Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


U Wisconsin Pilots Virtual Student Union

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/01/10

The University of Wisconsin-Extension has opened a virtual student union as part of its sustainable management program, where students can chat with each other and connect with employers and faculty online. The site is a pilot program to evaluate how well the platform can eventually serve all students seeking online degrees through the university.

The new site includes blogs by returning students in the green degree, a green jobs career center, and news feeds about sustainability.

The online platform was built by the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab, the extension program's learning technology research and development arm.

"The beta release of our first student community is about providing a space 'between' classes to share, learn, and interact with a broader community," said Rovy Branon, executive director of the Co-Lab. "Our development team has built a robust platform with capabilities that we will roll out over time to meet the needs of our growing online student population."

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 spiral of multi colored lights

    OpenAI's Astra Model Reaches Critical Cyber Threshold

    OpenAI has unveiled GPT-6 Astra, its most capable broadly deployed model and the first system the company says has reached the "Critical" cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework.

  • Digital Screen with young woman using a virtual reality headset

    Montclair State U Partners with Dreamscape Learn on New VR Facility

    New Jersey's Montclair State University has announced the completion of a new virtual reality learning facility developed in partnership with Dreamscape Learn. The 2,450-square-foot lab space is inside the College of Communication and Media building and will serve students pursuing careers in digital media, virtual reality, and content creation.

  • shattered digital cloud with red warning alert icons

    CSA's Top Cloud Threats: Identity, AI

    Cloud Security Alliance's 2026 Top Threats report ranks identity first while adding two AI-related risks to its list of 11 leading cloud security concerns.

  • Young Woman Programmer Uses Laptop To Analyze Neural Network Models

    AI Leaders Warn of Security Risks at United Nations Briefing

    The heads of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face joined AI researcher Yoshua Bengio at the United Nations headquarters in New York to warn the UN Security Council about the security risks of increasingly capable AI.