Laying Tracks for Motivated Trains
Three quick stories, one important point. Story #1: Last week, before my soccer match, I watched a little league softball game on the field next to us. Surrounding the field was a collection of parents multitasking between the game, their blackberries, and babysitting their, even younger, offspring. One parent in particular was having a hard […]
Last Week in Student Affairs [07/22/11]
It’s no secret that everyone at Swift Kick HQ loves to read…a lot. With so much great content around community engagement and involvement passing through our brains every day, we thought we’d try out a new series called “Last Week In Student Affairs” in which we highlight the highlights. Blogs: What will 42 years in […]
February #RRWebinar Recap: Video, Slides, and Stats, Oh My.
With attendees hailing from over 70 institutions across North America, and a lively Twitter backchannel discussion, we’re chalking up our February 15 Webinar on Social Media and Student Engagement in the “success” column. Check out the full video above, or download the slides—but there is one catch: if you download the slides, you have to […]
NCSL Article: Discovering Your Student Life’s Heartbeat Online
In our continuing quest to better help schools understand, measure, and utilize the increasing amount of campus engagement online, I wrote the article below on discovering your student life’s heartbeat online for this month’s NCSL NOW! magazine.
Engagement Based Leadership
Most student club advisors will tell you that club engagement goes through waves; some years are rockstars and others are duds. Almost every club starts the year with aspirations of rockstardom, but within a couple weeks, the excitement and motivation of the leadership team fades, and thus, the entire club activity withers. In pondering this […]
An Open Letter Back To The #SAchat Community
The Backstory Kevin and I started The Student Affairs Collaborative in 2005 to test our hypothesis that a decentralized, open system of peer-to-peer learning built around shared interests would increase engagement and retention. We wanted to create a community in which everyone was a teacher at some level, and everyone supported each other to become […]
Starting Alumni Engagement Before Orientation
The deck below was created to frame the conversation around how Red Rover can support alumni departments with their goals. The slide show can also be viewed, downloaded, and embedded here.
Redefining Student Engagement Through the Fogg Behavior Model (Part 1)
BJ Fogg created the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) through his work at the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. The FBM states… “Three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability, and Trigger. When a behavior does not occur, at least one of those three elements is missing.” Fogg […]
Increased Engagement Through Bizarre College Clubs
Yesterday, USA Today reported on how student participation in co-curricular (outside the classroom) activities leads to higher GPAs and a more satisfied social life. “College experts say students who participate in extracurricular activities are more engaged in the college experience, and benefits can be seen both in and outside the classroom.” The article’s focus wasn’t about participation […]
Your New Best Friend, Social Networking in the First Year Experience (Part 4)
Comfort is curing the loneliness that inevitably comes with moving to a new peer network. Some evidence suggests that the brain may even process social exclusion using the same circuitry as physical pain. Loneliness hurts.