Blogging studies are really gaining steam. At Society for New Communications Research I’m helping with a blogging study that’s looking at how well corporate blogging policies are working. Just a few days ago, I was contacted by a researcher in Massachusetts to participate in a blogging survey. Researchers from Michigan State University published findings from their blogging study as part of HigherEd BlogCon.

It looks like both Peterson’s and SNCR (I’m a research fellow there) are on board as collaborators in the new study on admissions and recruiting blogging that Rob Pongsajapan and I are launching shortly. We have a solid questionnaire draft that we’ll be launching in web-based form shortly. Below is our working description of the study. I hope your institution will take part.

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Best Practices Study on Blogging in University Admissions and Recruiting
 
New communication tools such as blogs and podcasts are expanding the range of options for creating meaningful connections with prospective students.  In the past year alone, many institutions have launched blogging initiatives involving both student and administrator bloggers.  The goal of this study is to illuminate the efforts of these institutions in the interest of developing shareable best practices and case study stories addressing such aspects as the relevance of institutional communications culture, blogging policy, expectations versus outcomes, authorship and review, and compensation. 

By surveying institutions about their current and planned blogging efforts, we aim to formulate recommendations that can benefit institutions seeking to launch or enhance their own blogging initiatives, as well as those in parallel communities seeking to learn from the experience of university professionals.  We invite all post-secondary institutions to participate in this study by completing a web-based questionnaire.

Results and recommendations will be shared formally by study leaders and be made available through channels provided by organizations cooperating in this study, namely Thomson Peterson’s and Society for New Communications Research.

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Rob and I will be sharing an update on our study as part of the eduWeb conference on July 31 which Karine Joly kindly highlighted.