Colleges turn to YouTube to attract new students

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NORFOLK (AP) — When Nancy Cooley's nephew received glossy recruiting brochures from colleges, he threw them in the trash and went online to learn about the schools he was interested in attending.

Old Dominion University, where Mrs. Cooley is vice provost for distance learning, is going beyond a traditional Web page to try to attract students like her nephew who are used to getting information on the Internet and spending time on social networking sites such as Facebook.

ODU is the first college or university in Virginia to introduce a channel on the popular video-sharing site YouTube, in partnership with the state. The channel (www.youtube .com/profile?user=odu) went live this year and has videos on faculty, a film festival and a helicopter tour of the campus.

"The primary benefit is that this is where the young people are," Mrs. Cooley said. "They are out looking at YouTube every day. As they're exploring YouTube, we want them to find ODU."

The channel also is a way to entice potential faculty, she said. And it eventually will offer full course lectures that can be watched free of charge but not for college credit.

YouTube is providing the channel, technical assistance and server space at no charge, and there is no advertising.

YouTube, based in San Bruno, Calif., began offering dedicated higher-education channels roughly a year ago. YouTube declined to release how many schools have the channels but said more are joining the site all the time.

The first institutions to introduce such channels include the University of California at Berkeley (www.youtube.com/ucberkeley); Vanderbilt University (www.youtube.com/vanderbilt); University of Southern California (www.youtube.com/usc); Duke University (www.youtube.com/dukeuniversitynews); Boston University (www.youtube.com/butoday); and the University of Notre Dame (www.youtube.com/nddotedu).

"From virtual campus tours to chemistry lectures, education channels on YouTube are microcosms of the vibrant world of higher-ed," said Obadiah Greenberg, strategic partner manager at YouTube. "We are excited to see a broad range of higher-education institutions launch YouTube channels. It's a powerful way to connect scholars and self-learners worldwide."

Last year, Google Inc., YouTube's parent, announced partnerships with Virginia, as well as Arizona, California and Utah, to make it easier for people to find state information on Web sites.

ODU is an early adopter of a YouTube-Virginia partnership that's still in the works, said Aneesh Chopra, Virginia's secretary of technology. Virginia's government has quietly launched a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/virginiagovernment) that has links to video from state agencies and institutions. A formal announcement is expected as more content is added.

A key benefit of the enhanced government and higher-education channels is the ability to host longer videos than the usual snippets posted to YouTube, Mr. Chopra said. That will allow ODU and other Virginia colleges and universities to make course lectures available to people who cannot afford tuition, live far away or just want to learn about a subject without enrolling.

"While I appreciate the tour of the campus as a good starting point, the value is when the lectures are available," Mr. Chopra said.

ODU plans to add videos of full courses that people can watch for free from anywhere in the world. The channel can draw from the thousands of hours of digital content the university already has as part of its distance-learning, interactive television network throughout Virginia, in other states and on Navy ships at sea.

Lisa Snowdy, a public relations specialist at ODU who built and administers the university's channel, said another goal is to help develop a sense of community at the university by bring it to desktops and laptops.

"These kinds of sites are a great tool to do that," she said. "Students can see some of the arts things that are going on that maybe they didn't know about. Perhaps that will encourage them to go in person the next time something rolls around. They really get an idea of what's [happening] on campus."

Aseem Rastogi, a 19-year-old sports management major from Fairfax, especially likes that the channel reaches a global audience.

"It will bring a lot more international students here because YouTube is a phenomenon that is understood by everybody," he said.

Mr. Rastogi also thinks the official channel will inspire students to post their own videos of campus happenings to YouTube, showing a more realistic side of life at ODU.