Admissions Essay January 2010

I’d like to spend time exploring my interest in student engagement with social media…I expect that within a few years I will produce a dissertation that is relevant to the field and inspires others to embrace technology in student affairs. Ultimately, I expect to graduate from Cardinal Stritch University ready to lead a student affairs organization that embraces technology and social media as a means of increasing student engagement.

Research Plan July 2010

First, I’d like to study how social media can be used by higher education professionals to increase the academic and personal development of college students.  Second, I’d like to find or establish a standard procedure for collecting data about social media activities for research and assessment purposes.

Research “Idea Paper” April 2011

Through meetings with my advisor and mentor I’ve brainstormed many possible research questions involving social media and college students. After almost a year of deliberation, I’ve come back to the question I originally posed at the beginning of my coursework…

The purpose of this study is to determine if the use of social media has a positive effect on student engagement. The related research questions are:

1. Does the use of social media to communicate with peers have an effect on college student engagement?
2. Does the use of social media to communicate with faculty have an effect on college student engagement?
3. Does the use of social media to communicate with campus staff have an effect on college student engagement?

February 11, 2012

At this point, I figured I was good to go. I made it through another summer institute, spent the fall learning about the nature of intelligence, more research and advanced stats. I avoided any work on my dissertation or research question. This spring, in addition to my core coursework about research and learning organizations, I’m also taking Advanced Research Methods and Survey Methods. In essence, the assignment for these classes is to complete a solid draft of chapters one and three of my dissertation.

I realized I was struggling to verbalize my research question in both of these classes. It was awkward to say, not everyone understood what it meant, and as I started identifying the constructs for my survey, I realized I was missing something major. I had to send my survey framework to my mentor for feedback, but I prefaced the assignment with these words:

I’ve been struggling with wording my research question(s) correctly. There are so many things I want to study, I’m trying to narrow it down to something that’s doable in a dissertation that doesn’t take a decade.

I now had two research questions:

• Among college students, is there a relationship between social networking site use and student engagement?
• How do college students utilize social networking sites to communicate with faculty, administrative personnel, and other students?

What my mentor didn’t know was that four hours prior to sending that email, I sent a pretty panicked email to my committee chair. I didn’t know how to research my constructs; I wasn’t sure my question made sense; help, can all this be answered in an email?!?!? Being the super chill guy he is, he simply replied, “Let’s meet next week.”

February 17, 2012

I’d gotten feedback back from my mentor. He pointed out I already knew the answer to my first research question (duh!). I took his feedback with me to my meeting with my chair. He pointed out to me that my remaining question was pretty vague. This wasn’t a judgement on his part, it became apparent when he took me through the following drill (which I’m sure I remember much more vividly than he does).

Chair: Tell me what you want to know, in one sentence.

Me: Well, I want to know how students are communicating with three different groups of people, in three different ways, and how that might affect…

Chair: Too many words, try again. (I think this was repeated two or three times)

Me: Ok. I’d like to assess student engagement based on the NSSE and correlate it with the types of communication students have with faculty, staff, and peers.

Chair: That tells me what you want to do. Tell me what you want to know.

Me: Ummm…I want to know if there’s a difference in student engagement based on how students communicate with faculty, staff and students.

Chair: Much better! Now, how can you make that a research question?

I’ll spare you the transcript of the rest of the conversation, but when I walked out of his office I felt very confident about my question:

How does the method students use to communicate with faculty, staff and peers impact their student engagement?

How I Feel Today

I feel like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders. Many of you may not know I was an interpersonal communication major, and constructing my research question this way will give me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with communication literature. Also, I have a question that doesn’t turn people off if they happen to have a negative opinion of social media research.

Am I still a social media researcher? Absolutely. I see the “methods of communication” I’m studying fall into three categories: face to face, using social networking sites, or other electronic correspondence such as email or instant messenger. If students who frequently use social media to communication with faculty, staff and peers have high levels of student engagement, I’ll have some empirical evidence that could form the basis for any number of projects and practical applications. If that correlation doesn’t exist, I’ll still learn a lot about how college students are communicating with faculty, staff and peers. As far as I see it, this question is a win-win.

I really didn’t think it would take me almost two years to have a researchable question, but I’m happy to be in that place now. I feel like I’m at the point where my research is really going to take off — last weekend in class I was revising my draft of chapter one and realized I’m only three short sections away from turning in a draft. This is getting real. And I couldn’t be more excited.

Ok, now that we’re all on the same page (and really, was anyone confused?), I’d like to tell a story about an email I received in response to a previous blog post.

I woke up a little earlier than usual this morning. As I often do, I reached over and grabbed my iPhone from the nightstand. I opened my personal email account, and saw that among the messages, there was one with the subject line “Erroneous Blog Post.” Ok, someone didn’t like something I wrote. That’s not out of the ordinary. When I opened the message, I was completely shocked. My boss was CC’ed on the email. An email sent to my personal account about my personal blog. A very strongly worded email. Jumping over to my work account, I had a message from my boss that simply read “Liz, what is this about?” I quickly sent the following message to my boss:

FYI, this is a comment about a post on my personal blog. I’m puzzled why he chose to copy you on it. I will make clear to this man that the views on my blog are mine and not UW-Waukesha’s.   Let me know if you have any questions.

Then I settled in to really read the email. Boy, was I in for a wild ride.

To: Liz

From: James

Appreciate your blog post re marketing people in silo’s and specifically referring and focusing on the errors of our small startup and assumptions which actually are all based around us being 3 days late with a website but you chose to interpret as us living under a rock – could not agree more with the theme of your article and we see it every day, however I think it was a little bit baited as it is relatively assumptions driven and very quick to conclusions as it related to us.

That is a really long sentence.

Just to be clear, I did not accuse anyone of living under a rock. I pointed out that the ad referred to digital elements which didn’t exist at the time of publication. I may have made “assumptions” (I think conclusions is a better term), but this is my blog, and I’m allowed to do that here. Moving on…

The reality was our web component was a few days late and now the first phase is thankfully live, but the ad goes into print 30 days earlier so a stopwatch has started as one of a million deadlines that must be met when launching a software company. As a start up we all wear a million hats and sit next to each other daily ranking the projects and the priorities for our limited bandwidth, your article would suggest we have a 5 floor office complex and the guy from mad men is not communicating with the tech guys in the basement!!!

You specifically state the answer to our problem “”Clearly, this is a case of the marketing department not talking to the rest of the organization“

Yes, I understand how advertising works. It’s my job. Sometimes you have to send in copy well in advance of publication, when you’re still working on the digital elements. But it’s your job to get those elements done in time. Or have a place holder ready, or something.

Also, the quote from my own piece fails to include the next sentence, in which I assume (correctly) that this company is just a bunch of people hanging out in the same room. I think this makes the error worse, not more excusable.

I wish it was a marketing team that we had and perhaps your post would be more relevant if we had been a series a or in business for a while company. In reality we are racing to get our app ready for launch time and as a small business with a careful budget and limited personnel we cannot just subcontract web to a cool company but instead must handle in house. You have 5 people that pretty much eat, live and breath this tech and doing everything in their power to bring it to life.

This sounds a lot like my office. I am not a web designer, videographer, or photographer. Yet, I do all of those things because we run a lean operation. I’d still have egg on my face if I put out an ad with digital components that weren’t ready. There’s no on else to blame.

I would think, given your expertise and background you would have afforded us opportunity for comment prior to posting but I guess in the world of getting web hits – go with the story that has the most juice and handle any “edits” later and then the audacity to send me a link to your post.

I’m not quite sure why anyone would be under the impression that I am a journalist. This is a personal blog. The writing process for the post in question went a little something like this:

• sit down on couch and read SXSW World magazine
• realize multiple advertisers are trying to use cool things like QR codes with varying levels of success
• vow to scan all QR codes in the magazine
• realize one doesn’t even work
• research the company for five minutes online and write a blog about it

No, I didn’t check my sources. I don’t have to. I was writing my opinion. Now, if someone would like to hire me to write an article for a print/web publication about this ad, I’d feel the need to cover all sides of the story. But on my blog? No.

I am unhappy, as I am sure you can tell, not because of the volume of traffic that your site gets, obviously that is not the issue, I am unhappy because a small company of 5 has this out there making rather large judgements about us and its not only wholly inaccurate its incredibly demotivating to see companies being focused on and crippled when innovation is leaving America, I don’t think its fair and I think had you phoned me I would have given you a better story – how a startup led by 5 people all with multiple successful exits could possibly be 3 days late on getting their website up.

Again, that is a very long sentence.

First, thanks for the thinly veiled jab at the amount of traffic my blog receives. If no one reads what I write, why on earth do you care about it so much?

Second, I was writing about an ad. I don’t really write about start up companies, I write about marketing and communication.

Third, you really need to grow a thicker skin. As I wrote in my email response to him: If your company takes off, bloggers will be producing commentary, good or bad, regarding your products, services, and business practices all the time. Apparently I’m the first one you have encountered, but trust me, I am not unique in this regard.

I spend a majority of my non existent free time providing pro bono under the startup america hat – the first rule I teach new businesses, aim for success, but don’t be afraid of failure, it is the iteration process that will lead you to success. Lesson learned. 3 days late.

It seems to me that you’re confirming that what I wrote about in my original blog post was correct. I understand you dont like it. As you said, don’t be afraid to fail. Move on, dude.

I would ask, but doubt it would happen, that you recognize my position and appreciate the time I have given to provide you an explanation and remove the post. Lets start fresh, phone me in the morning and we can talk about real content from real companies actually in the trenches looking to dominate what is a very noisy and very difficult space.

Oh, hell no. I will not remove my post that offers my simple observation and opinion about an advertisement that appeared in a magazine. And no, I will not call you to discuss this. Why? Because you sent this to my boss.

How It Ended

At the end of the day (on my own time, as this is not a work-sponsored blog), I wrote James and expressed my dismay that he included my supervisor in the conversation. I then made many of the points I made on this blog. I made it clear I did not want to discuss the issue further. He quickly wrote me back, reiterated his unhappiness with my blog post, and commented that he wrote the original email quickly while in flight, and in hindsight perhaps he should have worded it differently. I won’t be writing him back.

The Real Issue

Had I received this email this morning, addressed only to me, my response would have been pretty simple. Something like: “I understand you didn’t like what I wrote in my blog post. I invite you to comment on the post and add your company’s side of the story. Perhaps we can start a dialogue.” I definitely would not have posted the text of the email on my blog. I probably would only have told one or two people I’d even received it.

But this email was not only addressed to me. A copy was sent to my boss. This guy went to the trouble to go to my campus website, look up the head administrator, and copy him on an email that is completely unrelated to the work I do. Why? The only reason I can think of is to bully me. I think James wanted me to be afraid that I would get in trouble, and as a result take down my post.

But here’s the thing: I don’t think I did anything wrong. I’m not in trouble with my boss. My boss knows about this blog, and he actually thinks the content is interesting and thought-provoking.

I have a feeling that if I was older, and perhaps a man, this issue would not have been handled this way. I would still have received the email, but the issue would have remained between the two of us. You know, similar to how most adults handle conflicts.

I’m posting this to make a point. At any point in time, anyone can disagree with what I write. They can question the validity of my argument. They can ask me to change what I’ve written (although I probably won’t). But I’d appreciate it if people had the respect to carry out that dialogue in the comments (if they wish for it to be public) or via a private email conversation (which they have every reason to expect to remain private). Unless, that is…if they CC my boss.

Do you think people who aren’t active in social media personally can effectively manage an organization’s social media presence?

I got a couple of responses that really made me laugh, and made me think.

@lizgross144 @timstjohn like a life guard who doesn’t swim.

— Brian Lind (@BrianLind7) February 13, 2012

@BrianLind7 @lizgross144 or a pilot who is scared of heights.

— Tim St. John (@timstjohn) February 13, 2012

Although social media management is not life and death, Brian and Tim are right. Would you visit a pool patrolled by a lifeguard who can’t swim? Learn to fly from a pilot who’s afraid of heights? Why then, would you pay to learn about social media management from someone who hasn’t demonstrated personal competence in social media?

I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m sticking with my instincts. I don’t think it’s possible to effectively manage an organization’s social media if you’re not participating in social media personally. There’s a culture and a language that you need to understand. It’s very hard to learn that culture when you’re tweeting behind a logo.

I looked into the institutional social media presence that this person manages. I found a Twitter account that’s linked to Facebook, a Facebook page littered with likes of its own content, and a QR code on the institutional homepage (it makes no sense to put a QR code online!). This presenter may be very nice and knowledgeable, but I would not pay for this webinar. I would, however, congratulate the presenter on landing a paying gig ahead of people who are eminently more qualified.

I would (and routinely do) recommend presentations or webinars presented by many of the people I’m sure are reading this blog. I’ve interacted with you for months, maybe even years, and I know you know your stuff. You’ve built up “street cred” online that a flashy bio can’t fake. People with access and connections who lack expertise should no longer be the ones teaching social media strategy to our colleagues.

I believe that the title of “expert” is not something you can bestow on yourself. You become an expert when others look to you for your expertise. Many of you reading this are experts, whether you realize it or not. Take your place at the table, and provide better training and inspiration than is currently being offered in a lot of pay-to-learn opportunities.

If you’re already contributing to quality training in higher education, how did you get your start? What was your first step? If you’re an expert without training opportunities, what’s holding you back? What questions do you have?

We’re now actively seeking funding for this project from another source. Please see Rey Junco’s post for details. If you are in the position to contribute funding to this project, please contact Rey. If you’re not, but find the project interesting, please pass this on using Twitter, Facebook…even old fashioned email.

Thanks to everyone for your interest in this project. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the research!

A core conversation is not a presentation. It’s a discussion of ideas. They won’t even allow us to have a slide deck (lucky audience!). What this means, however, is none of us will be a “sage on the stage.” The gems of this conversation will come from the audience, and I’m inviting you to be a part of it.

Through the comments on this post, or using the hashtag #highedsoc, you can help set the stage for this conversation. We’ve got a few questions that are meant to guide the conversation, but you might have better ones. What are we missing? What should we talk about? Not only will we bring up the great ideas you come up with during the conversation at SXSW, we’ll also record the conversation so you can see/hear what transpired because of your fantastic input. Ultimately, I hope to post the best parts as part of my resource guide for higher education marketers and communicators (with proper attribution, of course).

So please, jump in. Here are some prompts to get you started:

1. What are the unique challenges of creating an integrated social media presence in a higher ed institution?
2. How do you get senior leadership as well as members of your department on board?
3. How do you get colleges, divisions and departments working together?
4. What are the best social media tactics to reach prospective students?
5. What are the innovative things universities are doing with social media?

Remember, comment on this post or tweet with #highedsoc to contribute to the conversation.

I'll just gloss over the fact that the riff on Uncle Sam is completely overdone.

So, first I scanned the QR code. The link is dead. It directs you to http://cwn.canwestudios.com/?sxswad1. I’m not even hyperlinking that URL, because it doesn’t exist. With a little sleuthing, I determined it was indeed supposed to link to http://canwestudios.com/?sxswad1.  What QR-code, mobile appropriate content will you find there, you ask? Well, none. It’s just a copy of the main site, which really doesn’t have any content. The funny thing is, the only traffic their actual sxsw ad landing page will get will likely come from this blog.

I thought the nice thing to do would be to inform the company of their mistake directly. They were kind enough to put their Twitter username, @canwenetwork, right in the ad. Here’s another problem – that Twitter account is an egg-head with no description and one follower. I assume the ad was supposed to point readers to be @canwemeet. Although it’s not a highly active Twitter account, it does have their recognizable company logo and a descriptive bio.

So, we have a display ad that I assume wasn’t cheap, which includes a QR code to a dead link and an inactive Twitter account that may not even belong to the company. What exactly is the value of this ad? Why not admit that the company really isn’t into Twitter and QR codes and just add the URL to the ad? Did someone tell the marketing staff to use the URL and Twitter account, or did marketing forget to tell the staff they’d included it in the ad? However it pans out, it’s an expensive mistake.

On top of all this, the ad doesn’t even tell me what the company does. The website doesn’t have any content other than some email addresses for more information. Basically, they appear to be a mobile web development company that happened to launch a networking/party mobile app. Given that the people they’re trying to reach are quite savvy about the things they’ve screwed up in this ad, I’m thinking it will cause them more harm than good. Hopefully they have a stellar guerrilla marketing strategy at SXSW, or I don’t see this campaign going anywhere.

Can you think of other cases where marketing jumped the gun on the rest of an organization? How did it turn out? Please share in the comments.

Miller Lite’s marketers really failed at this one. Why? Oh, let me count the ways:

• QR code with no description. There’s the code, front and center. But why is it there? What is my incentive to scan it? Oh, I see… if you read the small print on the bottom right, four sentences in it tells me that the QR code will take me to a website to enter a contest.

• What contest? I assume it has something to do with beer, or SXSW. Well, that’s not explained when you complete your entry form. You have absolutely no idea why you’re filling out the form.

• I can’t even enter! After finishing most of the form, I realize there are only five states to choose from on the list, mine not one of them. Turns out, this contest is open only to residents of AR, MS, NM, OK, or TX. I must ask the question, then – why was this ad placed in a magazine with national and international reach? A full-page ad that isn’t applicable to most of the magazine’s subscribers perplexes me.

• Contest prizes. Now that I know I’m not eligible to win, I want to know what I’m missing out on. I took the time to look up the official rules. Turns out, the grand prize is admission to various SXSW events. 2012 events. Who gets this magazine? Current and past SXSW attendees, mostly. People that are most likely to have already paid for a non-refundable badge.

• Inconsistent contest rules. The print ad says the contest runs through March 18. That’s not very helpful, since the event they’re giving tickets away to ends that day as well. The online rules say the contest ends February 28. Which is it?

• Extreme unlikelihood of prize redemption. If you win admission to a multi-day event approximately a week before it starts, are you even likely to use the prize? As I read the rules further, I learned that the prizes don’t include airfare or lodging. Airfare a week in advance is ridiculous. Lodging for SXSW events has been sold out for months. Who would be able to use this prize, other than someone who already lives in Austin?

• Poor URL usage. I really should stop picking on this ad, but even the URL bugged me. The name of the campaign is “Beer for the People.” I get it, Miller Lite is cheap and accessible (and not very good, if you ask me). But, the website for the contest is www.thebeerforthepeople.com. Why throw the word “the” into the URL? You’re making someone read the fine print to figure out how to access your contest. The URL www.beerforthepeople.com appears available, so it’s not like they couldn’t get it. Actually, I’d like to suggest that Miller Lite get this URL right now, and build it into something useful prior to SXSW, where I’m sure I’ll see more of this advertising.

It appears this is a repeat ad campaign and contest from last year. That’s one more reason it should be done correctly.

I’m also perplexed by the need for a third-party vendor to provide the QR codes for the campaign (see press release in prior campaign link). People actually get paid to make QR codes?

Do you think this is a good ad campaign? Someone must have, because they decided to duplicate it for 2012. If you think it’s great, I’d love to hear why in the comments. Enlighten me.

1. Multiple versions of ad copy and headlines
2. Multiple target audiences

Here’s how I created the ad series, from start to finish:

Message

A previous ad linking to an editorial about reducing college debt was hugely popular in terms of impressions, clicks, and even new likes. It was clear that the message of saving money by attending our two-year institution resonated with Facebook users. I developed three messages that said basically the same thing, with a different focus.

Then, I duplicated these ads with a different headline. Here’s one example:

Social Impressions

Notice that under all of these ads it says “You like UW-Waukesha Official Campus Page” (don’t get me started on how much it bothers me that it says “official page,” but it can’t be changed). This is where viewers would see the names of their friends that are connected to our page. Since I’m advertising to area high school students, and the majority of our students come from those high schools, this means many of the ad impressions will have a social “endorsement.” How did I do that? I used the URL that’s associated with my campus Facebook Page. When you do that, Facebook tries to associate the ad with your page. When creating your Facebook ad, make sure the options you choose look like this:

Results

In one month this six-ad campaign (which was being served to 287,000 teenagers) resulted in over 1.2 million impressions, 24% of which were social. A similar proportion of clicks (22%) were from social impressions.

Two of the six ads accounted for 50% of the clicks. Exactly why is a mystery to me. Each ad has different copy and uses a different headline. There seems to be no logical connection between the two ads—but it sure makes me grateful that I’m able to run multiple ads under the same campaign.

Why Social Impressions Matter

If you have a large fan base, you’d be remiss not to tap into social impressions when advertising off-Facebook content. Our fan base is just under 1,000, which represents less than half of one percent of the target audience I was trying to reach. However, 24% of our impressions were social. The social effect is hugely amplified, especially if your target demographic is similar to your Facebook Page fan demographic. I know I pay more attention to Facebook ads when I see a friend’s name attached.

Interestingly, I ran another ad campaign last summer that used off-Facebook content without social impressions, and I got roughly the same click-through rate. The target audience was different, and my headlines were much quirkier. However, I can’t determine why that campaign was successful. This leads me to believe that good online marketing is a delicate combination of art and science.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s the midpoint of the fiscal year, and I’m evaluating my departmental expenses in anticipation of requesting next year’s budget. I made a big change in our budget this year – I shifted dollars from local newspaper advertising to online advertising, both on Facebook and major sites using “traditional” display ads.

Keep in mind, my department has a very small budget. All told, I have $53,000 to conduct all campus marketing activities, buy office supplies, fund professional development for three employees, hire freelance design services and photographers, and pay for mileage for any required travel. This is actually a windfall, as before this year it was $25,000.

I don’t think I need to convince you that with this budget and amount of responsibilities, every dollar is precious. I can’t afford a billboard on the highway, but I might be able to advertise on a bus shelter. I chose to buy six months of online advertising, which means I give up 6-10 large ads in small-town newspapers.

The time has come to see if it was worth it. I think you’ll be amazed at how these numbers stack up.

Traditional Online Display Advertising

These ads (300 x 250 pixels) ran in two different fashions. In August and December, I had the “big box” ad on a hyper local news site for 50% of the available impressions. September – November, I had the sames ads distributed among local print, television, and radio news sites as well as a national network that provides email, news, and entertainment/enrichment information. The ads on the national network were both behavioral and geo-targeted; they were only served to viewers in my county who were conducting web searches related to education.

The terms of my advertising agreement prohibit me from saying exactly what my rates were, so I will talk about cost as a comparison, avoiding exact dollar figures.

Facebook Advertising

I was only actively running Facebook ads in August, November, and December. So, consider the impact if I added two months of ads and these numbers were increased by 60%. If you’ve read my last few blog posts [Why Facebook Ads Work For Higher Education and Turn Engagement Into Promotion With Sponsored Stories], you’re familiar with the type of Facebook ads I run.

The Comparison

Performance

In this five-month period, the traditional ads had 217, 747 impressions and 169 clicks. Click-through rate = .078%

In just three of those five months, the Facebook ads had 8,001,856 impressions and 553 clicks. Click-through rate: .007%. As an added bonus, we gained 36 likes from these ads.

If your main performance metric is click-through rate, the traditional advertising was 10 times more successful.

However, if what you really care about is how many people clicked on your ad, Facebook wins. Our ads received over 3 times as many clicks on Facebook.

Cost

Here is where the big difference lies. In total, I spent four times as much on the traditional ads than the Facebook ads. But remember, there is a huge difference in the number of ads that were served and subsequently clicked on. I think the more important cost figure to look at is the CPM (cost per thousand) and CPC (cost per click).

The CPM for the traditional ads was 154 times the cost of the Facebook ads.

The CPC of the traditional ads was almost 13 times the cost of the Facebook ads.

Conclusion

Clearly, the Facebook ads had a larger reach (and might I say, a much more targeted audience). I’m confident that more members of my various target audiences are on Facebook than browsing local news sites and using a particular email service.

During the next budget cycle, I’m not going to purchase traditional online display ads. I’ll probably triple my budget for Facebook ads. And, just so I’m always experimenting, I’ll budget some money for Google ads. Given all the recent changes to Google Apps and the continued integration of Google Plus, I assume the already-successful AdWords program is going to be even more successful.

Have you analyzed the success of your various advertising platforms? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Have questions? Comments are good for that too.

As my friend/colleague/mentor Rey Junco blogged yesterday, we’ve submitted a research proposal to the Digital Media & Learning Competition. We’re seeking funding for a study that will integrate game dynamics and badges into a large lecture course. Here’s how it would work:

Research Design
Before the semester begins, university students registered for a large-lecture introductory course will be randomly assigned to either a control section or an experimental section. Both the control and experimental sections will be taught by the same instructor and will follow the same schedule in the presentation of course material. Each section will contain at least 200 students for a total of 400 participants.

Experimental Section
Students in the experimental section will use their Android or iOS devices to engage in academic challenges in order to earn badges. Students will check in to the classroom after indicated class sessions. Once they check in, they will be presented with a challenge that involves answering five questions about that day’s lecture, developed in consultation with the course instructor. Students will receive a point for each question they answer correctly. They will also receive points for checking in to the class location, posting pictures of their notes, and posting questions about the day’s lecture. Additionally, students will receive points towards badges by participating in relevant challenges outside of class, including “social check-ins” with a study group, visiting a professor/TA’s office or supplementary instruction session, or checking into the tutoring center.

When a student accumulates a pre-determined amount of points, she or he will receive a badge. Students may earn one badge for each week of the course. At the end of the semester, students will receive course extra credit based on the number of badges they have earned.

Control Section
Students in the control section will have the opportunity to answer the same questions as the experimental group; however, these questions will be presented as quizzes using TurningTechnologies ResponseWare. ResponseWare allows students to submit answers by using either their mobile phones or their laptop computers. The quizzes will include the same content and be administered at the same time as the experimental group. Control group students will also be able to complete the other challenges, but they will be presented as extra credit opportunities accompanied by manual tracking methods and a traditional scoring rubric equivalent to the badge system.

Then What?
We will evaluate differences in student engagement, attendance, and academic performance between the experimental group and the control group. We don’t know what the difference will be, but we’re among a team of folks committed to conducting empirical research to see if they much-hyped “gamification of higher education” has any merit.

What Do You Think?
As much as I love comments on my blog (and if you really want to leave one, go ahead), I’d prefer if you would direct your comment directly to our research proposal. Our literature review, as well as additional outcomes information, is included in the proposal. Do you think this is a project worth funding? Would you be interested in the results? Would you have a use for the results in your every-day work?