Newsletter #97: What students are searching for in Clearing; ChatGPT now scrapes websites for content; Medicine and nursing take a hit in the NSS
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
What students are searching for in Clearing 2023. Listen
ChatGPT now scrapes websites for content. Look
The EU is giving its citizens the option to turn off TikTok’s algorithm. Read
My biggest unlock for using ChatGPT to create content. Read
📰 HE news
NSS results are in and despite recent changes to the survey, it’s a familiar picture of variation by subject. Computing has some of the lowest scores for “how often do teaching staff make the subject engaging” which is a concern, given the surge of interest in the programme this year. Similarly, Medicine and Nursing are joint-first for the “least-organised” courses, but isn’t that to be expected? Few professions have seen as much disruption and the UK government keeps moving the goalposts - one minute we’re clapping the NHS from the doorway, the next we’re saying the earnings of Nursing grads make their university courses “low value.” My favourite result concerns free speech on campus, which has received much attention from the government and UK’s press, only to be found as one of the areas where students were overwhelmingly satisfied. Almost 9 in 10 students in England said they feel free to express themselves on campus, yet, as pointed out by David Kernohan in WonkHE, we have an OfS director and act of parliament dedicated to free speech in higher ed. Why? Where is the same attention for course organisation and feedback? That seems to be where students have the most concerns. NSS Results | Free speech results
Extra: Know an A-level student pulling their hair out over results this week? Show them this tool. Look
📊 Marketing and media news
YouTube is testing auto summaries for video descriptions - which may not sound like much, but it’s kinda profound… AI can now INDEX VIDEO, not just text, meta-descriptions or user behaviour, but the video content itself. When using YouTube, and especially when using it for SEO purposes, consider how you structure video content into chapters/subtopics - just like you would a well-optimised web page. In other AI news, it turns out that LLMs display vastly different political leanings based on their training data. For example, ChatGPT is a left-leaning libertarian, while LLaMA (Meta’s model) is a right-leaning authoritarian - go figure. Be aware of the bias in any content you create. Additionally, you may soon need to disclose whether you're using AI-generated content in video production. TikTok’s just announced new “AI labels” for times when content created by AI shows “realistic scenes.” That could mean voiceover bots, Midjourney backgrounds and work done with Adobe’s generative fill. Label your videos or risk having them taken down later. YouTube auto-summaries | Political leanings (p.4) | TikTok AI Labels
Ofcom dropped its annual media consumption report and it’s filled with fascinating youth trends. 4 in 5 UK teens say they watch content on YouTube with videos up to 15 minutes long being the most popular format. Conversely, broadcast programming is in steep decline - 16% lower than pre-pandemic levels, and among younger audiences falling by 21%. Use of TikTok remains high among users aged 15-24 (1 HOUR PER DAY) but take-up among children has slowed, with those aged 4-15 favouring YouTube. That said, creator media, the majority of the content youth audiences consume, faces its own challenges. 39,000 accounts on TikTok now have at least 1 million followers (!!!), 6,200 more than on YouTube and nearly 16,000 more than on Instagram. The space is getting saturated, pushing down the incentives for new creators and making it harder for brands to cut through the noise. There’s falling loyalty among youth audiences too. With an increasing emphasis on algorithms, relationships are built with “For You” feeds, rather than with the creators themselves. Connecting is getting harder. Ofcom report | Creator saturation
Extra: YouTube is making it easier to link Shorts to long-form content. Hurrah! Look
🏫 What unis are doing
Butler University is teaching its staff “Gen Z 101.” The development programme takes a deep dive into mental health (with over 50% of gen z saying they have experienced issues) but also offers an academic fellowship, focusing on vocational teaching, how to help young people navigate uncertainty, and find meaning in their work. Progressive. Look
University of Jamestown is finding new ways to prove the value of its degrees. It uses testimonials from employers, but also members of the public, to highlight student achievements. For example, it has such a good reputation for Nursing that patients regularly write in to praise the care they receive from Jamestown nurses. So it uses it in marketing material! Listen
Solent University uses a “Clearing Promise” to group its benefits for Clearing students. There are the usual suspects (call on Results Day etc) but “one-to-one application support” isn’t something I hear often and, even if it’s a token gesture, it might be enough to turn heads. Plus, they got the right hierarchy of info 1) courses, 2) employability and 3) location. It’s a tight design. Look
🧑🎓 What students are saying
“I think it wasn’t good, not having the experience of GCSEs to draw on. I didn’t know how to react going into my A-level exams; I was feeling very anxious and stressed. So that’s one way that taking A-levels this year was definitely more difficult.” A-level students on grade deflation. Read
👾 Culture shock
Someone created an AI version of Mr Beast to launch their new podcast. He seems relatable. Look
“X” Premium (Twitter Blue) is looking a lot like a pyramid scheme. Read
