QUESTIONS
---> USAGE (STUDENT FOCUSED):
---> USAGE (GROUP LEADER FOCUSED):
---> USAGE (ADMIN FOCUSED):
---> FACEBOOK INTEGRATION:
---> TECHNICAL QUESTIONS:
---> SECURITY AND PRIVACY:
---> BILLING:
ANSWERS
USAGE (STUDENT FOCUSED):
How does Red Rover increase engagement?
In three primary ways:
- By increasing student connectedness - Research by Tinto, Astin, and Upcraft all show that increasing social capital at the institution leads to increases in engagement, involvement, and ultimately retention and student success. See research references here.
- By empowering group leaders to organize activities - New students opt-in to affinity groups online through Red Rover. This takes the pressure off the group leaders to always be recruiting so instead they are free to organize off-line / real world experiences for their opted-in group. These experiences build relationships and the increased social capital increases engagement.
- By increasing communication efficiency - A huge campus problem is students’ tendency to ignore institutional e-mails and thus miss out on potentially relevant opportunities. Through Red Rover, institutions can individually segment students thus increasing the relevancy of communication and substantially reducing institutional spam. This creates greater efficiency and a higher likelihood that students pay attention and take action, leading to engagement.
What if I do not get every student to participate?
Every student registered is ideal, however, sometimes not possible. Red Rover is effective with only half or quarter registration.
Do you offer student recruitment support?
Admins have access to a recruitment dashboard to quickly see and assist students who need help registering. Also the integration of Red Rover into Facebook allows students to see their friends’ Red Rover badges and easily register at any time. This feature allows Red Rover to work year round and spread virally through the students' social networks.
What is a group leader?
A group leader is any person who holds a leadership position within a group (e.g. President, VP, Manager, Co-Chair, Senator, Faculty Advisor). During the set up of your Red Rover account, you define at least one group leader per group. You can assign multiple group leaders per group.
What if I do not get every group leader to participate?
Red Rover is designed for redundant responsibility. Any group leader can edit the group page. Admins can also edit group pages. If a few group leaders don’t register, their group can still be represented.
Can I use Red Rover for second year students or upper classmen?
Introductions can happen at any time and Red Rover helps facilitate meaningful introductions around institutional values. So yes! Red Rover is usable for any student in any year at your school.
The Red Rover link used for a first year student would be the same for any other year. You could post the link on your website or email it to sophomores and upper classmen just as you would do with your first year students.
Can I use Red Rover for transfer students?
Yes! Red Rover delivers introductions to students year round and offers transfer students the same benefits as first year students.
How is Red Rover different than Facebook or Myspace?
Red Rover works with social networking sites (e.g. Facebook/Myspace) to connect students to new people, ideas, and experiences around the institution’s values. Red Rover is the bridge between Facebook and higher education and is not a new Facebook. Additionally, Red Rover extensively uses tagging and
folksonomies to make new recommendations, deliver relevant institution content, and create real world experiences.
How does Red Rover integrate with Facebook or Myspace?
Students can add their Facebook and Myspace profile links to their Red Rover profile as another medium in which to communicate with each other.
Red Rover also has a Facebook Application that students can add to their Facebook profile. The application displays their university logo and lists campus groups/clubs/organizations the student participates in.
What does it mean to blend the Institutional Values to the students’ world?
There is a wide variety of Facebook groups ranging from “I love eating Peanut Butter” to “I want to [sleep with] Angelina Jolie” to topics too inappropriate to mention here. Many of the interests posted on these social networking sites are not relevant to your institution or the students’ academic life, though some can be. Red Rover creates a filter by giving Admin control of group creation, while facilitating and encouraging the creation of new groups by students. Through a blend of top down and bottom up organizing approaches, Red Rover empowers students and increases connection possibilities while ensuring a reflection of the institution’s positive values. From there, Red Rover builds relationships around interests with the goal to increase engagement in the institution’s community.
What is a Tag?
A tag is simply a word used to describe something. Think of a tag on an item in a store – the tag describes the item. A student adds as many tags as they like to create a string of words that describe their interests across a variety of categories. Taken together, these tags provide a very efficient way to match students and groups. Tag examples include: French, cooking, baseball, physics, chess, etc.
---> USAGE (GROUP LEADER FOCUSED):
Can I change group’s leaders if they change or graduate?
Yes, you can change a group’s student leader at any time. The new student leader is sent an email notification letting them know.
What data does a group leader have to enter into Red Rover?
It takes a group leader approximately 10-15 minutes to set up their group with a brief description, website links, group contact info, and tags.
What do you mean by an “external link”?
Any link to another website put on a group's profile. Some student groups already have their own websites or they use sites like Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo groups, or Basecamp to organize their communication, calendar, photos, events, and discussions. On the Red Rover group page, group leaders can easily add a list of these links to keep everyone organized. This flexibility lets group leaders use their favorite tools, which helps with adoption of Red Rover.
What defines a Group?
The general idea of a Group is usually student groups like Art Club, Chess Club, German Club, Programming Board, and Student Government. But the idea of Groups can also be expanded to a collection of students around topical interests that are not necessarily officially sponsored clubs/organizations.
It's important to not make Groups too vague, like "Intramural Sports", otherwise the recommendations will not be effective. What does work is to break them up into more focused Groups like "Intramural Soccer" and "Intramural Football."
---> USAGE (ADMIN FOCUSED):
How does Red Rover work year round?
Currently most institutions offer involvement fairs only once or twice a year. This model is limiting. Think of Red Rover as a year long involvement fair.
When a student first creates a Red Rover account, Red Rover recommends groups based on their tags. If, throughout the year, the student adds new tags (i.e. interests), more groups are recommended based on their new interests.
If a student transfers to your school mid semester, they can create an account and get groups recommended without having to wait for the next involvement fair.
For students on Facebook, this online orientation is one click from their profile.
Who should be the primary Admin for Red Rover?
The primary Admin should be someone that works closely with Student Affairs and has the best connection with the student body and group leaders.
What does the primary Admin have to input?
The Admin doesn't need any extra technical knowledge to set up the institution’s account. The Admin inputs:
- basic institution info such as size, public or private, and institution logo
- top level categories for group organization (e.g. Academic, Athletics, Social, Greek...)
- group names and corresponding group leader name and email address
That’s it for set up! From there the Admin receives email notifications of new group requests. The Admin accepts or rejects these requests with one click.
What do you mean by a top level category?
All groups and their tags are organized by categories which you customize to your institution. The default categories are:
- Academic
- Career
- Cultural
- Hobby
- Other
- Social
- Spiritual
- Athletic
Can I change the primary Admin?
Yes, you can change the primary Admin at any time.
Can I have more than one Admin?
Yes. By all means, share the work. Red Rover does support multiple Admins per institution, providing, redundant responsibility layers and spreading out the minimal maintenance duties. (We know how busy you all are!)
What customization is available for Red Rover to make the site more personalized to my institution?
Currently you can add/change your institution's logo and customize all group categories. The Admin can also customize the list of default banned tags for your institution to reflect different institution sensitivities.
What is my school’s URL?
Your school's Red Rover URL is [your school’s webaddress].redroverhq.com.
For example, Juniata College’s web address is
http://www.juniata.edu, so their Red Rover web address is
http://juniata.redroverhq.com
If your school is part of a network of schools, i.e. CUNY or SUNY, and your web address is something like
http://qc.cuny.edu, then drop the extra period and your Red Rover web address is
http://qccuny.redroverhq.com.
You’ll know if you are at the right site because the correct full school name is at the top of the page. If you don’t see the correct school name at your web address, send us an
e-mail and we will fix it for you.
What if I can't find my institution within Red Rover?
We tried hard to make sure every institution is in Red Rover, but there is a 99.99% chance we missed some. Send us an
e-mail and we will quickly create your institution's Red Rover account.
Can I change my school’s URL?
No. The institution's URL is set and cannot be changed.
How do I get all of the student groups into the system?
As the Admin, you upload an excel document with all the student groups and corresponding group leader(s) with emails into the system. Each group must have at least one group leader with email.
Once a group and corresponding group leader(s) are uploaded, an invitation email is sent to each group leader informing them they have been named the "group leader for x group." The group leaders then click on the link in the email and go through a sign up wizard to fill out their personal profile and the group profile.
At every level, there is complete action transparency so that Admins can quickly see, from one dashboard screen, who has or who has not completed their tasks. This allows for focused follow up and saves time.
Does the size of the institution matter?
No. Red Rover's design is flexible for any size institution. While certainly more options (e.g. more clubs, groups, etc.) provide more recommendation options, small campus communities can be greatly enhanced through more effective student organization, better introductions, relevant communications, and increased student services. Small schools can also benefit from the built-in assessment, allowing them to focus their limited budgets on the opportunities that resonate with the highest number of students. Large institutions benefit from the recommendation engine as it reduces the overwhelming nature of a large institution and helps new students quickly find their “niche.”
---> FACEBOOK INTEGRATION:
How do I delete my Red Rover Facebook App?
1) Log into your Facebook account and go to your profile page.
2) Click on the Red Rover Icon just below your profile picture.
3) Click on the "X" in the upper right hand box of the Red Rover App.
4) Click "Remove Application" from the pop up box.
.
How do I add my Red Rover Facebook App if I already have a Red Rover Account?
1) Go to your schools Red Rover website and log into your account.
2) Click on "Add Facebook Application" from your Red Rover Profile.
3) The link goes to Facebook to complete the process. Click on "Add Red Rover " from within Facebook.
4) Then it goes back to your Red Rover profile. If the "Add Facebook Application" button is gone, then you successfully added the app.
---> TECHNICAL QUESTIONS:
Can I request features or changes?
Yes. We would love to receive your feedback and requests. Either
e-mail us or share your feedback on our
feedback forum.
How much will I need IT involved in the implementation?
Red Rover has a simple to set up design with very little need for IT support. Many institutions can be set up by the students themselves from within Facebook. If you wish to fully integrate Red Rover into your current web site, the only technical step necessary is pasting your Red Rover URL link into your registration process via an email and / or pasting a small HTML code into your institution’s web site. The rest of the Red Rover set up is very easy and there are step by step instructions for each section.
I am not good with computers, do I need to worry?
We worked hard to make Red Rover as user friendly as possible. If you are able to check your email and surf the web, you should be fine using and setting up Red Rover.
Do you offer Red Rover tech support?
Yep. If you get stuck and need some advice you can:
1) Click on the "Help" link on every page
2) Email us at
support@redroverhq.com
3) Call us at 1-877-479-4385
Will I be sent any software?
Nope. Red Rover is internet based so all someone needs is internet access.
How long does the whole set up take?
It depends on how much information you already have and how much you need to collect, such as group names, group leader names and emails. The set up for your institution only happens once – the second year all the information is there for you.
On average here is how long each part takes:
- Admin – 1-3 hours (only for the first year)
- Group Leader – 15 minutes
- Student – 5-10 minutes
---> SECURITY AND PRIVACY:
Where is the student's information stored?
To create a profile, a student inputs their name, email, picture, cell phone, external links and tags. This is the only information Red Rover needs to collect. All of this information is stored on our secure servers.
Will the student’s information be sold to marketers?
No. Please read our
privacy policy to learn more.
---> BILLING:
Will I ever be surprised by a fee?
No. The features you have now will always be free including all upgrades. New features in the future may have associated fees, but you will always be able to choose whether to use the new features or not.
How can you offer the software for free?
We believe that Red Rover will be sustainable in the long run through paid feature extensions. Swift Kick also applied for grants to support the free version of the software and are pledging to make the core code open source and free forever.
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