If you didn’t get a chance to join us for Webinar Best Practices, the recording is now available. Check it out below!
Best Practices
Engaging Audiences Online: Webinar Best Practices and Tips from the Field
With the announcement of OSU Extension gaining access to Zoom hosted meetings and webinars, Jamie Seger, Morgan Domokos, and Brian Raison offered a “Webinar Best Practices and Online Teaching Tips from the Field” during the 2016 OSUE Annual Conference. Further training on recommended Zoom equipment, use, and teaching via webinar will be offered by the Ed Tech Unit and CFAES IT Services in 2017.
Questions about Zoom and teaching via webinar in the meantime can be sent to Jamie or Danae.
Balancing Social Media Identities Recording Available
Missed the September Coffee Break? Be sure to watch the recording!
Content Cheat Sheet: Best times to post
Figuring out the best times to post content on social media can be puzzling. Research shows that businesses and organizations post most of their content during normal work hours (9am-5pm, Monday through Friday). However research also shows that the best times to post on social media for maximum engagement is actually outside normal business hours. Take a peek at the cheat sheet below (courtesy of TrackMaven) to gauge when may be the most appropriate times of day and days of week to post on your social media channels. Pay close attention to the “most effective” column on the far right. (Click the image for a larger view or to print).
While the most popular times to post on social media are well within the normal work hours, the best times to post content for engagement (likes, comments, shares) are before or after work hours during the week or on weekends. Interestingly, the best time to send an email newsletter is Thursday afternoon.
Keep in mind that Facebook page insights offers information about when your specific page followers are active online. To find out when your followers are on Facebook, go to your page and click on “Insights” along the top navigation menu. From there, click “posts” on the left hand navigation menu and you’ll see “When your fans are online” at the very top of the page. Here’s what it looks like:
Use this information to decide when to post content on your social media channels. If posting on Facebook outside of normal work hours seems daunting, consider scheduling your posts. Simply click the drop-down arrow next to “post” when crafting your next post and choose “schedule” to decide on a future time/day for the content to be published.
Happy posting!
Save the Date: OSU’s INNOVATE Conference + Extension Post-Conference Event
Save the Date for the 2016 Innovate conference + special Post-Conference Event for OSU Extension professionals!
May 11th & 12th
From the Innovate Community blog: With Excellence as our theme for 2016, we’re sharing innovations that let educators re-imagine their instruction without sacrificing pedagogical quality and rigor. It’s fun to experiment and enjoy the novelty of cutting edge technologies, but a focus on excellence is what drives meaningful implementation.
Innovate is a time for bringing people together across disciplines and across adoption barriers. The conference is built with the educator in mind: you don’t have to be tech savvy to fully participate in this day of presentations, demonstrations and valuable dialog.
Innovate is The Ohio State University’s annual conference exploring teaching and learning with technology. The highly engaging one-day event is built upon six years of successful conferences: 95% of 2014 participants learned something that could change the way they think about or do their job, 96% reported they would like to attend a similar event in the future, and the repeat attendees every year support this number. Innovate is hosted by Ohio State’s Office of Distance Education and eLearning.
While geared toward OSU faculty, with participation numbers growing each year of the conference, so too have professional development sessions relevant to outreach education and Extension initiatives. And in 2016, the OSUE Ed Tech Unit will be hosting a post-conference event for OSU Extension on May 12th. Innovate will be held at the Ohio Union, while our Extension event will be hosted at the 4-H Center. More details can be found here.
To be updated when registration and other details for Innovate become available, you can sign up to receive email updates or follow @InnovateOSU on Twitter. We’ll also share updates here on the Ed Tech blog!
We hope to see many of our Extension colleagues this year at Innovate in May!
Ed Tech Learning Opportunities at OSUE Annual Conference
This year’s OSUE Annual Conference theme, “Innovation in Action”, provides the opportunity to showcase the creative, innovative programming taking place across Ohio in Extension! The Ed Tech unit is excited to offer several breakout sessions this year, alongside our annual Tech Faire (formerly the “Tech Zoo”). We’ll also be announcing a few new Ed Tech initiatives for 2016.
Ed Tech – Led Focus Sessions:
Tuesday, December 8th
Wednesday, December 9th
- 10:15am: Breaking Down Barriers to Social Media
- 12:45pm: eXtension Educational Technology Learning Network: Building Bridges to Innovation in Extension
- 2:00pm: Digital Storytelling in Extension Programming (facilitated in partnership with Queenie Chow / OSU Digital Union)
- 2:00pm: Learn How to Live Stream
Tech Faire
8:00am – 6:00pm: (Ohio Stater’s Room, 2nd Floor)
Marty McFly’s 2015 hat + other BTTF props await you at the Tech Faire photo booth!
- Drop by anytime during this open house-style event. We’ll have Ed Techs, IT support, and communications staff on hand to answer questions. Extension Educators and other program staff will also be on hand throughout the day to share their innovative programming and tech skills/expertise.
- Pick up step-by-step printed resources, instructables, and 3D printed swag (first come, first served!)
- Take your “selfie from the future” at our Back to the Future photo booth complete with BTTF props! Offered in partnership with the Dean’s Conversation on the Future of Extension.
- The Faire will also of course feature new technology for OSUE program staff to consider (MaKey MaKey, virtual reality, 3D printing, etc. – get a preview from a video taken during last week’s 4-H Professionals’ Inservice in the link below).
Demo’ing #3Dprinting, #GoogleCardboard, #MakeyMakey at the #OSUExtension 4-H inservice. @ Nationwide… https://t.co/1hSiqQVlxe
— Jamie Seger (@JamieMSeger) November 10, 2015
What Focus Sessions are you presenting that showcase how you’re utilizing technology in your work? Add them in the comments below and we’ll see you at #OSUE2015!
Web-Based Survey Workshop December 14th!
Get a jump start on your 2016 program planning by participating in an upcoming workshop offered by the Program Development and Evaluation unit December 14th. The hands-on workshop will cover:
- Web-based survey best practices
- Basic features of LimeSurvey and Qualtrics
- Guided survey development
This workshop will take place in Columbus. Registration is now open – sign up soon, as these workshops fill up quickly!
Web based survey training flyer_December 2015
Contact Debby Lewis with any questions.
Before You Blog Best Practices Checklist
Danae and I recently walked the Live Smart Ohio blog authors through an updated version of our blogging best practices tip sheet. It includes the useful rules of thumb below to check before you hit “publish” on your next blog post, especially if you submit your blog content for peer review.
Does your post…
- Have a good title that includes keywords?
- Have less than 300 words in the body of your post?
- Have a quality photo, image, infographic, or video included?
- Have a few embedded links that readers would find helpful?
- Have a call to action at the end? (information included that directs readers to local or statewide Extension / OSU resources)?
- Include content that can easily be repurposed?
- Cite your hyperlinked sources in the endnotes below the content?
More in-depth information and resource links for each tip in the list can be found in the slidedeck below.
We suggest bookmarking this post, or download and print the PDF to always have a copy in front of you.
Do you currently blog? Add your blog links in the comments below and tell us what you’ve been using your blog for!
10 Ways to Repurpose Content
Why Recreate When You Can Repurpose?
Repurposing content allows you to take your best content and make it available to multiple audiences in a variety of formats.
1. Expand Individual Ideas From Previous Content
Take an existing blog post or factsheet and expand on individual ideas presented. A listicle (an article presented in the form of a numbered or bulleted list) lends itself especially well to expansion.
2. Develop an Electronic Slide Set
Use a service like SlideShare to create visually stunning slide sets from PowerPoints, Word documents, PDFs, or infographics. Slide sets can be embedded on websites and blogs and shared on social media for maximum impact.
3. Create an Infographic
Blog posts, factsheets, or journal articles that are particularly data heavy can be repurposed into infographics and shared on social media or websites. Use online tools like Canva or Piktochart to create your infographics.
4. Share Content on Social Media
Share your best content on social media including Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. Since people use different social media platforms for different purposes, it’s important to compose unique messages for each platform. Find high quality and interesting images to accompany your posts and use online services like Canva to create content specific to each platform. Visit our blog post on royalty free images for image inspiration.
5. Send Electronic Newsletters
Use an online service like MailChimp to manage newsletter subscriptions and send your audience interesting content directly to their inbox. Be sure to include links to your most popular recent posts as well as content from other relevant sources and information about upcoming programs.
6. Create a Video Factsheet
Use a service like Camtasia Relay (free for all CFAES employees) to capture your voice and what’s happening on your screen to easily create video presentations that can be shared on social media and YouTube. You can also create short animated video clips with online services like Wideo (free and paid plans available). Check out the short Wideo I made about repurposing content!
7. Host a Webinar
Use a program like Carmen Connect to hose a webinar. Webinars allow you to expand on a topic and interact directly with your audience.
8. Host a Twitter Chat
Create a unique and relevant #hashtag and host a Twitter chat with your audience. Choose a time and topic and invite people to participate in your Twitter chat by using your #hashtag. Encourage your audience to use a service like Twubs to curate content.
9. Repackage Content into an eBook or Guide
If you have multiple blog posts or factsheets revolving around a similar topic (e.g. sustainable gardening practices; canning vegetables; tips and tricks on managing finances), consider repackaging that similar content into a comprehensive peer-reviewed eBook or electronic guide.
10. Update and Republish Old Content
Consider updating and republishing your most popular content. This method of repurposing content works particularly well with topics that come up every year (e.g. maintaining a healthy weight around the holidays).
Be creative with how you repurpose and recycle your content!
Announcing “First Friday Coffee Breaks” with an Ed Tech
The Ed Tech unit is very excited to announce a new “drop-in,” informal learning opportunity for OSU Extension professionals!
Beginning October 2nd, Jamie and/or Danae will be hosting virtual AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions via Carmen Connect. These “First Friday Coffee Breaks with an Ed Tech” will be held the first Friday of each month from 10:00am – 11:00am.
Colleagues are encouraged to join the Connect sessions as needed throughout the hour to ask questions, get recommendations, offer suggestions, ask for resources… anything! This will be a regular opportunity to informally connect with an Ed Tech and get real-time feedback.
Use This Link to Participate in each First Friday Coffee Break
Questions? Let us know in the comments below or send Jamie or Danae an email.