One of the biggest challenges facing education organizations today is establishing a virtual homebase that truly meets their membership’s needs. A virtual community hub that covers all the bases while protecting privacy and providing room for growth.
We’ve polled a lot of organizations over the years, and these are the four most essential criteria we’ve uncovered as “must haves” to incite them to adopt (and pay) for a community platform:
ONE: A Galvanizing Space in Which to Gather
First popularized by Facebook, the concept of a private online space in which a chosen group of people can start conversations and exchange information and ideas revolutionized group work. Once everyone became comfortable with this format, more and more platforms began to offer it. Yet for educational organizations, hanging out in an online forum is just the start of what’s needed to allow their communities to thrive.
TWO: Curated Information & Resources
You’ve found a platform that lets everyone get together and share - great! Now, where do you store all the reference materials that form the basis of your growing body of knowledge and resources? This is where most group gathering platforms fail the education standard, forcing organizations to adopt a secondary platform (Google drive, for instance) to organize files and limit access to select groups.
THREE: Tailored Communications
Once you have your membership signed in to the same forum, the last thing you want to do is overwhelm them with every last notice pinned to the message board. It’s essential, especially for education organizations with members numbering in the hundreds and thousands, to be able to truly tailor communications to those who need to know.
FOUR: Guaranteed Security
In an online world, privacy is everything, and most free platforms pretty much guarantee your information will be shared or capitalized on via ads, curated content or some other subtle violation. Education organizations can’t afford this type of insecurity. Their membership requires and deserves a secure space that protects intellectual property and copyright.
A Linkr Homebase
Since we first established Linkr back in the pre-pandemic days of 2016, we’ve gradually built out our platform services to cover all of the above, much to the joy of education organizations.
“From the outset, linkr has been a great partner, truly understanding teaching and learning and the needs of faculty engaged in international higher education. Our linkr platform has been an invaluable base to support our training and CLICK network community of practice. Being bilingual is the "icing on the cake" for our teachers in France and the USA.” - Nancy. L. Ruther, Gazelle
In terms of homebase functionality, a linkr platform gives each member their own (brandable) personal profile, allows for networking and messaging between members, enables the creation of sub-groups within the community, and offers customizable news and content sharing. In recent years we upgraded all our platforms for GDPR compliance, nailing the security and privacy aspect that is truly a deal-breaker for many organizations.
Linkr allows teachers and students from colleges and universities around the world to easily connect, collaborate and learn from one another. Effective learning occurs through social interactions with peers and colleagues.” - Lisa Deguire, Pedagogical Counselor, Professor Cégep de Jonquière
A virtual base to call home is really just the tip of the linkrberg. If any of the above resonates for your organization, come to lovelearning.org to read more about Linkr platforms and all the many ways we strive to make every learning experience one to love. We'd be happy to give you a demo or discuss how linkr can help your organization thrive.
Thanks for reading,
Team Linkr