Great Social Media Idea: Course Trailers

I'm back from an impromptu weekend with my brothers in the Bay Area, which means it's time to feature more great ideas that have come to me via the suggestion box!

Today, I'm highlighting these really neat and unique course trailers from Southwestern University (I can't embed the videos, so just click on the link!). 

I love the idea of creating something like this to highlight a course. Not only is it - I'm sure - a great way to promote particular courses to current students and very much appreciated by faculty, it's also a cool way to highlight what classes are like at your particular university to prospective students and their parents.

These trailers are accurate and straight-forward, but I could also see experimenting with some over-the-top drama/music/voiceover as well. This idea has a lot of potential and versatility.

Many thanks to Danielle Stapleton from Southwestern for sending this idea along... pasted below is her email to me sharing this idea. Take it away, Danielle!

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Thanks for being willing to hear this possible blog post out. Southwestern (at the urging of our new president, Ed Burger) recently started filming course trailers. Several faculty members have jumped on this opportunity to showcase some of the more unique classes offered. While we are by no means done producing these (I'm sure this will be a continuous effort), you can see the finished trailers here: southwestern.edu/academics/trailers.php 

We are also creating playlist on our YouTube channel with the same information and will link each one to the course description pages within each academic department website. 

In addition to promoting our regular courses, we are also filming trailers for our Paideia clusters. Paideia is at the root of SU's curriculum and encourages students to make connections between their classes/disciplines over their four years on campus. During their final years they take a Paideia seminar, which is the capstone of this experience. As we roll this program out to all students (formerly Paideia was an option), we hope to highlight the ways these cluster themes will work and the connections students can make. 

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Have a cool higher ed social media idea to share? Submit it via the suggestion box (upper-right-corner of the site)!