» #heweb09 HighEdWeb Conference, notes from “Better Living through Minions” 10/6/2009
Michael Fienen, Web Marketing Manager, Pittsburg State University. “Better Living through Minions: Guide to Student Workers.” MMP9 #hew09mmp9
Get it all here: http://doteduguru.com/heweb09mmp9
Background
All of us run our shops differently. All use students differently. Sampling obviously small, but can give you ideas
- Started as a discussion on Twitter about the lack of available information about how students are being used in web work
- Two similar schools could have very different work environments
- Survey data was collected from 130+ students and employers at the start of 2009 to see where there’s common ground and where people are innovating
One thing that is constant
- Students are our most valuable resource
We are student factories — not using students is to not use a valuable resource.
They are
- Cheap
- Abundant
- Resourceful
- Innovative
- and most importantly…
They can see things in a way that we can’t
Even in the short time he’s been working in higher ed, he can’t look at something he designed — students can look at it with student eyes and give feedback from a perspective we just don’t have.
So, what did you want to know?
- Recruiting Sources
- Responsibilities
- Info About students
- How much credit can we take? How much can we lean on them?
Recruiting
[Naval Service of Canada has great images.]
- Student Career services
- Faculty and staff recommendations (47%)
- Private listings (20%) – monster.com, etc.
- Walk-ins (16%)
- Everything else (word of mouth, high school teachers, current students)
- high school teaches are an awesome resource — gets in touch with all the high school teachers in the area to find out who is going to Pittsburg and who is familiar in the web
What students are doing in offices
- Web design tasks (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
- Content migrations (cut/paste monkeys)
- Data entry (those poor kids)
- Tech support (those poor staff members)
- Graphic design (…I got nothing)
What students are not doing
- Maintaining social networks (19%)
- Tutorial Development (17%)
- Database work/maintenance (16%)
- Blogging (11%)
- Keyboard cleaning jockey (11%)
Using students for tech support, but not documentation, which will save work later. Should be explored.
Student info
- Only 3% are over 24 years old (average 21.62)
- 25% of offices have primarily female students
- Common Majors: computer science, comm/graphic design, then English Business, and Marketing
- 69% say they slack off 1/4 of the time (don’t worry, none over half)
Some work stats
- Only 8.6% think they are used too much or not enough
- About 1/3 plan to stay 1-2 years (20% more than that)
- 20% have no intention of working in a web field after college
- About 1/3 were hired via recommendations, and 28% each from Career Services and walkings
- 17% have changed career plans (for better or worse) after working in a web office
- 97% feel they are learning skills that will help them after they graduate, regardless of their field
Reliance on students
How much can we put on their shoulders
It’s important to note the opportunity students present as we try to fill gaps left by FT positions web can’t fill. But naturally, managing students takes time on our part, so we must balance managing students with managing our own work. It’s not a zero cost operation (not counting money)
- 86% of offices use students. The majority use 4 or less.
- 45% of offices offer $1 over minimum wage
…
$12,658 per year: the average amount budgeted for student workers in a web office.
(budgets ranging from nothing to $95,000)
Training
- Lynda.com (the ultimate babysitter // go learn photoshop, don’t use my picture)
- Opera Web Standards Curriculum http://opera.com/company/education/curriculum
- Cheat Sheets by Added Bytes (the cheat sheets are a great babysitter) http://addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/
- Use real tasks as examples, let them do it, and walk them through the process (learn by doing)
Tracking
- Basecamp (if you can afford it)
- Collabtive (Open source PHP)
- Eventum (Open source PHP, powerful, UGLY)
- Wikis (go out and find what fits you best)
Some closing comments
[Comments will be available in slides — comments from survey data; a few paragraphs]
Presentation at:
http://doteduguru.com/heweb09mmp9