Social Media and Student Retention

Shaun, this is a wow! Student retention is a hot, hot, hot, hot topic! If you pitch social media as a way to retain students you are going to define yourself as a "golden boy" in educational leadership! This means you also need to explore some of the research on current methods of student retention. Then, compare those with the potential outcomes of social media. You do not have enough time to do an actual experiment. What you can do is define the challenge and find enough information through field research to develop a "grounded theory" for further testing! I did this for my Ph.D. dissertation! I explore the possible feasibility of deploying TQM databases in higher education. I only found enough expert opinion and research to justify further research beyond the dissertation. Use this model too, and it will position you for huge research grants beyond your doctorate! Your timing is perfect; retention is the key. In fact, JIU has put me on its retention team for its doctoral students! As enrollments fall due to economic pressures overall, education is going to scramble for ways to stay in business; retention is one of them. This is great. It beats, in fact, organizational change management of social media! You have really connected the "dots" here big time!