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Coker College Adopts New LMS To Improve Retention

South Carolina's Coker College has selected a new learning management system (LMS) as part of an effort to improve enrollment and retention.

The liberal arts school, with a student body of approximately 1,200, will use Blackboard Learn to offer more online courses during winter and summer breaks, "which will help keep students on track for graduation and tuition costs down," according to information released by the college.

"In an age where students are faced with unprecedented debt from college, we are doing everything in our power to make Coker College a strong investment," said Coker College Provost Tracy Parkinson in a news release about the adoption. "By expanding our ability to offer classes between semesters, Blackboard is helping us give our students a great education for less time and cost."

Following a campus review, Coker faculty said they found Blackboard Learn's mash-up tool, which allows users to embed media into online courses, particularly valuable, while Coker leaders said the system would help them grow enrollment.

"Blackboard Learn is definitely easier to use than previous systems I've used," said Serena Hill, assistant professor of music at Coker College, in a prepared statement. "Things just work the way I expect them to, and grading with interactive rubrics is a massive timesaver."

"We are a smaller school than many of our competitors and we must be very diligent about the allocation of our resources," said Parkinson. "So it's crucial to our recruitment and retention efforts to have the very best tools available for our students, and since Blackboard Learn is the gold standard in online learning, it really was an easy decision to bring them to our campus."

More information about Coker College is available at coker.edu. Visit blackboard.com to learn more about Blackboard Learn.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

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