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!

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%.

NASPA is an organization for student affairs administrators in higher education. In an effort to innovative ideas and practices in education, NASPA runs initiatives and holds events to bring together higher ed vendors, school representatives, and special guests. Last week, RoomSync was lucky enough to make our debut in the world of student affairs by exhibiting at NASPA’s 2012 annual conference. There we also encountered something special and rare.

A Surprise Keynote. Lucky for us, Grammy Award winning vocalist, John Legend was the keynote for the opening reception. Attendees may have been confused as to the connection between the performer and the theme of the conference, but it turns out that Mr. Legend, along with his passion for music, is a giant advocate for education. He founded The Show Me Campaign, a nonprofit organization that fights poverty using proven solutions, with the hope that diminishing poverty will lead to higher high school graduation rates and college attendance for the next generation.

In fact, Legend is so committed to eradicating poverty and bringing education to every child that he created the Show Me Fellowship Program, which awards young people who are dedicated in improving the world. The program provides $3000 stipends for college students who take unpaid internships in the areas of international development and US education. Note to students, teachers, and parents - the program is currently accepting application for the 2012 Fellowship.

The Cycle of Education. I was truly moved by John Legend’s key note. While he performed a few songs for us (and mesmerized the crowd), I was even more intrigued by his convincing discussion on the effect of poverty on education, his enlightening perspective and worldliness, and his ability to open us up to true realities we face as a nation:

“U.S.  high school graduation rates have fallen from #1 to #18 in the world. One third of American children don’t graduate from high school. Just 15% of our schools – the ones we call “drop out factories” – are responsible for 50% of the drop out students and those schools are more likely to have a majority of students who are African American or Latino” (ShowMeCampaign, 2012)

The Full Circle. Here at RoomSync, we are a higher education company; however I think we, along with other higher education companies, often don’t remember the connection with and potential impact we have on post-secondary education. We have to work harder and broaden our awareness, so that more students graduate from high school and make it to college. Then, we can all play a role in helping those students become successful in life.

I have read many articles lately about the impending digital takeover. Amber Case, founder of Geoloqui.com and a keynote speaker at the South by Southwest Convention, recently compared people who use up-to-date technology, as cyborgs. Neither I nor she believes an IRobot-type doom is impending, however, reading “The Next Generation of Student Support Systems” article on Higher Ed Live led me to question just how fast are students becoming technology dependent?

Last week I chatted with a man who grew up around the time of the first electronic digital computer. I was in my elementary school computer class when I first used a computer. My point is that everyone can say some form of the phrase “I was born before the (insert technological device here) was invented,” but is there a point where we won’t be able to reverse our dependence on the technology we've grown up using? Has this point in time already passed?

In my freshmen year of high school my English teacher assigned us a project while reading 1984. We were to stop using technology for a week. Yes, an entire week. No phones. No television. No computer. For the first couple of days I did very well…then I gave up. I tried this again over this past week as it was Spring Break and did surprisingly well. Being aboard a cruise ship without service definitely helped, but I did realize what Amber Case pointed out in her speech: “the best technology is invisible and just gets out of your way to let you live your life.”

So my questions for you are: Are you busy fiddling around with your apps and social media websites while life is happening around you? Or can you put the smartphone down for an hour or two each week, go out with friends and enjoy it before the cyborgs takeover?

I didn’t formally introduce myself. My name is Niaz, and I’m the social media manager (or ninja) at RoomSync.

I want to talk about everyone’s new favorite website: Pinterest. In the past few months, Pinterest has been slowly taking over my Facebook newsfeed. No, I’m not an active user, but I do enjoy reading some of the funny pictures that my friends post.

When I first heard about companies using Pinterest as another media outlet, I thought it was a horrible idea. How are they going to reach their audience through “pinning” pictures? I couldn't make sense of it until I read a blog post from Higher Ed Live called “Best practices for Pinterest in higher education.”

I learned that Pinterest can be integrated with other social media sites from the article. For example, companies can share pictures they have on their Pinterest boards with Facebook instead of posting them on Facebook which will bring traffic to their pin boards. This sounds like a pretty fun and creative idea to me. I think the most important thing to remember is to maintain your brand’s image and Pinterest diversifies that brand by showing another side of the company.

The article puts this adversitement of brand diversity quite nicely by saying,"Pinterest may be the first and only social media platform where you should routinely promote messages like 'This desk lamp would look GREAT in a dorm room' and 'This Drake blue tie would add oomph to your next business presentation.' It works because you’re doing more than promoting a lamp or a tie: You’re giving your audiences inspiration for how they can fit into, and reflect, the brand culture.”

Maybe this will be my new project for RoomSync? We’ll see!

Until my next post,

Niaz

Or more specifically, are students getting enough utility through resources available to them? I know for a fact that as an undergraduate college student, I have countless resources at my disposal. Everything from integrated student information systems to roommate matching services exists to help me develop my college career. However, because students are bombarded with a flurry of resources, much of what is thrown at them is not sticking.

In Aesthetic vs. Utility in Higher Ed Web Design, Eric Olsen of higheredlive.com writes about the importance of designing university websites to include the essential information looked for by students. This ease of information facilitates a focused experience for students to find their resource without jumping through hoops.

Which makes a whole lot of sense.

Through designing RoomSync, we have realized students don't want to feel like they are on an online dating website; they just want to discover a roommate whom they will enjoy living with on an easy-to-use platform. 

All environments should thrive on high energy, aim to fix problems, and be aesthetically pleasing. As a designer and student, I can say that getting the maximum utility out of a resource happens when I can gather what I need easily and immediately from a resource, enjoy my experience, and ultimately feel good about the whole exercise. It is a quick and painless process that should be the goal of all higher education, regardless if you are a large institution, apartment complex, or RoomSync.