The document outlines plans to develop a Facebook application called College Connect to help high school students build social networks around attending college. It details the goals, design process, development milestones, evaluation plans, budgets, and schedules for creating the application over 12 months with a team that includes developers, researchers, and student users providing feedback. The application aims to increase college attendance among low-income and first-generation students by facilitating connections between students interested in college.

1. College Connect:
Production Presentation
Supporting Students' Use of Facebook
for Building Social Capital around College Going
Nicole Ellison * Christine Greenhow * Bernie Hogan

2. Motivation for College Connect
Goal: to create and sustain a Facebook (FB) application
that helps students build social capital and a college-going
peer group (College Knowledge Challenge #2).
Plan: based on previous research, feedback from and
interviews with our target population, we will deploy an
interactive social network diagram that displays college
interest and attendance information among FB Friends.
Focus: to build app usability and engagement for
students, especially those from low income or low college-
going areas where discovering others with an interest in
college is not straightforward.

3. Design Process
 User Needs Analysis: Qualitative data collected from
Michigan high school students (N~30) using an early
prototype of the app will be analyzed and findings will
inform design.
 Throughout the design process, prototypes will be
presented to high school and college students who will
engage in cognitive walk-throughs as they go through
the app.

4. Iterative Development Process
 Cross functional, interdisciplinary team
 Team working closely in all functions: planning,
requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and de-
bugging, implementation (pre-launch, pilot, launch), &
maintenance
 Continuous involvement of target users
 Quick responses to change and continuous development
over multiple iterations

5. Milestones
 May 1, 2013: Pre-launch Beta working
 July 1, 2013: Pilot test
 August 1, 2013: Official Launch
 August-Sept, 2013: Data collection, analysis & reporting
 Oct-Early 2014: Continuous monitoring & reporting on
usage & impact

6. Development Schedule: Feb - April
 Begin recruiting partners
 Hire software developer and design contractor
 Work with MSU/UMICH research team to define College
Connect App requirements and outreach strategy
 Work with MSU/UMICH research team to define
evaluation plans (e.g., ongoing data collection, analysis,
user involvement)
 Develop College Connect Facebook app code and
specific features based on user needs analysis and
insights from prior research

7. Development Schedule: May-June
 Pre-Launch of the app, including marketing/PR efforts
 Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support app
usage
 Work with College Possible nonprofit, SLC Database
schools, & other organizations to identify test-bed users
 Support research team with their ongoing evaluation
and reporting

8. Assessment Schedule: Feb.-June
 Secure Institutional Review Board approval for work
with human subjects
 Work w/ developers to determine usage data that will
be captured, how it will be displayed (e.g., evaluation
console) and exported
 Develop evaluation survey and interview protocols

9. Development Schedule: July-Aug.
 Official Launch of the app in August, including
marketing/PR efforts
 Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support usage
 Solidify open source components and documentation of
Facebook application
 Support MSU/Umich researchers for seamless ongoing
evaluation and reporting

10. Assessment Schedule: July-August
 Conduct usage session, interview and surveys with high
school students
 Monitor and analyze data from evaluation console
 Provide data and reporting on app development progress
toward plan milestones and app usage

11. Development Schedule: Sept.-Jan.
 Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support usage
 Continue marketing and PR efforts
 Solidify open source components and documentation of
Facebook application
 Support MSU/UMich researchers with ongoing evaluation
of market penetration and impact; final reporting
 Begin discussions w/ Phase Two funders

12. Assessment Schedule: Sept.-Jan.
 Monitor and analyze data from evaluation console
 Conduct early and late phase user surveys related to
building social capital
 Conduct interviews with highly-active users; prepare
reports and manuscripts
 Provide final report on app outcomes and future
directions
 Plans for flexibility to modify as needs/demands of
users change
 Plans for scale & capacity building
 Plans to assure training and technical assistance adequate

13. Evaluation Plan
 Evaluation metrics and activities will consist of:
 Application-generated data about usage statistics
(e.g., number of users, number of repeat users, time on app,
number of messages sent, etc.)
 Social network analyses using data generated from time on
the app, etc. to identify changes in network structure
 Early Launch (pre-) and Post Launch survey of users related
to building social capital and college-going peer group
(e.g., perceptions of efficacy of college application process,
efficacy of college-going social supports)

14. Evaluation Plan
 Evaluation metrics will consist of:
 Pre-Launch: small groups of high school students will be
asked to use College Connect for a 30-minute session.
Researchers will observe their interactions with the tool in
order to identify and document effective and non-effective
uses of the application. Participants will take a brief survey
about their perceptions regarding its usefulness, ease of
use, etc.
 Post-Launch: 10+ most active users of the site will be
contacted by researchers and invited to participate in a
short interview about their experiences and any college-
related outcomes associated with their use of the app.

15. Production Schedule: College Connect
Interactive Gantt Chart
http://namegen.oii.ox.ac.uk/collegeconnect/gantt/
CollegeConnectGantt.html

16. College Connect App Budget
 Development, Research/Evaluation and Reporting
 12 months
 3 Co-PIs (Leadership Team)
 2 Developers
 Graphic Designer
 Marketing Supplies
 Evaluation Incentives and Supplies
 Total Budget Requested: $100K