Residence life and education, residential curriculum and curricular approaches, student housing, and technology.
I’ve noticed an alarming trend in Student Affairs. I’ve heard from a few different schools that a software vendor required them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). What a scary thing to ask! We have never asked a potential client to sign an NDA, nor will we ever. Here’s why: NDAs imply a lack of... Continue Reading →
It is amazing how quickly our work has evolved in such a short period of time. As the above animated GIF shows (originally produced as a video by the team at BestReviews), many of our former paper-based and manual processes have moved to digital. What is perhaps most striking is how so much of our lives have... Continue Reading →
The start of the academic year means that we welcome a new group of students to campus. It is a seminal time for many students, and their first year, in particular, can bring forward a number of rapid developmental changes. As peer leaders in their communities, resident assistants can heavily influence, and shape these student... Continue Reading →
Technology has always impacted the way we communicate, but within the past decade, this has accelerated. Folks in housing and residence life have witnessed some of these changes first hand, including students not reading or responding to email, roommate conflicts being addresses through chat apps, and bullying occurring on social media platforms. Mobile devices, cloud... Continue Reading →
Employing a Residential Curriculum entails building a residence life program that is learning-centered. Previous movements within residence life focused more narrowly on wellness or community. Moving towards a learning-centered orientation is often more intentional, more transformational, more holistic, and leads to better outcomes for students. Making this shift, however, does not necessarily entail that one doesn’t engage in education around issues of... Continue Reading →
Roompact "Perspective" posts are opportunities for individual staff members to work out ideas and provide their individual thoughts and opinions on a given topic. Now, more than ever, residence life professionals are competing for students' time. Technological change has brought about a revolution of choice for self directing one's learning and a multitude options for... Continue Reading →
At Roompact, we love technology. We are, after all, a software company. But we also love learning. Our main mission is to enhance the educational experience in the residence halls and to enhance learning for all students. We do this through providing both student and educator-facing tools. Sometimes our tools help make processes more efficient, so that... Continue Reading →
It’s the end of summer, and colleges are once again opening their doors to legions of students lugging their parents and possessions through campus. Many student affairs professionals are energized by the prospect of welcoming the campus community to their "home-away-from-home" and filling the empty residence halls with cheerful commotion. But no matter how much... Continue Reading →
Integrating digital and social media tools into student staff training programs can be an exciting and innovative way to hold your staff' members' attention. Below are some useful sites, apps, and services that you can use and some examples of how to use them. Have other ideas? Poll Everywhere http://www.polleverywhere.com (alternative: sli.do) Poll Everywhere allows you to set... Continue Reading →
One of the most common and important features of modern software is the "tag." A tag is a short keyword or phrase that a user assigns to a piece of information that describes it in some way. You might also be familiar with hashtags, a form of tag used in social media (#thisisahashtag). Tags are... Continue Reading →
As a residential education software company working with many different colleges and universities, Roompact designs its software in a way that can accommodate the range of approaches institutions can take to the learning process in the residence halls. One of the most interesting design challenges we have confronted is how to accommodate both residential curriculum models and category-based... Continue Reading →
I came of age in residence life alongside digital technology and the World Wide Web. My first professional position was as a First Year Advisor in the Office of Residence Life and New Student Programs at Miami University 2002. At that time, our department was on the cutting edge. We had our own in-house-developed web... Continue Reading →
Higher education and student affairs professionals generally prefer the predictable. And yet, when it comes to engagement with students online, social media is the antithesis of control. For this reason, developing an effective digital engagement strategy in residence life, and in student affairs and higher education in general, requires a great degree of trust and a... Continue Reading →
