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Aggietalk

Aggietalk.org. Omar Ghannoum & Peter Mack Grubb. Overview. W ebsite for matching language partners at Texas A&M Cultural and linguistic exchange Anyone with an @tamu.edu can use website The idea originated because both of us are taking foreign language classes . Objectives.

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Aggietalk

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  1. Aggietalk.org Omar Ghannoum & Peter Mack Grubb

  2. Overview • Website for matching language partners at Texas A&M • Cultural and linguistic exchange • Anyone with an @tamu.edu can use website • The idea originated because both of us are taking foreign language classes

  3. Objectives • Build the website • Attract a linguistically diverse user base • Have a high degree of user engagement • Find an organization that can continue to maintain the site

  4. Strategies • Website is a social network • Limited potential user base • Specific focus • Wordpress Content Management System used • Easy to use for less technically inclined • Still highly flexible for our needs • Promotion done via organizations with large international base • INTS, Arabic and Chinese clubs, fliers • Planning to hand off to International Studies student professional organization • Costs for hosting minimal (36$) so paid out of pocket

  5. Challenges • New Student Organization process is too bureaucratic • Trouble with A&M webhosting policies • Required the use of Drupal • Did not allow for unfiltered student posting • Too many liability concerns • Establishing a relationship between the English Language Institute

  6. Successes • Around eight pairings were made, including myself • Users were very satisfied • Had students come up to us in class and tell us what a good Idea it was • Influx of users after contacting International Studies Department • Connected with International students as well as local Texas A&M students

  7. What we learned • We are very resilient • We are effective leaders and communicators • When developing in a niche market, it is always more difficult to get started • However, if it meets a need you will get a large user response • In order for the website to be successful, we had to always be on top of things

  8. Assessment • The good news: The final user count was 93 • Split about 60/40 native vs. international students • The bad news: total number of Language Partners was 8 • Caused by the timing people joined (international students after INTS) • Relatively late in the school year • Many pairings occurred where the user didn’t click “add as Language Partner” • High level of community involvement

  9. Conclusion • Project was all in all a success • Pairing Numbers were not as high as we would like, but community interest was most definitely there • Strong publicity push in the early Fall would probably lead to much better results • If this were a startup, we are ready for funding round 2

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