goingon.com

I joke with friends that, “I send my son an email and he responds with a text message.” While humorous, this simple phenomenon underpins a more serious question about how we engage and communicate with an ever more mobile, and, dare I say, frenetic, student body. When it comes to engaging students beyond core transactional interactions (such as enrollment and financial aid), student-facing portals are dead. 

In the age of Facebook and Twitter, students, and increasingly faculty, are accustomed to information being “pushed” to them via live activity streams. With a glance at their phone they can find out what is going on, see where on a map, and connect with others to see whether they are going. This is very different than the portal-centric models advocated by companies such as Ning, Sharepoint, and Myspace. In fact, following the recent sale of Ning for what was a fraction of its once lofty valuation, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of both Netscape and Ning, acknowledged that, “users don’t want to go to destination sites anymore.” 

Here at GoingOn, we spend a lot of time thinking about how these trends affect the way that schools interact and engage with their students. We know that students are much more successful when:

• they are engaged in co-curricular and inter-curricular activities
• they form tight relationships with peers, faculty, and mentors
• they develop a tight affinity with their school

To reach our target retention goals and to graduate well-rounded human beings, schools must be able to meet students where they are and connect them with their most relevant and valuable resources, including each other.

What we're hearing from our customers is that they want a central place where they can publish any type of message or rich content once, and “push” information out to the right constituents at the right time. For example, how would someone from the Psychology Department inform all undergraduate Psychology majors about an upcoming seminar by sending an announcement, faculty bio and intro video? Or, how can student affairs create an online community that speaks directly to the needs of first-year International students, and lets them connect with peers, mentors, and other resources to help these students acclimate?

These are just a few of the reasons that we do what we do here at GoingOn. We are passionate about helping students have a more enriching and successful academic experience. When my own children leave for college several years from now, it is my sincere hope that upon arrival, they'll receive a virtual student ID. This ID will provide them access to their school’s Academic Social Network - a place that helps them discover their interests, take advantage of everything the academic experience has to offer, and enables them to fully realize their potential. What students do on Facebook may be their personal business, but their academic and professional success is my life’s mission.

Wishing everyone a happy and fully engaged holiday season,
Jon Corshen, CEO