CourseShare + Social Media Course Promotion
CourseShare + Social Media Course PromotionSpring semester is in full swing, but registration for the next academic year is just around the corner!
Now is a challenging time for many language programs. Nationally, enrollments in most language courses are down, as evidenced by the most recent MLA report, and many coordinators and instructors are concerned about the long-term viability of their languages.
While there is no magic formula for increasing student enrollments, the Language Center offers two teams that can help: CourseShare and Social Media. These teams are excited to announce that they will be joining forces to help instructors promote language courses that can be potentially shared in the Big Ten next academic year.
CourseShare enrollment has grown considerably in the past year, marking its highest enrollments ever during the fall semester, with similar numbers expected for the spring. When a student from a partner university joins a class through the CourseShare program, they become a Gopher for that semester, and their enrollment in the course counts towards the overall enrollment for the class. For a small course, the addition of even one or two CourseShare students can make a big difference in the viability of the course and also bring more diversity to the class.
If you are interested in learning more about sharing your course in the Big Ten, our social media experts can help provide:
- Suggestions for improving the course description
- Ideas for a working title for topics courses
- A promotional flier
- A short promotional video
Materials developed by the social media team will be shared via the social media nexus and other UMN accounts, as well as to Big Ten coordinators through the CourseShare course inquiry board.
This opportunity is available to all less commonly taught language courses. Some very specialized French, German and Spanish courses may also be eligible. While most language courses we’ve shared to date have been at the beginning and intermediate level, we encourage instructors of advanced level and topics courses (not taught in English) to consider CourseShare.
If you are interested in promoting your course to local students and beyond, please start by reaching out to the CourseShare coordinator, Stephanie Treat, at treat002@umn.edu.
