The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite:
Using social media tools to
enhance student support
Dr. Stella Porto & Allison Kipta, MDE
Master of Distance Education Customer Trainer Staff
Graduate School of Management & Technology Lockheed Martin IS&GS
University of Maryland University College

Agenda
• Focus of this presentation
• Introduction
 Student support in distance education
 Context & background
 Social media in distance education
• The Social Media experience in the MDE
 The tools
 Projects and goals
 Lessons learned
 Synergy and future
• Final remarks

Focus of this presentation
“As distance education has evolved from
a teacher-centric to a much more
learner-centric model, the roles and
activities instructors and other learner
support providers have changed to being
more proactive than reactive” (Brindley et
al., 2004, p.9)
The lack of campus life imposes difficulty in keeping students and
graduates connected beyond the ties of the online classroom.
Using social media to provide further student support in a
sustainable way is the focus of this presentation.

Introduction:
Student Support in Distance Education
• Necessary shift from a campus based perspective
 Needs go beyond those addressed in individual courses
• Focus on the needs of this specific target audience
 Part-time
 Full-time employment
 Family duties
 Long time away from school
 Diverse academic and professional background

Introduction:
Context & Background – MDE is a partnership

Introduction: Context & Background
MDE is a partnership
University of Oldenburg
University of Maryland
University College

Introduction:
Context & background: the program
• Core competencies
 Managing the DE system Corporate
 Planning, budgeting, development, Training &
delivery, and support Learning
• Target Audience Faculty Media &
Support technology
 Potential managers of the distance
education enterprise in:
Distance
 Educational organizations Education
 Corporate / Business
Instruction
 Government & Military Higher
Design &
 Non-profit and associations Education
Support
• Entirely online for part-time Leaders &
working adults Managers
• International
• Collaborative

Introduction:
Institutional Student support
• Enrollment management / Registrar
 Admissions
 Financial aid
 Registration
 Advising
 Graduation
• Portal with self-services
• Academic specialist within the
department
• Program director
• Library
• Office of disabilities

Social media: what it can do for us
BEYOND instruction
• Virtual communities: cultivate a blend of challenge and support
 Sharing beyond virtual classroom
 Social network
 Peer support
 Tools: any social network tool or online group tools
• Sandbox for experiments, especially useful for distance
educators
 Learning with technology
 Learning through technology
 Acquiring skills
 Developing technological competencies
 Tools: ALL

Social media: what it can do for us
BEYOND instruction
• Individual and collaborative means for producing and sharing
content
 Generation of user content
 Building collective knowledge
 Tools: blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc.
• Information diffusion and immediate feedback
 Immediate communication with stakeholders
 Collective feedback and appreciation
 Tools: blogs, social networking, wikis, …
• Expanding knowledge in field of interest
 Sharing new information and utilizing new media
 Program-wide projects
 Tools: audio, video, and image tools, blogs, social networking, …

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite
BLOGS
WIKIS VIDEOS
SOCIAL NETWORKING

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Hub
Tool: http://www.weebly.com
The MDE Hub
• The one-stop-shop for ALL
MDE related information
• Extremely flexible platform
URL: http://mdeprogram.weebly.com

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Blog
Tool: http://www.blogger.com
The MDE Blog
• Initially was the one-stop-shop
for all MDE information
• Now, works exclusively as a blog
• One-way communication - no
interaction
URL: http://mdeblog.blogspot.com

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Lounge
Tool: http://groups.google.com
The MDE-lounge
• Real interaction
• Privacy, listserv mode, discussion
board, simple and not-invasive
URL: http://groups.google.com/group/MDE-lounge

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Faculty Forum
Tool: http://groups.google.com
The Faculty-forum
• Management effectiveness
• Privacy, listserv mode,
discussion board, simple and
not-invasive
URL: http://groups.google.com/group/MDE-faculty

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE wiki
Tool: http://www.wetpaint.com
The MDE wiki on new technologies
• Knowledge-base
• Information sharing
• Meta-learning
URL: http://mdewiki.wetpaint.com

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE capstone wiki
Tool: http://www.pbwiki.com
The MDE capstone
wiki
• Support for final
capstone: e-portfolio &
research project
• Information sharing
• Direct relationship with
instruction URL: http://capstone.pbworks.com

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The capstone tutorial
Tool: webpage on server
The MDE tutorial
• Support for e-portfolio
• Precursor of the MDE
capstone wiki
• Direct relationship with
instruction
URL: http://www.c3l.uni-oldenburg.de/christinewalti/tutorial/index.htm

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: MDE Orientation
Tool: WebTycho – UMUC’s
proprietary LMS
The MDE orientation
• Workshop with direct
instructor-led support
• Information sharing
• Direct support to instruction

The MDE Student Support Social Media Suite:
The MDE internship program
Tool: http://sites.google.com
The MDE internship
program
• Getting your feet wet as
a distance educator
• Supporting the program
• Engaging in action
research
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/mdeinternships/

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Buddy Program
Tool: http://www.weebly.com
The MDE buddy-system
• Peer-support
• Student initiative
• Action research project
URL: http://mdebuddyprogram.weebly.com

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: Social Networking
Presence in social
networks
• Connections with
graduates and
prospective students
• Marketing

The MDE Student Support
Social Media Suite: The MDE Itinerant Video
Tool: http://www.tumblr.com
Tool: http://www.vimeo.com
URL: http://mdevideo.tumblr.com/
The MDE Itinerant video
project
• Graduate initiative
• Celebration of the 10th
anniversary
• Community involvement
URL: http://www.vimeo.com/mdevideoproject

Tools and more tools: Allison’s toolbox
Tool: http://www.wikispaces.com/
URL: http://mdetools.wikispaces.com/

Lessons learned
 There is a need for an active leadership role in all initiatives
 Continuously invite community
 Reach out to new students
 Most participants are lurkers
 Coupling blog posts to listserv
 Students want to get involved, but they need a HAND
 A few active members generate
significant impact
 Being personal is key
 Ongoing projects and activities
 Respond to the needs of
stakeholders

Synergy and future
 Projects led
by graduates
 Relationship  Virtual
with other conference for
UMUC units 10th anniversary
 Partnerships celebration
in publishing  Podcast series
and academic  Webinars
work  Special interest
groups

Final remarks
 Thinking beyond the
classroom
 Enthusiasm is contagious
 Experiment, experiment
and experiment…
 Count on your graduates
and students
 Networking is essential to
everyone for different
reasons

Thank you! - Questions?
Presentation can be found at:
http://www.slideshare.net/sporto/sloanc-
conference09-porto-kipta
Contact: sporto@umuc.edu
allison.kipta@gmail.com