Facebook - Why isn't Penn Foster listed as a college to add to our profile? I'd like to add it to my profile.
I can't seem to find a place on FB to suggest Penn Foster as an addition to the available school listing.
Greg
You are not able to add Penn Foster College to your profile because we do not currently provide students with a Penn Foster email address. A school email address is required to verify your enrollment through Facebook.
~eCampus Admin~
You can add Penn Foster College as your school there just won’t be a link like other schools because of the email address issue.
Is there integration issues with the .edu domain for students, or is that something that's not being considered at this time?
Is email on the budget docket for the future?
jdbrison and greg, It is not a budget issue. I am still waiting for an official response but because we have other means of directly connecting with our students (the student message center) providing student emails is not something we feel we need to pursue.
OK...I'm just saying...if I can't get Facebook with 1/2 billion users to recoginze the school; will potential employers? It's all about the marketing right?
GDyer
From our IT dept,
Quite simply there is a significant amount of time and energy needed for administering and carrying email for our 200,000 students, larger than many traditional school’s student population.” That is why we have a student message center. Any academic/school information that needs to be communicated to the student can be sent there.
“Facebook has a strange way of recognizing schools. Unless we give all 200,000 of our students an email address, we can’t be counted. Unfortunate, but in the end not important. It is the accrediting bodies and the states that have the real authority to recognize a school. And Penn Foster is recognized nationally, regionally, and by the state, so we’re not concerned about Facebook’s idea of a school. Nonetheless, if you don’t like Facebook’s definition of a school (which leaves out hundreds of academic institutions), maybe we should begin a campaign to change their policy.”
That is very unfortunate, however I do not find possessing a school administered email address an issue although it does have its perks. However, to imply that such time and energy is required to administered or produce such a system is not as critical as suggested. Myself personally, have done such a thing in a matter of minuets and with today technology large massive servers are willing to host your email MX servers like Google. Google has provide .edu domains for students for the majority of the largest online higher education institutions including University of Phoenix, Kaplan etc.., not only that but at a a cost of little to nothing provided that they are education institutions. I do understand that the schools necessary information is relayed using the student message system which is great internally and if Penn Foster chooses to only execute a internal system that is completely fine.
Facebook is a public social community. I agree, with the admin that student emails should not be necessary to register as a dedicated student to there place of education. It is even more important the accreditation of a intuition to myself and I'm sure a few others at Penn Foster. I can also understand Greg point-of-view as Penn Foster does meet the need of the student academically, but socially it may lack. Institutions have the sole consent to decide how far they want to interact and participate in the students actual social affairs. For some an email address is unnecessary and a waist of resources, many others it may be a way to show other of there academic status, dedication to there school, representation of participation within a higher learning school and so forth. The challenge is to find a balance between academic affairs and student affairs, so maybe Greg you will find another benefit of being at Penn Foster that will make up for this minor inconvenience. Kudos to the person who actually handles administration of Penn Foster on Facebook as they post some very intriguing questions and updates to engage the students.