With Covid-19 keeping prospective students away from campus,universities are usingdigital storytellingto communicate theirvalues andmaintain a sense of community
Universities have no shortage of stories totell.Many want to share their achievements, others will relay the institution’s academic mission and core values, and some place the students and faculty at the heart of their narrative.
At theߣߣƵLeadership and Management Summit 2020, industry leaders discussed the power of digital storytelling and how it has been used during the Covid-19 pandemic to promote the university experience andfoster a sense of community during the crisis.
Tania Rhodes-Taylor, vice-principal of external relationsat theUniversity of Sydney, said the most effective stories were not about the university itself but rather about its students and staff.“The story is really about a shared experience,”she said. At the University of Sydney, students were given control of its social media channels to tell their story. This grassroots approach presented university life with a degree of authenticity that a dedicated marketing and communications team might struggle to replicate.
The results had a profound impact on how the university was perceived.“Our sentiment tracking increased 31 per cent over that period,”MsRhodes-Taylor said.“Weknow that it made people feel more warmly towards theorganisation.”
The National University of Singapore took a similar approach, encouraging students and faculty to use digital storytelling to share their experiences via the university’s intranet and online platforms. Chief communications officerOvidiaLim-Rajaramsaid it was often the case that the more informal the video, the more successful it was in communicating what the university was really like as an institution and community.
“For the first time,I saw universities just being less corporate, being less about the brand but more about speaking to the brand values,”MsLim-Rajaram said.Covid-19 has presented many challenges, she said, not least of whichis disinformation, but having nursing students publish videos on basic public health measures has had a huge impact online.“We saw videos like this going viral,”saidMsLim-Rajaram.“People didn’t care if the lighting was bad or if it was a little bit longer than it should have been–the message was there.”
The panel discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic hasacceleratedthe evolution of digital communications in higher education. More risks were taken, with fresh approaches yielding impressive results. Rachel Sandison, vice-principal of external relations at the University of Glasgow, hoped thissignalleda new era in communications.
Using theUnibuddyplatform, the University of Glasgow’s digital student ambassadors offered prospective students an unvarnishedlook at campus life, addressing their concerns and promoting the institution’s community feel. “That has been so powerful,really impactful, because it is also authentic,”MsSandison said.“We are not moderating anything with that discussion. Honesty and transparency are so important at this time.”
The panel spoke of the risk of information saturation, butMsLim-Rajaramnoted that having a diversity of voices and stories help maintain engagement. Mayan Scharf, who works on corporate global strategic partnerships atTikTok, said platforms such asTikTokoffer a user experience that can support higher education’s innovation in storytelling.
Because content is recommended based on user interest, creativity is rewarded.“There is no magic trick,”MsScharf said.“There is no formula. It is about being authentic. This is what our users like. They like creativity. They like joy. That is the essence and the heart of the platform.”վմǰ’sapplications are diverse. It could be used to raise awareness about issues surrounding mental health.
Alternatively,Nobel laureate professors could share cooking tips and cocktail recipes–a campus-culture moment that delightedMsLim-Rajaram, demonstrating that digital platforms can reveal the human side of faculty and“build that sense of belonging”.
about TikTok and higher education.
