Social Media for Student Retention: Gates Foundation Hones In on Possiblities

Michael Staton

The Gates Foundation has a goal of doubling the number of young people who earn a postsecondary degree or certificate with value in the marketplace by the time they reach age 26. You can learn more about their postsecondary education initiatives here.

Nick Punt, VP of Product, and I were honored to help shape the Gates Foundation’s thoughts on social media and degree completion at a meeting in Seattle on March 29, 2010.  In attendence was:

• Citizen Engagement Lab – The CEL uses online and offline (aka in-person) community building techniques to organizing and engage citizens in collective action.
• Inigral – Recently launched the product “Schools on Facebook” to reinvent the way that colleges and universities engage their audiences to recruit new students, retain existing ones and keep strong relationships with alumni.
• Kiva – Empowers individuals to lend to entrepreneurs around the globe.  Kiva recently brought its fundraising platform to the United States to focus on college students.
• Re-vision Labs – Pursues innovative engagement strategies and has helped more than a dozen community and national non-profits with their social media and organizing strategies.

Bill and Melinda Gates speaking with college students

One of the great things at the Gates foundation HQ was the free Diet Dr. Pepper :)  This was different from the past week when I was a guest at the Gates Foundation Business Convening in DC; there, they only had only Diet Pepsi :(

So, here is my editorialized summary of the takeaways from the meeting:

There is an unprecedented opportunity to reach and mobilize young people using New Media.  In particular, to promote completion we must focus on three areas:

1. Interactive Media – Students must be presented interactive information that generates awareness of degree opportunities available to them that produce economic value in their communities.  Information on how and why to enroll and complete these degrees must be disseminated in places and in ways that will reach low-income students.  My personal proposal would be an interactive platform that will integrate local employment and education information and be on display in local consumer businesses like convenience stores and chain restaurants.
2. Viral Media – Information gurus must get with viral media experts and information designers and create short, catchy attempts at viral media (like infographics and videos) to raise awareness of the importance of degree completion and resources to choose from and persist in degree programs.  My proposal is to have a lock-in/competition where information designers, media experts, and researchers have to generate viral media in a 24-48 hr time period.
3. Social Media – A next-generation of social software must get traction in the laggard education market. This software must intelligently use peer examples to shape a positive culture and encourage students to have successful habits and behaviors, use proven coping mechanisms, reach out to resources, and persist through to degree completion.  Well, here I’m just biased.

Social Media can quickly mobilize communities of interest.  Existing sites like Facebook must be a cornerstone of sharing and propagating good information.

The Gates Foundation is poised to take a leadership role in creating a movement around postsecondary completion.  I look forward to playing a part, and I hope Inigral can help work towards that bold goal of doubling the number of students completing degrees.