Facebook Feedback: Ball State University (BSU): Educational Studies

Working with adults is a very important aspect of any educational field or career path. No matter where you go, you should be able to work in small or large groups and understand what drives people. The Department of Educational Studies can help prepare both traditional and non-traditional students with course offerings ranging from introductory to advanced research classes focusing on topics that will prepare students in these skills. Their Facebook page can be a good way to get a very cursory introductory look at the department and some of their offerings. There you will find information about faculty members and research they are doing as well as reviews from current and past students on course offerings. Any prospective student to the School of Education should review this page as a part of their review, but should not solely rely on this page for all of their information.

There is much being shared about events and opportunities that would be of interest to adult, community and higher education students.  Our instructor, Dr. Sheron, was congratulated on being selected as a recipient of the Provost Immersive Learning Grant for fall 2016 and as being invited to be a member of the editorial board of Educational Studies, the official journal of the American Educational Studies Association.  It is a fairly active page for faculty it appears.  Social media presence is important but the level of which it is needed for adult or non-traditional students may be less than that of traditional college students.  It’s great the Facebook site wants to prepare students for future opportunities, but it is also important to connect to current and students that have graduated seeking new career opportunities. Keeping the site updated can keep individuals engaged with the site postings.  

One issue with the course offerings is that the Adult, Community, Higher Education degree program is listed as distance education.  In order to apply for the ACHE doctoral program you must select distance.  This would seemingly work great for out of town students but in planning future semesters driving to Muncie for a class is scheduled potentially for numerous semesters.  This doesn’t fit the definition of a distance education program and should not be presented that it can be completed solely online or from outside of Muncie.