Ten with Ken (Video)

Join Ken Steele for a romp through the best moments from more than 100 higher ed holiday greeting videos from around the world, selected from almost 500 collected so far this month! Previous years' Holiday Special roundups appear in this Ten with Ken playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLodJ8ParJmYWOlX6xOJpuo5nloz1Q6dA1&si=HjS4mv_AWOsB3s8F Check out the full versions of these videos in the...

Marketing and communications professionals working in higher education are more conscious than most that they serve incredibly diverse audiences and stakeholders, and of the vital importance of equity and inclusion. (Today's students can quickly become outspoken protestors in the face of what they perceive as injustice.) This week, Ken Steele sits down with Matthew Tsang, co-founder of inclusive c...

In this episode of Ten with Ken , host Ken Steele sits down with Dorita Pentesco , Director of Marketing & Recruitment at Niagara College, and Carmen Serravalle , Vice-President Creative at STC Storytellers , to discuss the "refresh" launched this month of the 15-year-old Niagara College brand. NC's circular "blue button" logo was originally introduced in 2009, and was immediately embraced by staf...

"Ten with Ken" returns for its 8th season with a special double episode distilling the best moments from literally hours of welcome back, orientation, move-in and kick-off videos, from more than 100 colleges and universities. Students overcome their anxieties and homesickness by celebrating, dancing, screaming and clinging to their stuffed animals and favourite comfort foods. They're distracted by...

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken'...

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken'...

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken'...

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken'...

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken'...

Our 5-part series on Forward-Looking Facilities concludes with a look at the informal communal spaces on campus, in-between faculty offices and labs, or student dorms and classrooms. These so-called "Third Spaces" are home to some of the most valuable interactions between students, staff and faculty alike... In Part 5, "Third Spaces," Ken describes the gradual evolution of higher ed campuses from...

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with more detail on the ways that pedagogical change, and particularly the adoption of active learning, has transformed classroom time and classroom spaces on campuses. In Part 4, "Active Learning," Ken looks at the way thousand-year-old transmission theories of education created the design of modern lecture theatres, while pedagogical research fr...

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with a look at post-pandemic adoption of online and blended learning delivery, and what 600,000 students tell us about their preferences for learning modality. In Part 3, "Online & Blended Learning," Ken looks at the decade-long inevitability of adopting blended delivery approaches, which have demonstrably better learning outcomes for students, an...

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with a closer look at the new work experience of staff and faculty, and how that will reshape work-life balance and the nature of work – on campus and off - in what is going to be a very fluid future. In part 2, " The Fluid Future of Work ," Ken looks at the fluidity and ambiguity facing PSE in the years ahead, employee appetites for remote and hy...

Season 7 of  Ten with Ken opens with a 5-part series looking at Forward-Looking Facilities, and the ways that campus design and architecture have responded to the lessons learned during the pandemic. In part 1, " The Post-Pandemic Campus ," Ken reviews the turbulence and shifting context we've all learned to expect, and warns that the future will be even more fluid, thanks to climate change, extre...

Ten with Ken returns from its pandemic hiatus, with a 5-part series on trends in campus architecture, classroom and office design, and so-called "third spaces" for serendipitous interaction.  Although eventually episodes will appear here too, they're already streaming NOW - exclusively on our free virtual community platform, Eduvation Circles. Join free today at http://circles.eduvation.ca  

In pre-pandemic times, Ken Steele sits down on the Carleton University "Friendship Bench" with president and vice-chancellor (and neuropsychologist) Benoit-Antoine Bacon to talk frankly about his own journey to mental health, and his advice for students. Mental health has been a significant concern on higher ed campuses for a decade or more. Anxiety and depression have been rising. In Fall 2019, t...

"Blended" approaches to teaching and learning (sometimes also called "hybrid") combine in-class discussion and activities with a substantial proportion of online course delivery. Done well, blended courses can combine the best of online and on-campus pedagogy, improve student learning outcomes, provide flexibility for non-traditional students, and even save institutions on classroom space and oper...

The fifth annual Ten with Ken Holiday Special continues our review of highlights from more than 500 college and university greeting videos released around the world last December. In part 3, "Festive & Fuzzy," we turn to the cuddlier side of the season, with a look at campus mascots, puppy dogs, and classic movies.   Mascots appear often in holiday videos, as we saw in parts 1 and 2, including the...

The "Ten with Ken" Holiday Special continues with part 2: Season's Eatings!  Every year, baked goods and particularly gingerbread are prominent in higher ed holiday greeting videos. Often, we see students baking together, such as in a best-in-class vid from Wellesley College last year.  More often than not, the bakers are joined by the school mascot, like Azul the Eagle at Florida Gulf Coast Unive...

This year's "Ten with Ken" Holiday Special starts with part 1: Midwinter Magic!   In last year's higher ed holiday videos, campus marketers were clearly anxious about doing a good job, such as at the Bryan School of Business & Economics at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Upper Iowa University, Chambers College of Business & Economics at West Virginia University, and Newcastle & Staffo...

So-called "maker spaces" are proliferating in campus libraries, but truly effective ones require much more than a 3D printer and some shiny new toys.  This week, Ken Steele chats with Kerry Harmer, the Maker Studio Specialist at Mount Royal University, about the potential connections between academic makerspaces and undergraduate curriculum and pedagogy. Makerspaces are creative spaces for thinkin...

For decades, college and university libraries have been continuously renovating their space and replacing technology.  But what would a 21st-century library look like if you could build it from scratch, with a $100 million budget?  Two years ago, Calgary's Mount Royal University got the chance to do just that!  This week, Ken Steele talks with MRU Provost Lesley Brown and Dean of Libraries Meagan...

Children are natural born scientists, with an insatiable curiosity and desire to experiment – but studies have demonstrated that somehow, through years of formal education, most teenagers lose their enthusiasm for science. By the time they are applying to college, less than a quarter say they remain very interested in science, which they consider "complicated" and "difficult" rather than "fun" or...

This week, Ken gets a "taste" of social innovation at Simon Fraser University's RADIUS incubator, speaking with co-director Shawn Smith and social entrepreneur Dylan Jones about their work. We learn how innovation requires bureaucratic flexibility, and Ken winds up at a loss for words with his mouth full of crickets!   For decades now, higher education has embraced the entrepreneurial incubator to...

Despite its significant sticker price, higher education doesn't often come with a guarantee.  After all, what a student learns, and how they put their skills to work in the world, has more to do with their own effort than anything the institution can do. But in a world of labour market uncertainty and rising career anxiety, students and their parents are often looking for a "sure thing" -- high em...