Where Are the Students? A Look at UITS Best Practices for Engaging with Students
Mentor 1
Rachael Jurek
Start Date
28-4-2023 12:00 AM
Description
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Information Technology Services (UITS) struggles with online engagement. There is a low rate of students opening emails from UITS, they have very few followers on their social media channels and have even fewer people interacting with their posts. It’s important for UITS to have a higher engagement to be able to reach students with IT resources. Access to technology is vital for student success in college, and many students try to solve their own technology issues because they are unaware of the resources available to them. We started with a comparative analysis of 70 schools- we looked at all of the UW systems universities, then looked at universities throughout the United States that are similar in size to UW-Milwaukee. Out of the 70 we chose to interview nine schools that stood out because of their use of social media and amount of engagement online to better learn about best practices. We have found that university IT departments use different approaches to connect with their students, but overall, universities that were interviewed agreed that it is important to reach students where they are in person, in class, and on social media. Next, a survey will be distributed to UW-Milwaukee students to learn about their social media habits, with a focus group following to learn more qualitative information. Universities that were interviewed expressed interest in the results because it is a field without in-depth exploration and the findings will benefit universities around the nation.
Where Are the Students? A Look at UITS Best Practices for Engaging with Students
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Information Technology Services (UITS) struggles with online engagement. There is a low rate of students opening emails from UITS, they have very few followers on their social media channels and have even fewer people interacting with their posts. It’s important for UITS to have a higher engagement to be able to reach students with IT resources. Access to technology is vital for student success in college, and many students try to solve their own technology issues because they are unaware of the resources available to them. We started with a comparative analysis of 70 schools- we looked at all of the UW systems universities, then looked at universities throughout the United States that are similar in size to UW-Milwaukee. Out of the 70 we chose to interview nine schools that stood out because of their use of social media and amount of engagement online to better learn about best practices. We have found that university IT departments use different approaches to connect with their students, but overall, universities that were interviewed agreed that it is important to reach students where they are in person, in class, and on social media. Next, a survey will be distributed to UW-Milwaukee students to learn about their social media habits, with a focus group following to learn more qualitative information. Universities that were interviewed expressed interest in the results because it is a field without in-depth exploration and the findings will benefit universities around the nation.
