Features


The Data-Storage Crisis

With the amount of data predicted to grow 800 percent by 2016, higher ed faces a desperate race to develop strategies to store and manage the tidal wave of information.

Size Matters: How Consortia Get Better Cloud Deals

For cloud implementations, consortia can do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to due diligence and contract negotiations--and they can save schools a lot of money.

Putting Pinterest to the Test

Two universities have found image sharing site Pinterest useful in very different ways—one in documenting a political convention, the other in sharing objects from its library archives. Both have succeeded in engaging students. See how.

Opening Up Learning Analytics for the Community College

The Open Academic Analytics Initiative, an NGLC grant recipient, is seeking to engender an ecosystem for learning analytics based on open source technologies. Its research includes scaling factors for learner analytics, the portability of predictive models among different types of academic institutions, and intervention strategies that leverage Open Educational Resources. Marist College, the lead institution on the grant, has partnered with two community colleges and two HBCUs to accomplish OAAI goals.

Access Denied

Making university websites and course content accessible may be the law, but many institutions have a long way to go toward compliance. CT looks at three key elements of a more proactive approach to accessibility on campus.



Strong Acids and Shakespeare Sonnets: Making Mobile Apps for Liberal Arts

Unimpressed by the digital textbooks their students are using more and more, these two profs have set out to augment learning with small but potent mobile apps.

Bridging the Gap Between Classroom Learning and Career Skills

An innovative sandbox at Bentley University encourages students to explore careers and other opportunities utilizing today's collaborative technologies.

Who Owns Captured Lectures?

Universities can use most recorded lectures for free, but in some cases payment may be required, distribution restricted, or permissions required.

Reflecting on the Top IT Issues of 2012

MOOCs may seem to be at the tip of every IT leader's tongue these days, but the No. 1 concern for IT in higher education is staff and skills development.

Mining Data to Help Students

In the second installment of a two-part series, CT examines how pioneering schools--either alone or in consortia--are mining Big Data in hopes of uncovering the ultimate riches: improved student learning and performance.