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Student Affairs and Technology:
An Introduction to the Integration of dot.coms and Student
Affairs
Daniel J.
Volchok, Ed.D.
Manager, Student Relations
Community Leader - Student Resource Center
WebCT
One item of much discussion at the 2000 NASPA
conference was the number of dot-com companies at the
exhibit hall. In conjunction with the 10 exhibitors, there
were 14 educational sessions with a technology theme. With
the changing face of technology and the proliferation of
private companies entering the higher education market, what
is on the horizon for Student Affairs?
In the not too distant past, discussions regarding
technology centered on evaluating student information
systems, computerized housing assignment processes and the
installation of a port for each bed. Now, online student
services, student portals, e-commerce and virtual learning
communities are a reality. How the student affairs
professional embraces these innovations will affect how we
do our jobs in the future and how students perceive the role
of student affairs in their overall education. Student
affairs professionals must understand the pros and cons of
this new technology in order to effectively evaluate and
adopt these advances.
A portal is an internet site which amalgamates
information in one location. A student portal is one where a
student can receive news, campus-based information and
personalized content. For those portals integrated into the
student information system, individual academic, financial
aid and bursar information can be provided to the student.
Depending on the sophistication of the portal and the level
of integration to campus systems, these portals can act as a
campus-based intranet.
Some campuses have developed their own intranets while a
number of private companies have developed portals to serve
the campus market. Currently, there are two different types
of student portal providers. The first, such as CollegeClub,
StudentAdvantage,
MyBytes, and student.com
do not affiliate with individual campuses. While a student
can personalize their "homepage" on the site, the
information they receive is generic to all college students.
The sites provide mostly lifestyle-type information, chat
rooms and some academic related content. These sites profess
to be the site for college students. as I-village
is for women.
The second type of portal partners with individual
institutions to create a campus specific intranet. These
companies, such as, Campus
Pipeline, Mascot
Network and Studentonline,
will provide the technology to give each student (and often
faculty and staff) a personalized calendar. When integrated
with the student information system, class schedules, exams
and other academic information can be placed on the
calendar. Student activities offices can send event notices
to the students or those that have indicated certain
interests. Faculty can send announcements to all students in
a particular class. Through e-commerce interfaces, book
lists for each class can be posted and links to the campus
bookstore or external bookstores can be provided. In some
cases these portals are provided at no cost to the
institution in order to allow the company to market to the
student and faculty/staff users.
As these types of portals become more mainstream, student
affairs professionals need to be involved in the
institutional decisions regarding which platform to adopt.
The use of portals will change the way student activities
and residence life promote their events, the manner in which
campus communication takes place, the interaction between
students and faculty/staff, and the interaction between
students themselves. In addition, the placement of
e-commerce opportunities or advertising on portals must be
evaluated.
Automated student services have been available and
utilized for a number of years. Proprietary student
information systems have provided telephone registration,
web access to student records and web based admission
packages. Recently, a number of companies have segmented the
market by offering specific student services over the web.
The major areas have been admissions, financial aid and
career services. In admissions, companies such as embark.com,
collegeNET and
EducationConnect
are offering online applications for students, recruitment
and targeted marketing for the institution and a matching
service for both sides of the equation. Financial Aid
related sites offer financial planning resources,
scholarship searching and matching services, and loan and
grant information. These sites are both government sponsored
(The
Student Guide) and private companies (FinAid!,
FastWeb). A number of
job sites have targeted the college market, offering resume
banks, job listing specifically for first time job seekers
and internship opportunities. Some sites, in partnership
with individual colleges, maintain on campus recruiting and
interviewing schedules. Finally, a number of companies are
creating and maintaining on-line student portfolios.
Companies in the career planning market include Gooeyindustries,
JobDirect.com the
College Grad
Job Hunter.
The type of services and information provided by private
companies continues to grow. Sites offering counseling
advice (Psych
Central), health information (98six.com)
and International student services (eduPASS)
are now available.
The level of involvement by the campus varies with each
online company. Many companies do not wish to develop a
relationship with individual campuses other then to have the
staff use the resources on their site and send students to
their pages. In other cases, a relationship is established
to provide direct service to the college and its students.
Obviously, the resources offered on the web can affect the
level of service expected by the campus-based office and can
alter the relationship between the student and on campus
professionals. Will students begin to say "I don't need to
go to my Career Services Office, I can find all the
resources and contacts on the web"? Student affairs
professionals need to remain abreast of what is available on
the web and use the information to supplement the resources
and services offered on campus.
As the amount of information on the web grows and becomes
more complex, searching through and evaluating the accuracy
of the available resources has become burdensome. In order
to ease the search for information and to validate the
resources, the major providers of on-line teaching platforms
have developed e-learning hubs. These sites provide
resources for students and faculty through links to existing
web sites, content written by professionals for the
community or content purchased from third party providers.
Regardless of the source, the information has been evaluated
and deemed accurate, easy to access and valuable for
students, faculty and staff. Use of these sites will ease
the search and evaluation process. An additional component
of the hub are discussion forums and chat rooms where
discussions on current issues and questions can be raised in
a community atmosphere.
WebCT has taken the
e-learning community an additional step through the
development of a Student Resource Center. This center is
designed to provide non-discipline specific resources for
students; the first "virtual" student affairs division. To
serve students who are not physically on campus and during
off hours, this community will provide information normally
available through an on-campus office. In addition to the
major career, financial aid and admissions information
previously discussed, resources regarding health and
wellness, academic support (writing and research skills) and
student development (graduate school, leadership
development, international student) will be provided. The
site is free, available 24 hours a day and should be used in
conjunction with on-campus offices.
Clearly, the continued development of web-based resources
will alter the role of the student affairs professional.
Most, if not all, services provided by student affairs can
be provided over the internet. How we assist students in
utilizing the internet and embrace the changes both on our
campuses and through the dot-coms will help define our
future role. Turning a blind eye, not accepting the fact
that students will use the internet more or not beginning to
serve distance-learning students will diminish the
effectiveness and importance of the work of student affairs
offices.
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