Survey Report: Customer Service in Higher Education

2012. Academic Impressions surveyed professionals from 79 institutions of higher education, asking them to grade their institution’s level of customer service and to comment on the challenges faced in improving it. The responses were revealing. A “C” in Customer Service 29 of our respondents rated their institution with a “B” letter grade for level of […]

Supporting Adjunct Faculty: An Investment in Your Instructors, an Investment in Your Students

A 2010 US Department of Education study found that adjunct instructors teach 60% of the college courses in the US. They represent a critical first line of instruction for many students, yet often receive minimal faculty development and minimal institutional support for serving students. This week, we interviewed Jennifer Strickland, the interim director for Mesa […]

Moving to a Mobile-Enabled Approach

Post-secondary institutions are traditionally both risk averse and slow adopters of new technologies. In facing the rapid adoption rate of mobile technologies by the general population, it can be difficult to know where to start and how to know whether your initial efforts are working. But this is the time to jump in and learn. […]

Examples of Innovations with Mobile Technologies

Here is a showcase of examples from different institutions that have found relatively inexpensive ways to use mobile devices to add real value to key interactions with students and alumni — for example, during the campus tour, in the classroom, and at alumni events such as reunion and homecoming. Fully Leveraging the Power of the […]

Adopting Mobile: Reasons for Urgency

But how urgent is it to move on mobile technologies? Let’s review the data. Mobile Technologies in the Eyes of Students and Alumni In June 2010, Ball State University released a study showing that of college students owning phones, 49% owned smartphones. An ECAR report released a few weeks ago documented that this number has […]

What Mobile Technologies Can Do

  Don’t Try to Do Radio on TV A few years ago, as the first institutions were making forays into mobile learning, Academic Impressions reached out to Judy Brown, founder and former director of the University of Wisconsin system’s Academic ADL Co-Lab and a key thinker in mobile learning strategies. Brown notes that when we […]

Your Campus Website: Why Responsive Design May Be Your Next Step

Recent projections by technology researchers confirm that mobile devices and tablets are seeing rapid adoption — and that more prospective students and alumni are first viewing your institution’s website from a mobile device. For example, market research firm IDC reported last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through […]

Rethinking the President’s Role in Fundraising

Because your institution’s president is uniquely positioned to scan the horizon and help develop and communicate a vision of the future to prospective donors, his or her role in fundraising entails far more than just making connections and making the ask. In his recent monograph “Fundraising for Presidents: A Guide,” Jim Langley, president and founder […]

Survey Report: Online Giving, Mobile Apps

Market research firm IDC projected last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections, and many institutions are reporting sharp increases in the web traffic they are seeing from mobile devices. For example, Brett Pollak, director of the campus web office for […]

Twitter and Learning

What are specific ways that faculty can use Twitter in the classroom – and outside it – in ways that aid student learning? Several studies at Michigan State University over the past couple of years have produced some fascinating findings about college students and Twitter: A 2010 study led by Jeff Grabill found that college […]