K-State at Salina creates channel on YouTube

Media Relations and Marketing
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506-0117
Phone: 785-532-6415
Fax: 785-532-6418

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Sources: Les Hannah, 785-826-2929, ldhannah@salina.k-state.edu;
David Swisher, 785-826-2628, dswisher@salina.k-state.edu; and Michael Oetken, 785-826-2698, michael@k-state.edu.
http://www.youtube.com/kstateatsalina
News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-826-2642, kmayes@salina.k-state.edu

Monday, April 16, 2007

K-STATE AT SALINA CREATES CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE

SALINA -- What began as an effort by one professor to get the word out about his summer courses has blossomed into a collegewide recruiting effort at Kansas State University at Salina.

K-State at Salina created its own channel on YouTube less than a month ago and already has seen nearly 700 hits to its videos. YouTube is a free Web site where people can easily upload, view and share videos. Channels are created by YouTube members who publish a series of videos, like K-State at Salina.

It all started with two videos produced by Les Hannah, assistant professor of arts, sciences and business at K-State at Salina. Hannah was interested in garnering broader interest for two summer classes he teaches through K-State continuing education, Exploring (In)Famous Indian Sites and a travel writing course involving a rail trip to the Grand Canyon.

"Dr. Hannah is an innovator who is constantly looking for creative ways to engage students' minds," said David Swisher, media services coordinator for K-State at Salina Continuing Education. "When he told me about this idea, I thought it was a perfect way to reach beyond our usual circle of influence, speak the language of today's students, and try to increase enrollment."

So Swisher set up a YouTube portal specifically for Hannah's bidding.

In the first week, Hannah's initial video was viewed 139 times. His second video, which was posted after business hours on a Friday night, was hit nearly 40 times over the weekend – and that was without publicizing it to anyone on or off campus.

“That's when I knew we were onto something,” Swisher said.

The success of Hannah's videos got Swisher and Michael Oetken, K-State at Salina's webmaster, thinking about how else the medium could be used to promote the campus.

"YouTube is at the stage where it's really exploding and becoming extremely popular," Oetken said. "It's the perfect time to get involved."

On March 22, K-State at Salina launched its very own YouTube channel with a handful of videos. Today, the site features videos about the historic Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer, as well as recent news coverage of events on campus and student-shot podcasts about student clubs and Senior Day. There's even a video snippet of Chrystal Cole, a Tuskegee airwoman and K-State at Salina student who graduated in December 2006.

K-State at Salina has posted 14 videos and is working on more. Additional material promoting course offerings, as well as video created by Eric Shappee, associate professor of aviation, about the wonder and beauty of flight will soon be added.

Swisher says the hundreds of hits the site has seen is helping K-State at Salina to "speak the same language" as prospective students.

"Video is the language of the students I work with, and podcasts are the medium of choice," Swisher said. "YouTube is a nice derivative of that. It's quick, convenient, easy to search, and thanks to YouTube's compression and distribution system, solves all of the technical constraints that we typically face when trying to get video online."

The K-State at Salina channel on YouTube is available at: http://www.youtube.com/kstateatsalina