g. g. Please provide a URL to drawings, prototype, website, or demo of your app. College Knowledge Challenge

1. College Connect
Supporting Students' Use of Facebook
for Building Social Capital around College Going
Nicole Ellison * Christine Greenhow * Bernie Hogan

2. Social Capital
 “Social capital” describes the resources (information or social
support) we get from our social connections
 High school students, especially first-generation students, lack
informational support about the college-going process in their
immediate family network
 Facebook connects them to a wide array of connections:
extended family like cousins, friends of older siblings, students
who have graduated from their high school, etc. Studies suggest
Facebook use is linked to higher levels of social capital (Ellison et
al., 2007; 2011)
 But how do you know who can help you with which questions?
 College Connect makes it easier for student to find useful
resources in their network and engage with them around
relevant topics and questions.

3. How does it work?
 The College Connect application:
 Mines Facebook profile pages to highlight individuals in
your network who list or “like” colleges and are more likely
to either currently be attending or have attended college
 Collects and analyzes social network data to identify
people who are more likely to be useful sources of info
 E.g., “Bridges” between two clusters tend to have higher
levels of social capital
 Scaffolds the process of asking for help by providing
prompts and sample questions

4. Why Facebook?
 Over 75% of teenagers (aged 12-17) have a profile on a
social network site (Lenhart et al.,2010)
 Young people spend an average of nine hours a week on
a social network site (NSBA, 2007).
 Facebook networks often replicate offline networks –
they typically consist of “real life” Friends and
acquaintances, not strangers
 Facebook enables users to broadcast requests for
information and to engage with “Friends of Friends”
who may be useful sources of novel information

5. Precursor to College Connect is the
NameGenWeb Facebook app (shown below)

7. Sample of Proposed Functionality:
College Connect Facebook App

8. College Connect Walk-through
A separate Profile on
1 Step one 2 Step two 3 Step three 4 Step four
the College Connect
App allows us to
(optional) have a separate
database for user
information.
We link using an
anonymized FB
identifier (provided
by GraphAPI).
Connect Connect
Connect Connect
First Name:
Joe32324
Anyone pressing
Profile “Skip” will be able to
Last Name: see and interact with
Bloggs their network, but
the program will
forget them as soon
as they log out.
Skip Continue

9. College Connect Walk-through
Even using our
1 Step one 2 Step two 3 Step three 4 Step four highly optimized
methods,
collecting
network
information can
be slow.
We will give a
personalized
'guesstimate' for
networks based
on size (example
above is 1 minute
for 500 friends,
Check here to be emailed with it is done. which is fair
using current
algorithms).
Continue

10. College Connect Walk-through
We use “badges”
to provide support
1 Step one 2 Step two 3 Step three 4 Step four for interacting
with network
information &
signaling actions
completed without
being too
instructional or
100 prescriptive.
f Share
Some badges will
be revealed
depending on
where someone is
in regards to life
Pro le course or
experience.
Visualize Badges also help
signal expertise
within the College
Connect
community.

11. Image
Banner at top will
send user to the
College Connect
profile with its
separate 'history.’
All history items will
be stored within
College Connect App
1 Step one 2 Step two 3 Step three 4 Step four with a 'share on
Facebook' and 'Tweet
this' button, rather
than auto-pushing to
the FB wall to
support user
choice/control.
We provide minimal
guidance about
layout and clustering,
as user tests indicate
people intuitively
Okay understand the
visualization once
they mouse over
different people.

12. Badges will show
tasks that the user is
encouraged to
accomplish. May be
reflective (e.g., find
friends based on
education, interest,
major, etc.)
or social (e.g.,
message a friend
using a pre-populated
question suggestion
to scaffold
interaction or a
customized one).
Time-released badges
promote repeat
engagement.
"Design your own
Badge" encourages
goal-directed social
play with ones
network.

13. Image
Mousing over a
person’s “dot”
reveals their name
(as does searching or
zooming in). Clicking
on a person reveals
a side panel showing
colleges
attending, colleges
liked, etc. Next to
each is a bubble.
When clicked, the
bubble expands
showing a series of
pre-defined
questions based on
the college
experience, etc. and
an entry field for
entering a
customized
question. Questions
are sent through FB
messaging. Question
sets will adapt based
on our lit
review, user
testing, and project
goals.

14. Modify Info Pane for College Connect
The College Connect
Profile’s Info Pane
will include info
related to college-
going (e.g., colleges
liked, college
attending, graduate
d from, major, high
school, & more)

15. Image
A separate private history
(or 'newsfeed') within the
application enables people
to control what
information they send
back to Facebook.
This accommodates those
who are gregarious and
those who are shy (or
embarrassed to talk about
college).
We want to encourage
strong integration with
Facebook, but also want
users to consider College
Connect a 'safe space'
where college aspirations
might be explored even if
(or especially when)
publicly showing college
aspirations or
apprehensions would not
mesh well with their
current online persona.

16. Scenario: Rosita
 Rosita is a first-generation, Latina teen in LA. None of her current
friends are applying to 4-year colleges.
 She logs into College Connect and looks for Friends who have
posted about 4-year colleges. It identified a good prospect for
questions - a high school friend of her older brother currently at
UCLA with a high friend count. The app encourages her to send
him a private message by highlighting the things they have in
common and proposing a template for a message which she
personalizes.
 She writes him a note asking about scholarships for Latina
students interested in science. Although he doesn’t know the
answer, he puts her in touch with one of his Friends who does.

17. Scenario: Joe
 Joe isn’t really interested in going to college, but he likes the idea of
seeing how his friends are connected to each other.
 He loads the College Connect app and starts playing around with it.
 He notices that about 15 of his Friends all are connected – people he
didn’t think knew each other. By exploring their profiles, he sees that
they are all fans of the school newspaper.
 He realizes that working on the newspaper is also a social activity.
One of his friends points out that it also looks good on college
applications. Joe starts to think more about college. He also joins the
newspaper and finds he enjoys reporting, prompting him to look into
journalism programs at a local community college.

18. Are there privacy concerns?
 The College Connect app adheres to all privacy settings
set by users and their Friends.
 Any research using server-level data will be approved by
the Human Subjects Review boards of the relevant
institutions.
 Users will have control over what is posted to their
profile or Wall from the app, and will be able to send
either private messages or public Wall posts.

19. College Connect is…
Bernie Hogan, PhD
Oxford Internet Institute
Nicole Ellison, PhD
Christine Greenhow, PhD School of
College of Education, Information, University of
Michigan State University Michigan
Co-founder College Possible

20. Selected References
 Ellison, N. B., Wohn, D.Y., Khan, M. L. & Fewins-Bliss, R. (2012). Reshaping
access: An overview of research on access to higher education, social media
and social capital [White paper].
 Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook
“friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network
sites. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12, 1143-1168.
doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x
 Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C. & Lampe, C. (2011). Connection Strategies: Social
capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices. New
Media & Society, 13, 873-892. doi: 10.1177/1461444810385389
 Greenhow, C. & Burton, L. (2011). Help from my “Friends:” Social capital in
the social network sites of low-income high school students. Journal of
Educational Computing Research, 45, 223-245.
 Wohn, DY, Ellison, N., Khan, ML, Fewins-Bliss, R., & Gray, R. (working paper).
The Role of Social Media in Shaping First-Generation High School Students'
College Aspirations: A Social Capital Lens.