitors, etc. Some institutions promote their most popular or most unique academic programs via podcast as well. Interviews with faculty and students, in addition to showing current projects or research, can help bring a program to life in the eyes of a prospective student, or even a potential donor or volunteer.

Examples include:
Emerson College — http://admission.emerson.edu/admission/undergraduate/podcasts/index.cfm
Massachusetts Institute of Technology — http://web.mit.edu/amps/spotlight/podcast.html

Application and Enrollment-Related Podcasts
Other podcasts provide answers for prospective students who have questions about financial aid and the application process. In many cases, a simple frequently asked questions page on the college web site would be sufficient. However, there are other ways that this type of podcast could be very useful — one idea being a brief tutorial that walks prospects through an on-campus interview or provides quick tips about the personal essay.

Find out more about enrollment-related podcasts:
Bowdoin College — http://www.bowdoin.edu/podcasts/
CampusTours Productions — http://www.campustoursproductions.com/press-podcast.html

Along this same vein of thought, Fitchburg State College sent out a podcast to its newly enrolled students. An HTML email contained a link where students could download the podcast from the iTunes Music Store. The message was recorded by the president of the university, who welcomed the new freshman class. This type of podcast is an easy way of introducing key administrators at your institution, while also providing students with helpful information, such as a reminder to send in their housing deposit.

Read more about Fitchburg State College’s experience with podcasting: http://web.fsc.edu/fscnews/index.cfm?detail=259

Until next time…
Until the next installment in this series on podcasting, I would love to hear what your institution is doing in the way of podcasting, whether it is in admissions or another area on campus. Contact me at mgwaltney@steincommunications.com.

Contributed by: Tina Stults
Direct Marketing Manager, Stein Communications

If you have a valid email address, chances are you’ve been spammed. In fact, it’s highly likely that when you sit down at your computer and open your email client, the majority of the messages flooding your inbox originate from email marketers, legitimate or not. You may have even gone to great lengths to protect your email address from spammers by installing a spam blocker service, unsubscribing your address from multiple mailing lists, or changing your email address to restore a moderate (and fleeting) level of anonymity.

But somehow, the spammers always find you.

Of course, there are those companies, institutions, and organizations that are on the up-and-up. Permission-based email marketing is a thriving and rapidly expanding industry, bolstered by its speed, cost efficiency, and ability to reach customers and prospects on a personal level. For most of us, permission-based email marketing is an essential component of our integrated marketing campaigns, supporting other print and interactive media.

Over the past several years, the government and other public and private entities have begun instituting measures with the intent to reign in spammers, whose messages clog our inboxes, and pave the way for legitimate email marketers to communicate more effectively with their target audiences. You’ve heard the words tossed around — CAN-SPAM, spam filters, whitelists — and you’ve likely taken steps to protect your own email address(es) with one or more of these tools. But have you also gotten wind of one of the newest regulatory measures in email marketing — dubbed by some as the “email tax”?

In 2003, a company by the name of Goodmail Systems launched their CertifiedEmail service, “the highest standard in email certification, to provide a safe and reliable class of email for the benefit of consumers, legitimate senders and mailbox providers.” CertifiedEmail essentially requires marketers to provide documentation about their history, credit rating, and commercial email use; companies and organizations that pass the test are charged a fee — approximately $2 per 1,000 messages — to ensure delivery of their email.

AOL and Yahoo! have recently partnered with Goodmail on its CertifiedEmail program, a move that has many email marketers up in arms. Approximately 73.5 million adults — half of the adult population in the U.S. — have registered email addresses with one of the two domains. Under the CertifiedEmail system, approved marketers will pay a premium every time they send a message to a recipient with an AOL or Yahoo! domain name.

So how does the email certification process work in action? Without getting into the weighty details, if you’re trying to send an email and you haven’t been validated by the CertifiedEmail service, your message most likely will be stripped of its images and hyperlinks. Participation in the plan ensures that your recipients will receive the email in its intended form.

Since AOL announced its intent to implement Goodmail’s service, a 50-member coalition — whose roster includes organizations such as MoveOn.org, Civic Action, and Gun Owners of America — has joined forces to fight the initiative, launching a web site at DearAOL.com, where individuals can sign a petition protesting the move, share their opinions through blog posts, and find out how to take further action.

The web site states that “AOL’s ‘email tax’ is the first step down a slippery slope that will harm the Internet itself. The Internet is a revolutionary force for free speech, civic organizing, and economic innovation precisely because it is open and accessible to all Internet users equally.” The site’s open letter to AOL also asserts that the pay-to-send measure won’t prevent spam — “in fact, this plan assumes that spam will continue and that mass mailers will be willing to pay to have their emails bypass spam filters.”

Goodmail, AOL, and Yahoo! stand by their assertion that the certification service is designed to guarantee delivery of emails generated by legitimate organizations while keeping spammers and fraudulent marketers at bay. However, AOL has backpedaled, making the CertifiedEmail service optional and promising to keep the Enhanced Whitelist they’ve used in recent years. They have also stated that “legitimate non-profit and advocacy groups” will not be charged to have emails certified and delivered — good news to many colleges and universities who operate as non-profit institutions.

In the meantime, Yahoo!’s implementation will be limited to “transactional” messages only — bank statements, purchase receipts, etc. The ISP has assured businesses and organizations that they will be able to “send email to Yahoo! email users at no cost in exactly the way they always have.”

There of plenty of people on both side of the fence with opinions about the CertifiedEmail program. Folks on the pro side argue that the Goodmail system will protect legitimate marketers and the integrity of individual email accounts. Opponents cite the tenets of free speech and equal access that are among our most basic rights. Regardless of your position, chances are that for now, your institution is protected by its status as a non-profit. But as our cluttered inboxes have proven, this battle is far from over.

Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney
Web Content Manager, Stein Communications

In case you were wondering, podcasts and vodcasts are audio or video files distributed over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. Unlike streaming audio and video, podcast and vodcast files are downloaded to the user’s equipment, which allows the files to be played at any time, even when users are not connected to the Internet.

May and June 2005 was a big time for podcasting and vodcasting, largely because of added features in Apple’s iTunes software: the support of video playback, podcasting and vodcasting subscriptions, and the sale of music videos, short films, and television shows from the iTunes Music Store. As if podcasting weren’t gaining popularity fast enough, iTunes helped boost podcasting and vodcasting even further into the mainstream. The release of software programs such as GarageBand and Audacity has continued to allow users to easily create, edit, and publish these types of digitally rich media and make them readily available to the public.

Education is no exception to this media boom. Podcasting and vodcasting, for some schools and classrooms, have become conventional methods of teaching and learning. We have reviewed many podcasts and vodcasts and are pleased to present some of the ways these technologies are being used in the field of education:

• Teachers use podcasts to review homework and chapter notes. Vodcasting often comes in handy with science experiments and other visually dependent curricula.
• Students create their own podcasts to deliver special presentations and share information they learn in class. Students’ reading skills can also be featured on a podcast.
  • Dearborn Public Schools Student Video Projects
  • Radio WillowWeb
  • Room 208
  • KinderPods
• School boards utilize podcasts and vodcasts to share board meetings with their communities.
  • Board of Education, Dearborn Public Schools
• Colleges give prospective students a real look at higher education through podcasts and vodcasts created by current students.
  • College of Santa Fe
• Education professionals share knowledge and skills with one another through audio and video presentations.
  • PBS Learning Matters: John Merrow Podcast
  • Teachers Improving Learning with Technology (TILT)
• Podcasts and vodcasts are also available that prepare students for standardized tests, allow individuals to learn a foreign language and increase their vocabulary skills, and more…

Visit any of the web sites above for more information on the featured podcasts and vodcasts. You can also search the iTunes Music Store to subscribe for free.

If you haven’t delved into the world of podcasting yet, here are a few things you should know before taking the plunge:

• Whether you are listening to podcasts and vodcasts or creating them yourself, use up-to-date technology. Podcasts and vodcasts require adequate memory and processing power to operate without skipping parts of the audio and video. If you have the option of buying a new computer, you may want to upgrade the memory and processor speed from the standard options, especially if you’ll be creating your own podcasts or vodcasts.
• For those wishing to host their own podcasts or vodcasts online, check your hosting package first to be sure it comes with enough disk space and bandwidth. While your hosting package may not be expensive, incurring overage charges for these types of items is usually quite costly.

With that said, open up iTunes, get out your iPod, and enjoy some podcasts and vodcasts!