DIT uses YouTube to attract students

THE popularity of YouTube, Bebo and Facebook has been harnessed by one Irish college to market its third-level courses.

Many universities and colleges have forked hundreds of thousands of euro in recent years on radio and newspaper advertising to attract top school leavers. However, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has used the hugely popular YouTube website to circulate a promotional video focusing on the social and sporting life it offers prospective students — virtually free of charge.

More than 5,000 people have watched the video since it was placed online 10 days ago, making it the most viewed video of all time on the site’s Irish education category.

It is also one of the world’s 21 most-linked education videos on the site, with a new viewing every 45 seconds on average.

While one-in-four viewers were directed to it from DIT’s own website, about 1,700 found the link to the YouTube video through pages of friends on the Bebo and Facebook social networking sites.

“Students should obviously make their college choices based on the course content, but there has been a major marketing drive by many colleges in the last three or four years to get them to apply for their courses,” said DIT Campus Life manager Brian Gormley.

“There’s no doubt some campaigns cost six-figure sums, but we’re getting free promotion to the young people we’re aiming at.”

Meanwhile, second level teachers warned a digital divide is in danger of developing between schools which can raise funds for computers and those which depend solely on government funding. Teachers’ Union of Ireland president Tim O’Meara said schools are ill-equipped to educate young people for a technological age and cannot exploit technology to the full to give students dynamic learning experiences.