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Universities Go Beyond Web Pages To Reach Students
NORFOLK, VA (AP) - When Nancy Cooley’s nephew received glossy recruiting
brochures from colleges, he threw them in the trash and went online to learn
about the schools he was interested in attending.
Old Dominion University, where Cooley is vice provost for distance learning,
is going beyond a traditional Web page to try to attract students like her
nephew who are used to getting information on the Internet and spending time
on social
networking sites such as Facebook.
ODU is the first college or university in Virginia to launch a channel on
the popular video-sharing site YouTube, in partnership with the state. The
channel,
www.youtube.com/profile?user=odu, went live this year and has videos featuring
various aspects of the school, such as spotlights on faculty, a promotion for
a film festival and a helicopter tour of the campus.
“
The primary benefit is, that that’s where the young people are,” said
Cooley, who is spearheading development of the channel. “They are out looking
at YouTube every day. As they’re exploring YouTube, we want them to find
ODU.”
The channel is also a way to showcase ODU to entice potential faculty, Cooley
said, and it eventually will offer full course lectures that can be watched
for free, but not for college credit.
YouTube is providing the channel, technical assistance and server space at
no charge, and there is no advertising on the channel.
YouTube, based in San Bruno, CA, began offering dedicated higher-education
channels roughly a year ago. YouTube declined to release how many schools have
the channels
but said more are joining all the time.
“
From virtual campus tours to chemistry lectures, education channels on YouTube
are microcosms of the vibrant world of higher-ed,” Obadiah Greenberg, strategic
partner manager at YouTube, said in an e-mail statement. “We are excited
to see a broad range of higher-education institutions launch YouTube channels;
it’s a powerful way to connect scholars and self-learners worldwide.”
Last year, Google Inc., YouTube’s parent, announced partnerships with
Virginia, as well as Arizona, California and Utah, to make it easier for people
to find
state information on Web sites.
ODU is an early adopter of a YouTube-Virginia partnership that’s still
in the works, said Aneesh Chopra, Virginia’s secretary of technology. Virginia’s
government has quietly launched a YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/Virginiagovernment,
that has links to video from various state agencies and institutions; Chopra
said a formal announcement will come later as more content is added.
A key benefit of the enhanced government and higher-education channels is
the ability to host longer videos than the usual snippets posted to YouTube,
Chopra
said. That will allow ODU, and other Virginia colleges and universities, to
make course lectures available to people who can’t afford tuition, live
far away or just want to learn about a subject without enrolling.
“
While I appreciate the tour of the campus as a good starting point, the value
is when the lectures are available,” Chopra said.
Indeed, ODU plans to add videos of full courses that people could watch for
free from anywhere in the world. The channel can draw from the thousands of
hours
of digital content the university already has as part of its distance-learning
interactive television network throughout Virginia, in other states and on
Navy ships at sea.
Lisa Snowdy, a public relations specialist at ODU who built and administers
the ODU channel, said another goal is to help develop a sense of community
at the
university by bringing the university to their desktops and laptops.
“
These kinds of sites are a great tool to do that,” Snowdy said. “Students
can see some of the art things that are going on that maybe they didn’t
know about. Perhaps that will encourage them to go in person the next time something
rolls around. They really get an idea of what’s going on on campus.”
ODU student Aseem Rastogi, a 19-year-old sports management major from Fairfax,
said he especially likes that the channel reaches a global audience.
“
It will bring a lot more international students here, because YouTube is a phenomenon
that is understood by everybody,” Rastogi said.
He also thinks the official channel will inspire students to post their own
videos of campus happenings to YouTube, showing a more realistic side of
life at ODU.
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