October 2013
The Higher Education Web Professionals Association (HighEdWeb) is the international organization of professionals working to design, develop, manage and map the future of digital in higher education. Each fall, we come together at our Annual Conference and our related master-class intensive Academies, and we remain active year-round via our online member community and our LINK Online Journal.
Session Description
As communications have become increasingly digitized, and costs for printing and mailing the college’s traditional viewbook have increased, Admissions offices are investigating new ways to provide prospective students with information that is timely, personalized, cost-effective, and easy to track. To try to meet this need, SUNY Genesee Community College took its first step into custom digital publishing by developing an application to create custom viewbooks or “InfoPackets.”
InfoPackets can be created by students, parent, or anyone that is interested in learning more about SUNY GCC. Users can select to include information about academic programs, athletic teams, housing, arts, etc. and create a customized InfoPacket that is tailored to their interests. The InfoPacket is sent to them as a PDF that can be printed and shared with family and friends, alleviating printing and mailing costs for the college. This InfoPacket program has been running for only nine months at SUNY GCC and over 1,100 InfoPackets have been created by prospective students. Over 50 percent of users not only supply their name and email, but also gave their mailing address and phone number in order to receive follow-up information from SUNY GCC. This program has allowed us to increase our recruitment database with qualified leads, as well as determine which areas of the college are of most interest to prospective students.