January 2017 saw the implementation of a new platform within the Saint Leo Community. Lions Share since then, has been placed at the forefront when accessing user accounts and is working to unify the University. The Lions Pride Media Group sat down with Greg Kunzweiler, innovation and implementation specialist in the Faculty Enrichment and Learning innovation departments.
Kunzweiler stated that as a project manager, he has been at the forefront of a myriad of initiatives, focusing on faculty and students. A few of the projects he is currently working on include the Saint Leo students’ app, along with Lions Share.
Kunzweiler said, “My role is to interact back and forth with faculty and students to continually enhance teaching and learning at the University.” When asked about his work with Lions Share, Kunzweiler stated, “that looking at Saint Leo we are much bigger than the campus.”
Kunzweiler continued, “A huge amount of students and faculty are online and at Centers throughout the country. So, what we wanted to do is put together an area that helped build us as a community and get faculty and students online to connect not just with information but to be able to connect socially with each other as well.”
Lions Share according to Kunzweiler, is fully utilized when you link into the infrastructure to get information from it such as accessing events and calendars. The software is designed in such a way that it could also be considered the main portal for the Saint Leo Community, as it has numerous tabs allowing users to link out to information.
The most powerful pieces of Lions Share according to Kunzweiler is the fact that, “It is connected to our data system, “Colleague” which is where all student, staff and faculty information is housed. The data includes who they are, what programs you’re enrolled in and where you are in the world. The information is then injected into Lions Share, allowing users to have a more personalized system.”
He continued, “It is built to be personalized so that you don’t have to maintain a static page, but something you can customize with the links that you are frequently using along with the social portion on the back end.”
The majority of the activity monitored on the site has been peer support via students. Many students that are new and entering the community find themselves looking to peers for help on a diverse range of areas including financial aid, online class queries and book sharing. Kunzweiler sees the activity between students on Lions Share as a sign that they find the utility where they can feel comfortable interacting with each other.
According to a post on Lions Share, “Lions Share has been a great addition to Saint Leo.” Credit: Lions’ Pride Media Group
“The Fall II semester is about to start, and I’ve seen a few new students to the Saint Leo community saying, ‘hey I’m really excited to be apart Saint Leo, this is my first online class,’ and they want to know more information from students that have already been in those classes,” said Kunzweiler.
Kunzweiler reported that “There are also some groups and organizations on campus utilizing Lions Share, but more so the Worldwide community who continues to promote their events including webinars.”
“There are students that offer to sell books and course material there, but one of the most unique and promising pieces in the social community is the encouragement factor that Lions Share has brought,” stated Kunzweiler.
He continued, “There are students who post encouraging sayings and quotes there during the week, there was a student that talked about the hardship they had experienced, and within 12 hours, there were 18-20 students who responded saying that I am praying for you, some [even]writing out their prayers.”
Seeing the encouragement from student to student, Kunzweiler has taken note of instances where they type in the feed that they are struggling with courses within a semester, and it’s one of the best uses ofLions Share that Kunzweiler has noticed. He stated, “The students often chime in to messages, saying ‘you can do it,’ ‘I’m almost there,’ ‘I had a hard time’ and ‘I’ve been there.’”
Students have touted the ability to use Lions Share, according to a post on the site, “Lions Share has been a great addition to Saint Leo, it has helped us connect more and feel more as a community than what we had.”
Even the University President has taken to the site posting the words of Coretta Scott King, “The greatness of the community is most accurately measured, by the compassionate actions of its members.” Kunzweiler believes wholeheartedly in the connection that it brings stating that a student has said that they prefer Lions Share over Facebook, continuing to say that the negative pieces associated with the Facebook platform are eliminated when using the program.
“The expectation that Saint Leo has towards faculty, students and staff involve the Core Values and what we stand for,” Kunzweiler said. He believes that this platform encourages the atmosphere of professional dialogue, which focuses on the Core Values.
The platform additionally allows students to address each other, by grouping them in similar locations such as Centers and University Campus. Statistically, since Fall I started, a total of12,602 likes, posts, comments or direct connections were made using the interface.
Connections on Lions Share are similar to friendships made through Facebook and other social media platforms. According to Kunzweiler, a total of2,000 + unique users within the Community have engaged Lions Share, which when compared to the 13,000 + students worldwide is not bad for the platform that is not being advertised in the traditional sense of the word.
Understanding that some students prefer the ability to talk virtually, Kunzweiler and his team are looking at ways to engage University Campus, as well as Center and Online students with Lions Share. “I would love to see more groups and organizations get involved, it doesn’t have to be academic related it could be a sports club, weightlifting or photography interests,” said Kunzweiler.
Students, if they are interested, can search a specific term and anything that was posted related to the subject matter will pop up in the search results.
Additionally, Kunzweiler hopes that in the future Lions Share can strengthen the community, bringing us all together while showcasing the Core Values through the support that has begun.
