Dive Brief:
- Designed as a play on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, #paymytuitionchallenge trended on Twitter much of Thursday with students drawing attention to the rising cost of higher education by asking everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Bill Gates and President Barack Obama to pay their tuition.
- Blackboard took note and is launching a scholarship challenge centered around the campaign, with a $15,000 award going to the winner and two $5,000 awards going to the runners-up.
- To enter, students must fill out a form on Blackboard's site, answering how they'll make the world a better place with their education, and sharing the entry so others can vote for them.
Dive Insight:
Since first taking off on Thursday, #paymytuitionchallenge received over 30,000 tweets in just over 36 hours at a rate of 4,000 student tweets per hour. Given that level of attention (and that of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that inspired it), Blackboard is wise to use this as an opportunity to help students — many of who use its products on a daily basis.
