Case Study: UC Santa Barbara transforms campus communication with Nectir

Utilizing Social Education Networks to Transform Campus Communication

The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) faced a campus-wide communication challenge, as students lacked a FERPA-compliant platform to connect with peers, instructors, and services. This led to inefficient processes for students, an overwhelming volume of repetitive emails for instructors, and no centralized way for campus entities to share resources and answer questions.

To solve this, UCSB implemented Nectir, a social education network. The Nectir platform provided a university-wide workspace with easy instant messaging, embeddable class chat rooms, and the ability for anyone to create a community space. The results were significant adoption with 23,500 users sending 500,000 messages. Surveys revealed that Nectir made it easier for students to get questions answered and connect with peers and instructors, while faculty reported fewer emails as students began answering each other's questions directly on the platform.

UC Santa Barbara

Mindy Colin

Instructional Designer