The Higher Ed Experts Class of 2013 is composed of people just like you working in universities and colleges.
Our grads earned their Higher Ed Experts certificate by demonstrating mastery in a given critical skill for digital professionals such as Web Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Responsive Web Design and Web Writing.
All completed their 4-week or 8-week online course with a final grade above or equal to 80/100.
We are so proud of these dedicated professionals that we want to tell the world how great Higher Ed Experts grads are in a series of interviews.
Today let’s meet Jeff Walberg who earned his Higher Ed Experts certificate after taking the 4-week online course on Web Analytics for Higher Ed taught by Joshua Dodson. Jeff Walberg is Director of Web Content at Cornell College.
1) What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Jeff Walberg earned his Higher Ed Experts certificate in Web Analytics for Higher Ed.
Most rewarding?
In the late 80’s I was an engineer in an cubicle developing assembly code for a single component of a redundant computer on huge airplane I never even saw an image of.
In my current role, I have a wide range of strategic, marketing, and technical roles that I find fulfilling and challenging. When I run into roadblocks, I daily rely on the accumulated wisdom of colleagues across the Web for inspiration and guidance. And, I have a great corner office with a big window looking out on a small college campus full of oaks, squirrels, disc golfers, and cross country runners.
2) What is the most challenging part of your job?
Trying to get the campus to envision an online experience that doesn’t map one-to-one with the college’s org chart is surprisingly difficult. And, while small schools have smaller student-to-teacher ratios, I’m coming to suspect they also have larger Web page to staff ratios.
3) What has been the most valuable outcome of the course you took with Higher Ed Experts?
This week the marketing and admission offices are meeting for three hours to discuss, among other things, the status of our new email marketing campaign. I had no idea in early October how much work it would take to build all the components needed to assess these efforts. But on Wednesday I will be the guy with the numbers, the cool online graphs, and the analysis, all just in time and thanks to Joshua Dodson [and his course].
4) Besides Higher Ed Experts courses and conferences, what else do you recommend for professional development in higher education?
I focus on sources that are routinely wise and, most importantly, concise. I recommend reading anything published by A Book Apart, especially Karen McGrane’s inadequately titled Content Strategy for Mobile. Georgy Cohen’s Meet Content stands out among the various blogs I follow, and my office relies a lot on Bob Johnson’s good advice.
