iPad Pilots at U Houston and CDI College Take Off

iPad pilots are permeating higher education. Two of the latest announcements involve institutions in Texas and Canada, both of which are running tests projects that put the Apple tablet devices into the hands of their students.

At CDI College, a career college with several locations in Canada, both nursing and business students have been equipped with iPads that hold electronic course textbooks and a suite of educational Web-based instructional portals. In a statement the college explained that it targeted those students for the initiative especially because the program will help them develop their skills for using technology in the workplace.

"The iPads have WiFi capabilities that allow learners to study, take e-notes, and review course materials not only in the classroom and on campus, but anywhere, any time," said Bohdan Bilan, vice president of academics. "As a result, students will become comfortable and familiar with technology as a tool for education and healthcare services."

Bilan said he expected success of the iPad pilot program will eventually spread to other CDI campuses.

At the University of Houston a joint project between the School of Communication and the Education Technology and University Outreach organization will research the impact of "anytime, anywhere" learning over the final eight weeks of the current semester. A team of professors has created an iPad application for an Information and Communication Technologies course with 30 students. COMM 3353 iApp, which will be used in an elective class in the journalism program, contains learning modules with video lectures, textbook material, presentations, tutorials, and simulations.

"Today's students have vast amounts of information at their fingertips, and that's a trend we want to leverage when introducing concepts in the classroom," said Shawn McCombs, an instructor in the course and a member of the pilot program research team. "We're incredibly fortunate to spearhead this program and examine the impact of on-demand studying."

The iPad app was built specifically for the pilot program. The goal of the experiment is to obtain feedback for the university's M-Learning program, which focuses on helping faculty integrate mobile technologies into their curriculum. The survey will examine how the students use the devices throughout the last half of the semester, including what impact usage has on class attendance and study practices. Additionally, researchers indicated they're also interested in exploring how the iPad touchscreen interaction influences the learning process.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  •  black graduation cap with a glowing blue AI brain circuit symbol on top

    Report: AI Is a Must for Modern Learners

    A new report from VitalSource identifies a growing demand among learners for AI tools, declaring that "AI isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a must."

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • laptop screen with a video play icon, surrounded by parts of notebooks, pens, and a water bottle on a student desk

    New AI Tool Generates Video Explanations Based on Course Materials

    AI-powered studying and learning platform Studyfetch has launched Imagine Explainers, a new video creator that utilizes artificial intelligence to generate 10- to 60-minute explainer videos for any topic.

  • handshake where one hand is human and the other is composed of glowing circuits

    Western Governors University Joins Open edX as a Mission-Aligned Organization

    Western Governors University is the first organization to join the Open edX project as a "mission-aligned organization" (MAO), a new category of institution-level partnership supporting development of the Open edX open source online learning platform.