LinkedIn Hops On the Story Bandwagon with Student Voices

Story Time at LinkedIn

LinkedIn has rolled out its own stories feature. Here's how college students are using it

ARIELLA BROWN

 DECEMBER 27, 2018

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We all have our own stories to tell, and some of us choose to share them with the world on social media in video format. That’s why a person’s “story” on Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook refers to a video post.  Now LinkedIn is going to try to be a platform of stories, too, rolling it out first for American college students.

 As TechCrunch recently reported, LinkedIn will allow student to post short videos on their Campus Playlist. They can then be viewed there for one week, though they will remain accessible for as long as the student wishes under the the individual profile’s “Recent Activity.”

If you’re a regular LinkedIn user you might have noticed that it now encourages people who post to add in hashtags, generating several suggestions you can just click. It also does this for Student Stories, according to the TechCrunch report, which is why there will likely be more instances of the hashtag #OnCampus appearing on the videos linked to the school’s Campus Playlist.

To get deeper into this story, I reached out to students on LinkedIn. Cammy Okmin, a student at California Polytechnic who holds the title of LinkedIn Campus Video Editor, graciously answered my questions via email.

Read more in 

Story Time at LinkedIn

Not Your Parents' Back-to-School Marketing

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While the heat of summer draws us to the beach, marketing campaigns pull us in another

direction – back-to-school season. Yes, it’s that time of year again, and today’s marketing campaigns must work with the expectations of parents -- and students – to be successful.

The back to school shopping season is a big deal for retailers. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates the spending for back-to-school shopping to hit $82.8 billion this year. That’s one of the highest on record.

According to a recent JLL Retail survey, low costs and wide selection are important factors to the majority (70 percent) of parents. They favor stores associated with low prices, ranking Walmart (50 percent) and Target (47 percent) among their top picks, and far ahead of Amazon (16 percent). Kids have substantial influence on purchases. More than 57 percent are involved in deciding which store to shop at, and specific items to buy.

Read more in 

Back-to-School Marketing Trends: It's All About Gen Z

SaaS for smoother college applications

Students have just gone back to school, but seniors already have to start thinking about the next step: applying for college. One of the newest programs in the space is Edswell, which publicly launched its platform early in September. It can help students and those who guide them through every step of the application process, including the dreaded essay.

I contacted the company's founder and CEO, Alex Thaler, to get the inside story on this SaaS platform, which is currently used in by students in a number of cities, including Beijing, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Thaler explains that, although there are already SaaS programs designed for college counselors available, such as Naviance and Career Cruising, Edswell is unique in offering "support for the application essay, the most time-intensive and anxiety-provoking part of the application process."

Read more in 

Cities Smooth the College Application Process

Big data and social networks for students preparing for college

The common denominator between both these uses of technology is the nonprofit organization College Summit.  You can check it out at Charity Navigator

In Bridging the Gap to the Goal With Educational Data
I focus on the use of data:

Armed with that information, educators can make informed decisions about what modifications are needed to better prepare the next batch of students for their college careers.As Camille Jacobs, Assistant Principal, Pathways College Preparatory High School, Queens, NY, noted in the College Summit whitepaper, "With postsecondary data, we have the ability to work backwards, improving or revising our practices to provide targeted instruction and services, addressing the varying needs of each of our students."

In College Apps for College Apps I look at the social media apps designed to help students to and through college. College Summit was one of the key organizations behind  The College Knowledge Challenge, which awarded prize money to the best apps for student use. 

Technology and education blogs

I wrote about Coursera's innovation in the online education and the possibilities of automated readers for writing assessment