Online Video as an Outreach Tool WASFAA 2013 Presented by Financial Aid TV Monday, May 20, 2013 Session E6

 Effective Communication for Reaching Today’s Student  Maximizing Online Video as a Communication Tool  Increasing Efficiency in the Financial Aid Office  Improving Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s) Today’s Session Objectives

How We Got Here  Over time, technological innovation has powered great advances in communication.

Source: Denver Post

The Modern Day Paradox!  Financial Aid is Complicated  Hard to Track Level of Comprehension  Hard to condense into a Tweet!

How do we reach our students?  Regulation changes  LEU, IRS Data Retrieval, State Programs  Understanding policy  SAP  How to complete applications  Verification

Most Commonly Used By the Financial Aid Office….  Website/ Portal/ / Live Chat  Face-to-Face  Paper/ Newsletter  Telephone / Cell Phone/ Call Center  Social Media  Online Video

Website/ Portal /  A school’s website/portal can be a source of information for students  What information is included? How much?  is a quick way to communicate. Turn around policy?  Broadcast  Record of communication

Face-To-Face  Strengths:  Highly personalized  Compelling  Weakness:  Labor and time intensive

Paper…  Becoming obsolete?  Paperless office?

Telephone / Cell Phone  Students can call with questions to get information  FAAs can contact students to provide information  Turn around time?

Social Media  Majority of students participate  Quick one-way communication  Can receive feedback  Mobile  Can reduce amount of visits students make to the financial aid office (ie deadline alerts).

Online Video  Visual method of learning  Multiple topics – your choice  Provides alternate to reading pages of text  Multiple views if necessary  Audio/visual stimulation  Answers to questions on demand at any time  Consistency of messaging

Visual Learning Fact Check  Approximately 65 percent of the population are visual learners.  The brain processes visual information 60,000x faster than text.  90 percent of information that comes to the brain is visual.  40 percent of all nerve fibers connected to the brain are linked to the retina.  Visual Literacy is the ability to encode (create a visual language) & decode (understand a visual language).  Visual aids in the classroom improve learning by up to 400 percent. Source: Visual Learning Alliance

 Most students want fast, accurate, and consistent service anytime, anyplace.  Video enables you to reach those students 24/7.  Freeing up staff resources to focus on individual students in need of personal assistance. With Video, Utilize Self-Service

 Ask: How Successful are you?  Track Students Reached  Track Parents Reached  Track Number of Questions Answered  Track reduced Burden on FA Staff  Quantify Student Learning Outcomes via Testing With Video, Measure Effectiveness

 Resources needed to Create  Staying Current  Making Updates  Ensuring Disability Access and Compliance  Collaboration with Disability Resource Center Challenges of Video

A Comprehensive Approach  Self-service internet portal  Mobile device access  Embed links to videos in blasts  Post videos on your FB pages  Video embedding on college or university website  Playing video content on school signage system  Counseling sessions

Self-Service Internet Portal

Mobile Device Access

Link To Videos In Blasts Dear Student, It is time to complete your 2013/2014 FAFSA application. To help you through this process and answer some of your questions, please go to this link for a quick tutorial on how to complete the FAFSA. 2013/2014 FAFSA Tutorial Have a great day! -- Jo Smith Financial Aid Assistant Gold Mountain College P: F:

Post Videos On Your Facebook Page

Video Embedding & Single Sign On

 Combining both “New School” and “Old School”  Enhanced Visibility Campus Signage Networks

 Measuring Student Learning Outcomes  Testing Students  A personalized approach Counseling Students

Benefits….  Improve customer service  Reduction in answering repetitive questions  Reduction in voic messages to return  Increase financial aid applications  Reduce wait times and phone calls  Expand reach of counseling team  Tackle default aversion  Track Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s)

Case Studies

Ivy Tech College  Reduction in answering repetitive questions  Over 45,000 student questions were answered in the first 3 months via video  Positive student feedback and enthusiasm among staff  Consistent messaging across 14 campuses Source: Financial Aid TV

 Over 60,000 student questions have been answered annually by FATV (since 2007)  This has freed up staff time to focus on more individual student needs  Staff is enthused about FATV’s positive impact on students  Reduced the burden and cost of answering basic financial aid questions. Antelope Valley College Source: Financial Aid TV

 Over 47,000 student questions answered in the first year by FATV (2010)  Positive student feedback and enthusiasm among staff about student comprehension  Now have the ability to embed video clips in strategic website positions based on the volume of inquiries we are receiving for specific questions Rutgers University Source: Financial Aid TV

What Your Colleagues Are Saying…. “While a beneficial side-effect may be the reduced volume of calls and visits from confused students, the real reason we implemented FATV was to have fewer confused students. We may even do one better and that is to reach students using Financial Aid TV who otherwise would never have come forward to apply for aid. We look forward to the coming year and positive outcomes.” Kevin Harral, Director of Financial Aid, Foothill College

As you leave this session, ask yourself …  Where are you today in your communications?  Where do you want to go?  What do your students want?  What are some tangible goals?  What would be considered a success? Questions for you to Consider

Have a Great Conference! Financial Aid TV is a service of CareerAmerica LLC © CareerAmerica LLC. All Rights Reserved. Web Images used on slides 1, 15, 25, and 26 are for display purposes only. Source: Google images. Financial Aid TV (FATV) is a proud supporter of WASFAA. For more information regarding our services, please visit our Website: or call us (Toll Free)