Harrison College Launches Interactive Virtual Campus

Harrison College has launched KnowU, an interactive virtual campus for online learners. Harrison worked with technology consulting firm Perficient on this project.

Harrison created KnowU as a way to foster a sense of community and support among its growing population of online learners, said Kevin Hesler, vice president of information services at Harrison College, in a statement released this week.

"Online education is becoming increasingly popular, yet few institutions are attempting to improve the way online education is delivered," said Hesler. "There are many issues with online education that need to be addressed. For example, online students don’t feel a connection to the college they are attending. They find it difficult to develop relationships with other students, and interaction with staff and faculty is limited. But KnowU changes that."

Before KnowU, Harrison used a packaged learning management system to deliver its online courses. Now students access their courses through the new virtual campus which has been integrated with the school's legacy platform. KnowU supports real-time interaction between users, delivers news and announcements, and offers a number of resources for learning and career support.

KnowU's social media capabilities include discussion groups, networking forums, and a news feed. Users can also import their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles into the system.

KnowU also features support functions. Users can find answers to questions through the site's hot topics buzz cloud or its FAQ pages. The site offers 24/7 live support.

Harrison College administrators collaborated with Perficient to develop the vision and design for the marketing and online learning sites. Perficient's teams produced the functional and technical designs and code development for KnowU.

For more information about this project, view Harrison College's video or visit KnowU's Web site.

About the Author

Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • data professionals in a meeting

    Data Fluency as a Strategic Imperative

    As an institution's highest level of data capabilities, data fluency taps into the agency of technical experts who work together with top-level institutional leadership on issues of strategic importance.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.

  • university building with classical architecture is partially overlaid by a glowing digital brain graphic

    NSF Invests $100 Million in National AI Research Institutes

    The National Science Foundation has announced a $100 million investment in National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, part of a broader White House strategy to maintain American leadership as competition with China intensifies.

  • black analog alarm clock sits in front of a digital background featuring a glowing padlock symbol and cybersecurity icons

    The Clock Is Ticking: Higher Education's Big Push Toward CMMC Compliance

    With the United States Department of Defense's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 framework entering Phase II on Dec. 16, 2025, institutions must develop a cybersecurity posture that's resilient, defensible, and flexible enough to keep up with an evolving threat landscape.