Laurier Business School Testing Desire2Learn 2GO

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/17/09

The Laurier School of Business & Economics in Waterloo, Ontario will be using Desire2Learn's mobile application, 2GO. Beginning this fall a hundred incoming students enrolled in the full-time MBA program on the Waterloo campus began using Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry 8900 smart phones as part of their program. Desire2Learn 2GO allows those users to view course details, communicate with classmates, sign up for study groups, and check grades.

The aim of the project is to prepare Laurier's MBA students for the business world by providing them with the latest mobile learning applications, to extend their access to a multimedia-rich education beyond the walls of the classroom, and to provide tools for collaboration between MBA teammates, the school said in a statement.

"By working with RIM and Rogers Communications, our partners of choice for this pilot, we are challenging the boundaries of the traditional learning environment," said Ginny Dybenko, Laurier's dean of business and economics.

Students involved in the Laurier pilot program will use their smart phones for more than the standard voice, text, and e-mail applications. Participants will communicate using enriched content such as video, voice notes, and pictures, as well as collaboration tools. Faculty will "push" content to the smart phones and will be able to get reports that help them gauge what content is being accessed.

The school said a number of research studies will be conducted throughout the year-long pilot. In addition, students will be challenged to find new uses for the applications and handsets provided.

"As students are increasingly attuned to mobile technology, Desire2Learn 2GO is improving our students' productivity and organization," said Hugh Munro, MBA director. "We believe the platform not only contributes positively to students' autonomy and motivation, but also provides for increased interaction and communication channels between students as well as between the students and their instructors."

About the Author

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

Featured

  • abstract illustration of a glowing AI-themed bar graph on a dark digital background with circuit patterns

    Stanford 2025 AI Index Reveals Surge in Adoption, Investment, and Global Impact as Trust and Regulation Lag Behind

    Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) has released its AI Index Report 2025, measuring AI's diverse impacts over the past year.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • lightbulb

    Call for Speakers Now Open for Tech Tactics in Education: Overcoming Roadblocks to Innovation

    The annual virtual conference from the producers of Campus Technology and THE Journal will return on September 25, 2025, with a focus on emerging trends in cybersecurity, data privacy, AI implementation, IT leadership, building resilience, and more.

  • 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.