This school year things look a bit different for everyone, and schools across the country have had to make adjustments and adapt to our current COVID climate. APCA has cleverly worked hand in hand with Facebook’s Workplace to design APCA Workplace to host their Virtual Campus Activities Planning Conference on September 22nd-24th 2020.
Click here for more information and to register for your Virtual Pass!
When you register yourself and your students for a Virtual Pass, APCA Workplace will be accessible for the entire semester, and you will have virtual conferences, workshops, training, and more available at your fingertips! Keep your eyes open for the Spring Virtual Pass as well!
If you are unfamiliar with Workplace, it was designed by Facebook. It looks similar to Facebook and is just as user friendly and familiar, yet it is tailored specifically for organizations, focusing on professional development, networking, communication, and engagement.
For student affairs professionals, this is a great space to connect, network, for professional development, to find information about safety, for collaboration, to teach how to do business, and to communicate with students. For students this is a wonderful way to engage, stay connected with advisors, peers, have access to participate in round tables, ed sessions, activities, speaker events, and performances. If there is a show or event you miss, if a student is in class and cannot make it to an event, no problem! The video stays up and accessible for the entire semester, allowing flexibility with different schedules.
Schools have the ability to make their own groups inside APCA Workplace, they are closed and hidden so an advisor can sit and communicate with all students, either live, through video or chat.
Everything in APCA Workplace is gamified, meaning as you join groups and accomplish tasks and meet goals, you earn badges, which show up on your profile page. This is another great incentive and tool that shows each member’s level of involvement and accomplishments.
Some of the amazing features of APCA Workplace are:
- The Knowledge Library. Here you can watch videos on how to use APCA Workplace, look for ideas on how to do student programming, share SGA ideas, find information on how to set up games like BINGO, and there are plenty of student advisor resource videos available. The library is filled with helpful information!
- Community Planning Committee. This is APCA’s Community Center space where all communities can connect, much like sharing on Facebook; you can post videos, information about events and celebrations, and look at schedules. People are able to comment on posts as well.
- National Student Group: This is a place where students can gather and connect, hang out together, view speakers.
There are other great things APCA Workplace offers, like the chat feature. But what makes this chat feature even better than the one on Facebook is that you have the option to attach files! You can also broadcast to people live. For example, if an advisor wants to have a discussion with students, you can click the live video icon and send a message to a group of students for them to watch. There is also a Private Dropbox link you can access as well. The Directory feature allows you to see everyone who will be at the conference, their profiles and bios; you can click on any profile and communicate directly through video or call.
Four things make APCA Workplace stand out
- Familiarity. Anyone who uses Facebook will feel right at home using APCA Workplace, it is user friendly and not intimidating
- Engagement. APCA is able to reach a wide group of people to make this year’s conference affordable and accessible for members to get involved.
- Ability to have constant contact and content. Everything is on video, so if you miss something live you can always return and watch when it works with your schedule. The rich content is right where you need it, when you need it. You can also access anyone in the group that you want to connect with.
- Customizability: You can easily follow people, so depending on what information you are interested in, you can customize what shows up on your feed every day, just like on Facebook.
For more information on APCA Workplace and the Fall conference (including the schedule), and to register for your Virtual Pass, click here.
