Why is there a gap in communication?

The College of Science Technology & Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT) like other colleges and universities are finding out that staying in-touch with students via social media is not easy. Even with the advent of social media. 

Currently, COSTAATT uses two forms of communication tools to interact with its student population. One is e-mail. This was made mandatory for students about two to three years ago. In its infancy, one of the draw backs of this was some students only accessed their e-mail as a registration requirement. Another problem was that students were initially receiving emails other than school related business. It was frustrating to students as information that was delivered to in-boxes were not filtered. However, this problem has since been rectified.

Another form of communication that the college uses is short messaging service (SMS). From time to time administration would send text messages to students via the mobile phone. This type of communication is immediate and to the point, for those students who registered their numbers or update regularly. 

However, the big question is why do some students miss college information, after all these communication tools are put in place? One of the reasons can be the over reliance on peers either from classes, personal groups or online peers groups to get information. Another reason that maybe over looked by many is that although most people in this country have a smart phone or access to the internet, there are still those who have limited or no access to internet.  This at times can be taken for granted, so for example some students may only get to view their e-mail accounts when they are on the campus or if they can at work.  As such the issue of the internet divide is still a reality.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that there would be continual communication between administration and students, but what can be achieved is a smoother flow with how it is disseminated.  So it is about lessening that gap. Also keep those social media forum that exist updated. 

This is an example of one of the (so called) campus’s out-of-date social media communication page. 

This is one example of a page used (supposedly) for campus news. It was last up-dated around Thursday April 4th 2013. Up-date before this is Saturday 6th October 2012. With this irregularity, students have lost interest and would continue to lose interest in keeping up with the college on social media.

This is an example of a group/peers page that is used by students for information filtering. One of the more widely used COSTAATT group pages on Facebook. COSTAATT group

There are many groups and pages that are set up by students for students. All most every student activity and subject of study has a page on Facebook bearing the COSTAATT logo. This does not mean the page or group is related or affiliated with the COSTAATT administration. 

How do you feel about this?