Brain Waves Blog

Taylor Swift Responds to Student Pleas on Tumblr

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from March 31–April 2. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight institutions that have been a focus of national conversation, revisit some prior student themes, and examine questions admitted students ask.

Campus Closures Amplify Students' Struggle to Meet Basic Needs

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation in the U.S. and on Reddit and YouTube (which span beyond the U.S.) about the coronavirus and higher education from March 27–31. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight the impact of events at Liberty University on the industry conversation and student conversations about topics other than courses. Spoiler alert: they’re angry, sad, and many of them are struggling financially.

Online Class Meme Themes

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 24-26. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight political mentions, review continued negative sentiment, and examine the conversation about online courses through the lens of memes.

Media Coverage Shifts to Campus Experts

Today’s Briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 20–23. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight changing campus news coverage, trending hashtags (some may surprise you), and continuing expression of anger and sadness from students. Since the March 17 Briefing, we haven’t made any changes to our data collection. We have, however, improved our categorization of family and friend mentions; you’ll see a comparison of their expression of emotion in this Briefing.

Student Voices Surface in Media, on Reddit

We made a few changes to our query to capture all relevant conversation. We’re now including “the rona,” an emerging slang reference for coronavirus, mentions of cancellation or postponement of graduation, and new hashtags that refer to the virus (e.g., #BoomerDoomer, #BoomerRemover, #coronapocalypse).

Word of Mouth Drives Both Information and Misinformation with Students

Today’s briefing analyzes publicly available online conversation about coronavirus and higher education from March 13–16. In this analysis of volume, topics, sentiment, and key audiences, we highlight the most popular topics, continued negative sentiment, concerns of parents and admitted students, and surprising trends of where students discussed the issue online.