Higher education is one of the most social media savvy industries. Many universities are using major social networks to talk to students, connect alumni, promote their achievements and attract prospective students. And they do a great job. The main reason behind their success is that their audience, the students, are the most social media engaged population. Given that, universities have the freedom to try out new techniques and use social media for many different purposes. Below, I present three great examples of how universities are using social media.

1) Crowdsourcing of ideas using Facebook

Carnegie Mellon University / Heinz College

Looking for some ideas? Ask the students. That’s what Heinz College did in search for a title for a new faculty video series. Not only did the students feel like participating in the decision but they also felt like taking a peek at what the school is rolling out.

From the Heinz College Facebook Fan Page

2) Course Videos on Youtube

MIT OpenCourseWare

As part of the OpenCourseWare project, MIT’s youtube channel has hundreds of videos from a variety of courses. Anyone can watch full lectures from subjects like Computer Science, Chemistry, Linear Algebra or even Philosophy of Love and Black Holes. It is impressive to think that MIT is providing the world with top-class course material completely free of charge. And there is no better way to promote this initiative than to upload some part of this material on Youtube, the largest video site in the world (1 billion views per day, as Youtube proudly claimed last week).

3) Amplifying class discussion with Twitter

The University of Texas at Dallas

Last Spring, Monica Rankin, a History professor at UTD, decided to use twitter to improve the way students could interact with each other during class. In a class of 90 students taking place in a large auditorium, the discussion is usually concentrated among few students while the rest of them run the risk of losing interest. Twitter turned out to be an effective solution. In her own words: “I wanted to find a way to incorporate more student-centered learning techniques and involve the students more fully into the material… Twitter’s texting and internet options seemed to offer more students the opportunity to participate”. By using their laptop or cellphone, students tweeted comments and ideas related to the readings assigned for each lecture. With a different hashtag every week, the discussion was kept organized. The Professor also used Tweetdeck and a projector to stream the conversation live during the class. The outcome was very encouraging. “Overall, I think the twitter experiment was successful primarily because it encouraged students to engage who otherwise would not”, Monika Rankin explains. You can learn more for this experiment by watching the video below. You can also read her detailed analysis here.

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