Now that you’ve got your Digital Career Counselor platform set up, it’s time to introduce the tool to students! As anyone who works with students knows, it often takes intentional messaging and strategic planning to effectively encourage students to take initiative and/or try something new. Our partner schools have often found success by marketing Steppingblocks across campus, by weaving Steppingblocks into class curricula, and by incorporating the tool into one-on-one advising conversations.
Here are some action steps you might consider as you launch Steppingblocks to your students:
Send campus-wide communications tailored to students. Click here to access a couple email communications that you can download and tailor to your campus!
Create marketing materials to distribute across campus. Check out our Flyer Templates and modify for your school, or use our Introduction to Digital Career Counselor Promotional Video.
Integrate Steppingblocks into students’ academic experience. This can be a first-year seminar course, a career exploration course, etc. Check out our guide to integrating Digital Career Counselor into the curriculum.
Present to classes about Steppingblocks. Work with faculty to take up a few minutes of a class to introduce the Digital Career Counselor tool to students.
Develop an online resource hub for students, and direct them to the Digital Career Counselor tool. See how Georgia State University developed student-facing content on their website.
Use the Digital Career Counselor in one-on-one advising meetings with students. Check out this article and webinar to learn more about the different ways to use the platform with different types of students. Download our eBook, How Advisors Can Leverage Digital Career Counselor
Create incentives for students to log into the platform. For example, set up a table in a common area of campus and give stickers to students who learn about the Digital Career Counselor and log into the platform on their computer or mobile device.
Work with first-year initiatives and orientation to develop presentations to share during first-year student programming.
Review your monthly Digital Career Counselor Usage Report for strategic scaling of the platform. Each month, the Steppingblocks team will send your school’s Digital Career Counselor Monthly Usage Report, which tells you the number of new student accounts created, total student web sessions, top searches, and more.
Schedule a meeting with the Steppingblocks Partner Success team to make a plan.
Feature Steppingblocks at a career fair. Have a computer/tablet set up that students can use or just a QR code and some instructions. Then they can do some research on companies they want to talk to or learn more about which companies they might want to connect with.
Check out our Top 5 Ways to Scale Digital Career Counselor Usage.
Want to learn about how other schools have promoted Digital Career Counselor? Check out our DataU series and blog, which include the following partner use cases:
Learn how the University of Maryland Global Campus has integrated the Digital Career Counselor tool into their curriculum, and increased engagement by nearly 350%
The University of Memphis has used Steppingblocks to leverage career success across campus
Atlanta Metropolitan State College created a campaign to introduce students to the platform and encourage engagement
See how West Virginia University has leveraged the Digital Career Counselor from both employer relations and student success standpoints
Read how Georgia Southern University increased student engagement by incorporating Digital Career Counselor into their first-year seminar course.