By Dena Roberts, Study Abroad Advisor, University of Florida

To encourage students to become our fans on Facebook, we incorporated Facebook into our pre-departure sessions. We knew students would have their laptops and phones tuned to the Internet, so instead of trying to beat them by asking them to turn those devices off, we joined them. At the beginning of the session, we encouraged students to take out their Internet device and become a fan our Facebook page. Throughout the pre-departure session, we asked questions on Facebook about material that had just been presented. The best answer or first one to answer won a prize immediately after the pertinent section ended. This was a great medium to keep students engaged in the pre-departure information and ensure that they would visit our Facebook page regularly. We now have 1,200+ fans on our Facebook site thanks to the interaction during pre-departure sessions.