free webinar on transparency in PR social media

Shel Holtz to deliver free webinar on transparency at noon EST on May 20.

Thomson Reuters is sponsoring a free webinar featuring Shel Holtz dealing with online transparency in brand-building and stakeholder communication.

You can read more info on their site, but the webinar is at noon EST on May 20.

In touching on this ethical issue in PR, they promise to “share practical techniques and case studies on how you can (and why you should) deliver your communications with greater openness and authenticity.”

And now a note about webinars.

There are very few webinars out there that end up being worth the time, let alone the price tag, it costs to “attend.” That said, I’ve had consistent success with webinars sponsored by Thomson Reuters. Their webinars are specific with case studies and real how tos on “how to do X” — not just generalized “isn’t it great to do X” information.

Dr. Kaye D. Sweetser, APR, is an assistant professor of public relations in the H.W. Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She blogs at http://kayesweetser.com, and can be reached via e-mail at sweetser[AT]uga.edu.

Quarter System = Endless Registration

-Alisa Agozzino

At the university I work at we are on a quarter system. This means we have 10 weeks of classes every term before our week of finals and then a week of break. The good news is that for those classes that are less than par, it’s over quickly. Bad news is that just when you and the students start to get the hang of the class, it’s over.

The main problem I have with our quarter system is the endless registration. We meet with students 3, sometimes 4, times a year (depending if they chose to take summer quarter). I love see the advisees. I like to find out how their current quarter is treating and if they do have problems, we are able to deal with them before the withdraw deadline. However meeting with these students takes anywhere from a half to a full hour of my time—for two weeks out of every quarter. Combine this with hitting right at midterm time every quarter, it becomes very time consuming and frustrating. I want to give every student the time they rightfully deserve (especially at a private university that stresses student/mentor interaction). Yet with a three course load and research I am ready to pull my hair out.

So as we enter week 5 here in the spring quarter, I sighed aloud today when I arrived at my mailbox with the colored sheet with all my students registration times and pin numbers to register. Here we go again.