Introduction of Yammer Purpose The purpose of this project is to allow students who work in the call center (Phone Jackets) to communicate with each other for work, and possibly social interaction. It will be the preferred form of communication for students to: Share information on success of nightly calling Communicate if they are not able to attend work, or will be late Update callers on changes in call campaigns, procedure, or other news related to their calling Use as an open source for communication between Phone Jackets, which can include social goings on, and campus revelry– Be used as the primary source for information regarding the Call Center

Yammer

Social Networking as THE means of communicating among young adults *“Spending time on social networking sites appears to be part of most U.S. young adults' daily activities. In one study, U.S. college students reported using Facebook an average of 10 to 30 min daily.” *College students' social networking experiences on Facebook; Tiffany A. Pempek, Yevdokiya A. Yermolayeva, Sandra L. Calvert Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, USA Available online 11 January 2009

Teaching audience how to use Yammer The intended audience for this project is student workers from the Baldwin-Wallace College Call Center, which I manage as a part of my job. All of my students are required to work one shift a week, and all of them have at least one shift on Sunday. We have two shifts from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. I spent the first hour of each shift teaching the students how to use yammer, and how I hoped they would use it. (See “Deliverables” slide)

Learning session All 17 of my callers are internet savvy, and each every one of them had a facebook page. Yammer is much like most social networks, so it was fairly straight forward and easy to show them how to use it. I walked them through the process of setting up an account, joining our user group, posting information, and netiquette for our group. I had two students come up and create their account on the overhead screen, which everyone in the call center could see. Each one of my callers has a PC with internet access. After the 2 demonstrations, I asked my callers to create their accounts.

What real-life need does this project fill for you personally? I have wanted to find a way to improve communication among callers, and this will be a great resource for them to communicate among each other. There are so many different mediums of communication, so the intention will be to make this the mandatory means of communicating for my callers and their supervising staff. This also alleviates pressure on myself and my coordinators to try and put together pieces of information from our callers on when they will be attending work, issues they may have while at the call center, and improvements that can be made to our calling campaigns.

Type of Project I will be using Yammer as the social media application for the implementation and execution of this project. The group of users will be my student workers. I will show all of them how to use Yammer in a one hour presentation in the first week of November. Yammer has analytics so I can follow the success of the project, and how the students are using the application

Learning Objectives met by Project Student workers will learn how to create a yammer profile and communicate with each other regarding the objectives stated in the purpose of this project. They will also learn the effective use of social networking in a business environment. I believe this will meet the AECT standard of Implementing - section a.

Discuss how your project promotes higher order thinking skills, critical thinking, and/or creativity in your audience. The student workers will learn how to use a social networking tool to communicate in a work environment. This project gives them the chance to incorporate a medium they are familiar with, and use it for professional communication. It will show them that technology can be used effectively for objectives outside of the social arena. They will also have the chance to be a part of creating a resource from the ground up, as I have not used yammer before for this type of project

Describe the "deliverables" or final product you will turn in at the end of class. By the completion of this project I expect my student workers to be using Yammer as the primary source of communication for all activities related to their job as a Phone Jacket. They will use it to communicate attendance, troubleshoot technology issues with our call system, share positive outcomes from calls, and update the callers to news for the Call Center

Results When looking at the results of the project, you have to take into account a recent event in my life; a new job. Three days after I introduced and implemented yammer, I accepted an offer to work at John Carroll University (JCU). My plan was to create my own posts, encourage participation, and reward those who used yammer (with candy). There is an old saying about the best laid plans, and that applies to this situation. In keeping with tradition of the class and program, I have adjusted my goal. I now will be using yammer as a means of communication for student workers here at JCU. The benefit to creating a fluid plan, and receiving good feedback and guidance from instructors and classmates, is a well laid plan can be adapted to new situations. If anyone is interested in how the new yammer, JCU version, turns out, please keep in touch. Please see the following slide for results from the abbreviated BW yammer project.

Yammer Project Results

JCU Yammer – In Progress

-Dr. Dawley -Dr. Hinck College students' social networking experiences on Facebook; Tiffany A. Pempek, Yevdokiya A. Yermolayeva, Sandra L. Calvert Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, USA Available online 11 January 2009 – Used in slides 3 and 4 -My classmates