This blog post is based on my presentation at the Georgetown Innovation Summit which begins at 2:53:00. 

To most people, hacking represents something negative. But I prefer to think of it as designing a workaround to achieve a desired result. By paying attention to these hacks, Higher Ed can gain all sorts of inisights to improve the overall student experience.

How Facebook learns from user hacking

In 2004, Facebook was growing, fast. Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the team needed to decide what feature to build next. They had to consider not only the time it would take to build the feature, but also the additional support costs.

One of the features being considered was the ability to upload photos besides your profile photo. Yes, there was actually a time when you could not upload your photo album to Facebook and tag all of your friends. It seems obvious to us now, however at the time it was not quite as clear that this was a feature that users wanted.

When the Facebook team looked at how people were using the site, they noticed users were changing their profile photo multiple times each day. Users wanted to show off their new photos and they came up with this 'hack' as a way to achieve their goal. 

In 2003 B.F. (before Facebook), students would receive the name, email and phone number of their assigned roommate and give them a call. It never occurred to them to look that person up online because there was nowhere to look.

By 2005 A.F., more than 85% of college students were on Facebook; each wanting to know everything they could about their new roommate to be sure that the next year of their life would not be spent in agony (desired result). The hack that students across the country constructed was to research their roommate on Facebook and if they did not like what they saw, call into the housing office and ask for a new roommate.

I have spoken with hundreds of people who work in on-campus housing and 99.9% of them experience some level of Facebook related roommate calls. The only department that did not experience them simply decided to withhold the names of assigned roommates until the students meet on the first day of classes.

So there is the hack. Now, how do you fix the process by incorporating the hack? Our clients achieve this through RoomSync because we empower students to search for roommates on Facebook. They are given access to all potential roommates before the assignments are made. The result? Users who want to be in control of the matching process are happy and housing departments do not receive any calls about Facebook.

How are students hacking your processes? Are they hacking their room like this Berkeley freshman? Try re-examining and thinking of ways to incorporate these hacks to improve the overall student experience. Do you have examples of hacks in Higher Ed? Leave a comment below!

Hey everyone!

Madame Director, here :) Your average student-videographer-editor-sound mixer-colorist-extraordinaire! I'm extremely proud of my latest project: "Day in the Life - The Gator Grind".

Day in the Life of a Student-Athlete's Concept

A few weeks ago, my classmate McKenzie approached me asking if I'd help her with her After Effects final - a project for UF's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The concept is a glimpse into the lives of UF's student-athletes and what they do when they're not training or playing for keeps. The purpose of the video was to promote a new blog called The Gator Grind. As one of UF's star soccer players and an intern for TV20, McKenzie herself is a great example of a very involved and well-rounded student-athlete. She is both athletically and academically accomplished and has labored all semester to successfully launch The Gator Grind blog.

We shot the footage in two weeks and edited the video in one weekend. It premiered at the Florida Letterman Awards, an annual ceremony honoring exceptional student-athletes, and then we uploaded it to The Gator Grind's YouTube channel. Twenty-four hours later, the video had gone viral with its views totaling over 2,000. We couldn't believe it! All the Gator athletes were Tweeting the video and reposting the link on their Facebook profiles. Two days later, multiple sports blogs had reposted the link and The UF Alligator had run a story on the video.

Moral of the story, whoever thinks athletes are just their sport is quite mistaken! At RoomSync we have a dynamic team full of random skill sets, and we value the idea of bringing multifaceted people together to create value and success.

Don't forget to click here to check out "Day In The Life - The Gator Grind."

My internship at RoomSync has been anything but traditional. I “loitered” around the (rather inviting) office for a few weeks before the program officially started, then, after the first few days, took to helping out. Roomsync's environment, as you may have peeked at in our various photos and videos, is very laid back. It's not uncommon to call it “the dorm room office,” which makes sense, considering our company's mission is to keep students in school by reducing the problems caused by mismatched roommates.

Once the actual internship started, the office became more lively and fun. The creative and productive nature of 8 other people all working quasi-independently was astounding. Between the basketball hoop, the endless supply (as far as I can tell) of Funyuns, and immense comfort of the big red couch, RoomSunc HQ feels more like home than home does.

If you're looking for an internship that isn't doing mundane work for a Fortune 500 company or somebody you know's dad, RoomSync is the place. I never would have thought that a work environment could be so much fun, yet foster real education about the business and higher education worlds. I learned to sell to businesses at RoomSync; I learned UX. I honed my power nap skill to a tee.

I'd recommend interning at RoomSync 110%.

Have you ever wanted to know what makes successful people successful? What goes through a person’s head when they perform any action? That’s what piqued my interest when going to class one day. And I was determined to find out. So, I went to the library and picked up the closest copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The book was a pretty fast read and gives a lot of supporting advice for one central idea: thoughts become reality.

Human beings by nature are thoughtful creatures. Thoughts are what propelled us through the evolutionary timeline to become what we are today. When a thought pops up in my mind, I naturally act upon it. Whether it is to get good grades, live a healthy lifestyle, or performing in a sport, I must first think inwards before I can perform the actions to the outer world. Such a simple process of acknowledging the process of thinking should be routine for many people, but even I was ignorant of how to think for the first twenty years of my life.

This past spring break, I traveled to North Carolina with seven friends and I realized thinking’s effects. While we were hiking on a trail in the mountains of North Carolina, each step I was taking was a preemptive thought. I envisioned each step taking place before the step actually occurred. When I was thinking about other things, such as my food or drink later on that night, my footing was unsure and slipped often. Applying this principle of thoughts becoming reality to other aspects of my life, such as school work or design has proven to be just as effective.

We've all heard or seen "What Not To Do" examples; but how about one leaning towards the last things you want in a roommate? In the video below, College Humor jokes about The Six Monster Roommates you could have in college. We are all different and everyone has a match; RoomSync helps you find yours whether you're a Zombie, Ghost, Vampire, or other. 

Instead of giving the vampire a call, maybe you should just use RoomSync!

Best,

Emily

Hello!

Kevin Wu here, with RoomSync! I am a student at the University of Florida, studying information systems and operations management. My projects here at RoomSync has ranged everywhere from making icons, business cards, and the like, to creating a new landing page for a client. I don’t really fancy having a concrete title, but a common theme for my working title is: "The person who makes everything look good."

My deep passion for design and aesthetics has been within me for quite some time; as a little kid, I used to draw Dragon Ball Z characters from video stills on my TV. After all, where is the value in something if it isn't functional and also aesthetically pleasing? I'm hoping here at RoomSync, I can add value through my design skills, whether it's decorating the office, creating business cards, or improving the RoomSync app user experience (commonly referred to UX in the tech world). I love the idea of diving into office design and functionality, even though I'm traditionally a Graphic Desginer.

Besides my fondness for design, I enjoy playing piano, guitar, sports, performing magic, and doing other fun things. I consider myself a lifelong learner who, from both professional and personal life expereinces, continues to enhance his skills and knowledge. We get true value from our experiences when we elegantly take the thought processes from one subject and apply it to a completely different area.  

They say, "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks." I urge you to prove this statement wrong by learning something new each day and taking on a challenge into your lifetime and building continuously on each of your experiences.

Here at RoomSync, we take education and student success seriously. Below is a glimpse into the world of educational oppression and what higher ed institutions in the US, including two of our own clients, are doing about it.

Imagine if you were teaching a class and suddenly the police barged in and took you to jail. That is what a religious minority in Iran has to be careful of.

A video called Education Under Fire (EUF) tells the story of Baha’i youth in Iran who are banned from college and arrested just because of their religious beliefs. The Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) was created to give those students a chance for a better future.

The showing of the video is slowly spreading to colleges all around the United States. It has already been shown at Columbia, M.I.T., University of Oregon, Boston University, Harvard and Wheelock College. I am lucky enough to be involved in the showing at the University of Florida this semester, and one of my close friends is also organizing a showing at Temple University.

When I heard about this video last semester, I was amazed at all the talk this video started. If these well-known colleges in the US are supporting it, then it must be a big deal and having this type of involvement from influential institutions means a greater chance for positive change. Harvard already announced that it will now accept credit from the BIHE, which is a huge step forward.

These innocent youth and professors are in need of support from everyone. You can help by signing the "Drive to 25" petition to Iranian officials to end persecution of the youth and BIHE. To take action and learn more, visit www.educationunderfire.com.

Thank you guys for helping out!

-Niaz