5 Great Resources to Amp up Your Dissemination and Outreach Efforts

Many of us in the ATE community are routinely looking for ways to enhance our dissemination and outreach efforts. Here are five resources that may help amplify your online presence, whether on your own website, on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or on presentation materials shared out via email:

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
http://nscresearchcenter.org/

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has been gathering data on colleges and universities for over 20 years with the goal of "enabl[ing] better educational policy decisions leading to improved student outcomes." There are plenty of fascinating items to explore right on the home page, which is continually updated as new reports are released. These reports span four broad categories: Signature Reports, which provide national data about students' experiences; Snapshot Reports, which periodically investigate enrollment trends; Term Enrollment Estimates, which are released in the fall and spring and offer timely estimates of postsecondary enrollments; and High School Benchmarks, which review high school-to-college transition rates for high school graduates. Recent publications have explored spring 2015 term enrollment, persistence among students enrolled in four-year colleges, and other relevant topics.

STEMblog
http://blog.stemconnector.org

STEMconnector is both a resource and a service that is designed “to link those advocating science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education across disciplines and distances.” It seeks to connect diverse educators, professionals, and government officials together based on a love of applied science. The STEMblog, a project of STEMconnector, is updated regularly and focuses its energies on the relationship between business and STEM subjects. Recent articles, for example, have alerted readers to corporate-sponsored prizes for high school science teachers, a recognition of National Engineers Week, and the math behind a new Android app. For community members who are looking to make connections between STEM subjects and industry partners, the STEMblog is an informative site to check back on regularly.

PhotoPin
http://photopin.com/

For anyone who blogs or otherwise posts content on the web, one of the vexing tasks can be finding the perfect Creative Commons (CC – free to use) image to illustrate one's content. Enter PhotoPin. To use the service, start by entering a keyword into the search box. PhotoPin will then present all related, useable images from Flickr's collection. After reviewing the list, simply select "get photo" to download the photo and attribution link, and upload to your website, presentation material, or blog. For those interested in learning more about CC licensed photos, the FAQ offers a wealth of information.

Easel.ly
http://www.easel.ly/

To date, 800,000 users have created over one million infographics on Easel.ly. The reason is clear: Easel.ly manages to make the usually tedious and time-consuming process of creating engaging infographics relatively simple and efficient. The interface is fairly minimal and user-friendly. Most users will want to begin with a Vheme (template). From there, the site offers fresh options each step of the way, using drag and drop functions to fill out your targeted product. The results look surprisingly professional and can help users present even complex information in streamlined and attractive formats.

Frame.io
http://frame.io/

For anyone working with teams of people on multimedia projects, Frame.io provides a way to co-create and co-edit video, photos, audio, documents, and other modalities all in one place. Recently launched, Frame.io operates on the premise that more and more people are working with more complex media programs but are forced to use different platforms for different parts of the same project. So, for example, teams use Vimeo for their video, email for communication, and Dropbox to share files. Frame.io wraps all of the functionalities of those various services into a single well-designed platform. It's fast too - 5x faster than Dropbox. So when users are uploading and sharing large files, there's less lag, which leads to greater productivity. The company offers 2GB of free file storage on a single project that can include up to five collaborators. For larger projects, the paid tiers start at $15 per month.