A welcoming virtual campus doorstep.When prospective students visit an institution's website, they're seeking information about cost and academics--along with some campus life content and other topics packing an emotional punch thrown in. A new report, "Navigating Toward E-Recruitment," based on a survey of 1,000 high school juniors, details most-wanted web content and compares it to how students currently use college sites. A golden opportunity may exist with instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or , for example. Nearly three-quarters of respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. say they would ask a question of a school via IM and also be receptive receptive /re·cep·tive/ (re-cep´tiv) capable of receiving or of responding to a stimulus. to receiving a college-generated IM. Yet only six percent have used this technology on a school's site. "Clearly, there's a lot of discussion over the purpose of a university website," says Mark Mende, co-founder and president of HighEd-Web, a group of web professionals in higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. that runs an annual web developers conference and an active listserv. Nearly every U.S. institution probably prioritizes its audience differently, adds Mende, also coordinator of Electronic Communications at St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the village of Canton in Saint Lawrence County, New York. Founded in 1856, it is the oldest coeducational university in the state of New York. (N.Y.). After a redesign re·de·sign tr.v. re·de·signed, re·de·sign·ing, re·de·signs To make a revision in the appearance or function of. re , St. Lawrence's opening page is now geared toward high school students. Their focus group research on what prospective students want to see generally meshes with the Noel-Levitz survey, says Mende, noting that opinions on tech bells and whistles A slang English term for exceptional features in some product. In the computer field, it typically refers to functions in software that may be greatly appreciated by some users, even though they may not be necessary most of the time. varied. Nearly two-thirds felt that "college sites shouldn't be very flashy, but have a lot of great content." The school's research revealed that "while content is relatively king, [students] want to be engaged. So we've got some flash movies and a flash intro A piece of animated content displayed at the beginning of a presentation, such as a web site, that is specifically prepared using Adobe Flash. The main content is preparing to load in the background, while the animated content is displayed in the foreground. ." The survey is online at www.noellevitz.com.--M.E. What High School Students Would LIKE TO DO on a College Website Use of financial aid estimator 90% Use a tuition calculator 88% Complete an online application 86% Fill out a campus visit request form 84% RSVP for events 75% Submit an inquiry form 73% Complete an online survey 72% Instant message a counselor 70% E-mail a faculty member 70% Read a profile of a faculty member 69% Forward a page 63% Read a profile of a current student 63% E-mail a current student 63% Read profiles of alumni 59% Personalize a webpage 58% SOURCE: "Navigating Toward E-Recruitment: Ten Revelations About Interacting With College-Bound High School Students," August 2005 |
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