Ten with Ken (Video)

Ken Steele went to the Ontario Universities' Fair, in September 2016, and asked 45 experts for their best advice for young people trying to choose a program or field of study after high school. And these are people who ought to know: 11 university presidents, 9 recruiters and admissions professionals, and 25 current undergraduate students. (For 1080p version, see  https://youtu.be/ng-xADfIkio  ) I...

In the second episode from the 2016 Ontario Universities' Fair, Ken Steele surveys the exhibit floor and interviews university representatives to summarize what's new in student recruitment marketing this fall. (See the first, "Why Go to the OUF?" at https://youtu.be/CyXKcQ7fsac ). This podcast includes some flashback photos, video and even some unused interviews from previous years' OUFs, from 20...

Ken Steele goes on location at the largest PSE exhibition in North America, the Ontario Universities' Fair in Toronto. Over 2 days he interviewed 11 presidents, 9 front-line staff and 25 student ambassadors. This week, we find out what they like best about the OUF, and why they recommend prospective students attend. It should be interesting to anyone who has ever attended the fair, or is consideri...

This week, Ken reviews this fall's back-to-school college and university videos, from presidential welcomes to o-week excitement, from bubble gum records to Pokémon Go! We looked at "O-Week Winners & Sinners" in a previous episode. https://youtu.be/imr8-zMyEDg This time, we're focused on more official videos: UPEI provided vital orientation information in their video. https://youtu.be/xzzWt_xswSY...

Governments invest in higher education hoping to see short-term economic benefits in the form of job creation, knowledge mobilization, and increasingly, the launch of entrepreneurial new start-up businesses. In this week's episode, Ken Steele provides a quick overview of college and university research commercialization, from the first research parks to the latest business incubators and accelerat...

Increasingly careerist students, at colleges and universities alike, are attracted to work-integrated learning opportunities. This week, Ken continues his series on innovations in teaching and learning with a closer look at Experiential Learning. Colleges like Sault College have been promoting hands-on learning opportunities for years, like their Field Camp for outdoor recreation students. https:/...

Passive learning methods like lectures, readings and demonstrations remain the mainstay in higher ed, but research tells us that active learning approaches can have much more lasting impact on student learning outcomes. From small group discussions and project-based learning to experiential field schools and peer teaching, in this episode Ken sums up some compelling evidence from UBC, Queen's, and...

For more than a thousand years, students have been gathering in lecture halls to listen to the "sage on the stage." But shorter attention spans, new technologies, and empirical testing of learning outcomes have led us to question the tried and true historical "transmission" model of education. In this episode, Ken Steele gives a brief lecture on "the Death of Lecture." Check out how familiar a 14t...

Ken Steele distills dozens of interviews on the floor of North America's largest higher ed trade show, the Ontario Universities' Fair. This week we look specifically at what new programs are attracting student attention. With more than 100,000 prospective students and parents flooding the OUF, it’s a massive market test. Unique Signature Programs: Including Carleton’s Bachelor of Global & Internat...

In this special 25-minute episode, Ken distills the highlights of recent North American college and university pranks and hoaxes for April Fool’s Day (and his producer, John, plays pranks on in post-production.) There are 10 popular targets for higher ed April Fools hoaxes: Name Changes Mascots Improbable Infrastructure Celebrity Students Cats! Absurd New Programs Campus Security Millennial Studen...

This week, Ken completes his 3-part review of higher ed branding in 2015 with a look at “New Names & Nicknames,” from DMZ to uVic! (Part 1 was “Cautionary Tales & Cautious Rebrandings” https://youtu.be/m2LF3rGiMLc . Part 2 was “Bold New Brands of 2015” https://youtu.be/pxmRfUfzZ5o .) Without a doubt, institutions are loathe to lose decades of brand equity and recognition by changing their names. G...

Last week, Ken shared some classic cautionary tales of higher ed brand misfires, and we looked at some particularly cautious new brands from Canadian colleges and universities, perhaps in response. (Last week: https://youtu.be/m2LF3rGiMLc ) This week, we look at the flipside: provocative brands and campaigns that deliberately court controversy. Aggressive Competition: We start with some examples o...

For the next few episodes, Ken Steele returns to the Brand Chemistry™ Lab to analyze recent trends in higher ed brand identities and marketing campaigns. This week, we look at some notable brand mis-steps that have become cautionary tales for campus marketers, and the inevitable result: some very cautious, gradual rebrandings that don’t risk passionate opposition from traditional-minded stakeholde...

Last week, Ken Steele looked back at some major PR headaches sparked by students and faculty, from white student unions to a blogging board member. https://youtu.be/qn0ylCsR9Jw But some of the biggest media relations migraines of all start at the top, with board chairs and presidents. It’s a considerable risk for a multi-million-dollar organization to rest its reputation squarely on the shoulders...

This week, Ken Steele looks back at some of the biggest PR headaches afflicting Canadian colleges and universities in the past year, looking for common causes and some lessons we can learn about crisis communications. Academia may well be the most challenging environment in which to manage messaging, with opinionated faculty, unrestrained students, and concerned parents, alumni, and taxpayers in t...

This week, Ken Steele completes his countdown of the ten biggest trends impacting North American higher education in 2015, with the top 4: from political correctness and personal safety to major demographic shifts. If you missed part 1, check it out first: https://youtu.be/bziLQbNEXcI Trigger Warning: The topics of trigger warnings and sexual assault may be disturbing to some viewers. Discretion i...

2015 was a rough year, from terrorist attacks in France and extreme weather in Texas and California, to the Volkswagen emissions scandal and the surprising rise of Donald Trump. But we also saw the launch of the Apple Watch, the Lexus hoverboard, and Nike self-lacing shoes. And there was a profound leftward shift in Canadian politics, from Rachel Notley’s NDP in Alberta to Dwight Ball’s Liberals i...

Ken Steele completes his survey of recent trends in college and university holiday greeting videos in this week’s 20-minute episode of Ten with Ken. (If you missed Part 1, watch it at https://youtu.be/iImd9p1O3nQ ). This time, we look at highlights from 27 institutional videos from some of our favourite categories: comedy and parody, seasonal goodwill gestures, and campus choirs and musicians. We’...

As Canadian campuses wind down toward the winter holidays, Ken Steele surveys recent trends in college and university holiday greeting videos in 2 special extended episodes of Ten with Ken. In this week’s 19-minute episode, Ken shares extremely tightly-edited highlights from 49 institutional videos in 5 categories: animated greeting cards, short story vignettes, personal greetings, Q&A compilation...

Ken Steele sums up trends in on-campus housing, as colleges and universities build more and more residences, to appeal to international students, teenagers and their parents. Western University has 5,346 residence rooms, and most built in the past decade feature a semi-private floorplan with private bedroom and study space, shared washrooms, kitchen and living area. Colleges have increasingly been...

Ken Steele pulls together the evidence for a growing majority of college and university students who are "invisible" part-time students -- registered full-time, for financial aid or other practical reasons, but in fact working as many as 34 hours a week. Now that the average Canadian's work week has declined to about 33 hours a week, these students are essentially working full-time, while register...

Ken Steele pulls together the evidence for a growing majority of college and university students who are "invisible" part-time students -- registered full-time, for financial aid or other practical reasons, but in fact working as many as 34 hours a week. Now that the average Canadian's work week has declined to about 33 hours a week, these students are essentially working full-time, while register...

Ken Steele continues his review of recent winners and sinners in higher ed social media, this time looking at orientation week highs and lows. It seems as though sometimes O-Week brings out the worst in students, who then seek to document their exploits on Instagram and Snapchat. In Sept 2011, it was students from HEC Montreal donning blackface to imitate Usain Bolt. In Sept 2013, it was Frosh Cha...

In this week's 7-minute podcast, Ken Steele summarizes a variety of low-tech and high-tech ways in which universities attempt to bring a virtual campus to the largest PSE trade show in North America, the Ontario Universities' Fair. At #OUF2015, many universities use large campus photography or ever-larger video displays, capped off with Trent University's "jumbotron" screen. For several years now,...

Ken Steele and the Eduvation team present some recent highlights of the Youtube channels of Canadian colleges and universities. This episode we look at some of our favourite back-to-school videos from September 2015, from a safety video for an extinction-level event, to a pyromaniac’s delight, to a puppy outfitted with a GoPro… This 4-minute episode includes excerpts from newscasts Humber Today (H...