Announcing Social Media Engagement Certificate at University of Toronto - On-line Courses Start Sept. 9th

I have more project news to share:

I am excited to announce a new Social Media Engagement certificate through the iSchool Institute at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto that Daniel Lee and I will be teaching starting in September!  

Please check out the details below and on the iSchool Institute website. I encourage you to sign up or pass along this info to anyone you think might be interested.

The certificate is made up of two 7-week courses taught on-line:

• Social Media Planning for Organizations
• Social Media Tools and Tactics (description to be posted)

The courses can be taken individually or can be taken together for a University of Toronto-backed certificate. To obtain the certificate, there is also an assignment (details below). 

People have been asking us about how the course will be delivered, so I though it would be helpful to explain our vision for this program. Daniel and I have been working hard all summer putting the content together:

Content

Social Media Planning for Organizations - we will be following a "Social Media Strategy" framework delving into the following aspects:

• Learning
• Listening / monitoring
• Engagement
• Measurement
• Development of organizational capabilities
• Objectives and prioritization
• Governance - including who will do what as well as establishing policies
• Defining tools and tactics

The one-day course we taught in person followed a similar format; however, we have expanded the material and will have time to go more in-depth on each of the topics. 

Social Media Tools and Tactics - we will be looking at the "ecosystem" of social media, working with popular representative tools, and looking at the tactical side of working with social media. The focus will be on social media for organizations, but welcome discussion about personal use as well. 

Format 

Each course runs over a 7 week period. Each week there will be about 3 hours of work (content and homework), for a total of 21 hours. The courses will be taught primarily from Wikispaces, a wiki platform which we have set up for private discussion. We will have videos to introduce content, there will be readings, homework assignments, and discussion topics for class participants. We will be supplementing these with video conferencing sessions, likely using Google Hangout. Daniel and I are also planning to have online "office hours" to answer questions from participants. For the Social Media Tools and Tactics course, class participants will also be trying out social media tools each week. 

The plan is for us to alternate the courses so that people can take them in either order. 

Participation

While the courses will largely be done on participants' own time, there will be weekly discussion questions on the wiki and video conferencing sessions. The more someone participates in these activities, the more they will be likely to learn. There will be a lot to discuss! We hope these interactive activities will allow us to explore the specific needs of the group.

Our goal with the variety of formats, content and engagement with the course will make this course engaging for all adult learning styles. 

Certification Assignment

To obtain certification, a participant will need to complete both courses plus successfully complete an assignment. The assignment will have a practical outcome: it will be an initial draft report for a social media pilot project. We know from participants in our past courses that these assignment reports have been useful in getting their organizations started toward a thoughtful, well-planned approach to social media. 

For more info

Here are the links you need for more info:

• Social Media Planning for Organizations - info & course registration
• Social Media Engagement Certificate
• iSchool Institute, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

Questions? Please feel free to email me or the iSchool Institute.

Please pass this information along to your co-workers, friends and family. We would love to see a good turnout in our first course to get the ball rolling!