Can Lightning Strike Twice? Choosing and Implementing a Social Network

for Inter-Departmental Collaboration at Two Universities

Allan Gyorke

Chief Academic Technology Officer

Hannah Inzko

Director of Learning Innovation and Faculty Engagement

University of Miami CC: Owen Zammit via Flickr

We had success using a social

network at one institution.

Can we repeat that success?

Short Answer …

Yes

But you need a lightning rod

cc: sung ming whang via Flickr

And don’t get burned!

Long Answer …

Common communication challenges

How we tried to tackle them

What began to work

Replicating success

What we will discuss:

Poll

Which communication challenges

do you face? (multiple answer)

• Organizational silos of knowledge or expertise

• Desire for more transparency

• Limited opportunities to exchange ideas

• Too many places to look to find out what is happening

• None - Communication at my institution is great

Communication Challenges

at Penn State

• University Park: “Main Campus”

• 19 smaller undergrad campuses

• 3 special mission campuses (medical, law, graduate studies)

• 1 completely online campus

• 96, 500 students

• 82,000 undergrads (5,500 online)

• 14,600 grad students (4,800 online)

1 University

24 Physical Campuses

Communication Challenges

at Penn State

Communication Challenges

at Penn State

• Lots of people feel left out or ignored

• No opportunities to meet at the water cooler

• Difficult to connect to people in similar positions

• Overwhelming number of things happening

• Desire for increased transparency

• Silos abound!

Sound familiar?

Communication Solutions

(version 1.0)

Listservs

Listservs

Communication Solutions

(version 2.0)

Social Media

Put it on

Update the

I told everyone on

Announce it on

Post those on

Assign it on

Some people were happy to jump around

Others felt like they were always late to the party

No One Platform is Perfect

Some people don’t like mixing

the public and work personas

No One Platform is Perfect

Prone to spam

Only good if updated

Better used for reference

No One Platform is Perfect

Great for project management

Licensing can be an issue

for broad collaborations

What we finally selected:

Yammer

• As easy as Facebook (Youtube,

document preview, comments, likes)

• Private to work groups

• Option to get e-mail updates notices,

digests, or just check in now and then

• Collaborative notes

• Shared documents

• … not perfect, but good enough

• Agreed upon primary source

Yammer at

• Started in Spring 2011

• Early adopters: Teaching and Learning with

Technology, Learning Design Community

• By Summer 2013: 450 people in Learning Design

Community

• Sharing links, asking questions, peer support

• Cross-department, cross-position, cross-campus

Yammer at

• Started in Summer 2013

• Announced as the expected communication channel for

Academic Technologies (transparency was a motivating

value):

• News: announcements, weekly updates

• Events: agendas and notes, workshops, happy hours

• Kudos: acknowledgements of good work

• Re-created the Learning Design Community

(currently 73 members)

Watch

this on

Write about

that on

The pictures

are on

Post

this on

Yammer as the hub

War Stories

• Similar to instant messenger, lots can be lost in

translation

• Over use can be looked at as non-productive time

(in the early stages)

• If you are giving staff a platform to have a voice,

you’d better listen…and act.

• Too many groups, and the privacy of groups can

ruin the inherent transparency

Poll • What are your biggest challenges to adoption of a social

networking platform? (multiple answer)

• Training/support

• Awareness

• Sustained engagement

• Usefulness

• Policies

• Other? (Tell us in chat)

Open Discussion

• What are your war stories?

• What is working for you?

Lightning Rod Practices

• Culture shift - new expectations

• Training is required

• Invite comments - interactive

• Model behavior - liking, commenting, praising

cc: sung ming whang via Flickr

Closing Comments

• Nothing is perfect

• Be considerate of the change in culture

• Consistency is appreciated

• Invite participation

Thank You!