URI students sample new communication platform

3/17/10 - University of Rhode Island faculty and students filled the Memorial Union Ballroom yesterday afternoon to participate in a live demonstration of Regroup, a new communications platform that may soon be implemented at the university.Chris Utah, director of sales at Regroup, said that the Web-based application enables a person to reach out to the URI community via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and a variety of other social media outlets. He said that this tool also allows students to create campus interest groups from which users can choose to receive messages.

He said that with Regroup university administrators have an easy way to reach students on their preferred platforms and to send important announcements with the click of a mouse.

"Regroup integrates seamlessly with social media and is an efficient, cost-effective way to reach people in the higher education marketplace," Utah said. "Regroup's strategy behind providing this service is to provide administrators and their constituents with a platform that is reliable and reasonably priced."

In order to implement the system at URI, the university must pay a flat rate of $10,000, which accumulates to less than one dollar per student, Utah said. Regroup addresses high costs that schools feel they are forced to pay for an emergency messaging system by providing Regroup to schools at a cheaper rate, he added.

Utah said Regroup also addresses the issue of over-messaging and student-desensitization to e-mail, by giving the group administrator the ability to broadcast over multiple social networks all from one interface.

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender club member Joe Santiago said that he likes the idea because it creates collaboration between students and faculty, and may save a lot of time in the long run.

To save time, Utah said navigation of the platform is simple because recipients have the ability to adjust their settings in Regroup in order to control how they receive a message.

"Because of student-desensitization to e-mail, sending an important message to a student at a '.edu' e-mail address they never check defeats the purpose of having an alert system," Utah said. "Giving students the option to receive that message through text, for example, can make a huge difference in student engagement."

He said that students are not tuned into their school e-mails and are often using their mobile devices. Regroup would allow students to receive messages to their phones rather than checking their URI e-mail accounts.

Utah said Regroup would result in more faculty-to-student and student-to-student interaction.

For faculty and students who prefer to secure their groups and information, Utah added that Regroup also has a privacy feature where only selected group members can view another user's information.

"I think this is better than what URI is currently using for alert messaging," Santiago said. "I think URI should implement the system.