Online program management company Academic Partnerships has acquired Coursetune, a maker of curriculum mapping software that provides visualization tools for curriculum and course design.
Anthology and Blackboard have announced a merger, pairing the former's enterprise software for enrollment management, student engagement, alumni fundraising and institutional effectiveness with the latter's learning management software, communication tools and student success solutions.
With fully online or hybrid course formats still very much in play at colleges and universities around the world, accessibility issues remain a key challenge, according to a recent study.
Over the past few years, online learning in higher education has gone through a period of disruptive change. Not only did the pandemic trigger a massive shift from in-person classes to online, but it also brought new models of hybrid learning to the forefront. And micro-credentials, programs certifying specific competencies that can stand alone or be applied toward a larger degree, have gained momentum as learners have needed to reskill and compete in an evolving workforce. To explore these trends and more, we spoke with Dr. Betty Vandenbosch, chief content officer at Coursera, about the state of online education, the future of the traditional four-year degree, and what universities should be doing to keep up with alternative credential pathways.
In a fall 2020 survey of institutions piloting adaptive courseware in gateway courses, 96 percent of faculty agreed that the technology helped them improve student learning, and allowed them to better monitor student progress and hold individual students accountable for engaging in class.
Online education company Noodle has introduced a new platform to help universities engage their students in lifelong learning programs.
InSpace, a new virtual education platform that allows students and instructors to interact online much like they would in physical spaces, has announced integration with Instructure's Canvas learning management system.
Now, while we are not yet free from the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions and technology market leaders are looking at the next big questions: What's in the future? Which of the changes we make during the pandemic should move with us into the future?
The Alabama Community College System (ACCS) has signed a three-year deal with Instructure extending its use of the Canvas learning management system for 12 of its colleges.
A team from Indiana University set out to expand the scope of pedagogical research by creating ManyClasses, a model for studying how students learn not just in a single classroom, but in a variety of different classes across multiple universities. We speak with researchers Emily Fyfe and Ben Motz about how ManyClasses works, the challenges of using a learning management system to conduct research, what they learned from the first ManyClasses experiment, and more.
In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights and best practices for making meaningful use of data now and building a data strategy for the future.
While hybrid learning environments show great potential in higher education, there are still pedagogical and technical challenges to overcome. Here are key guidelines for moving forward, based on research in the field.
Blackboard recently announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to integrate the company's Amazon Chime SDK service into Blackboard Collaborate.
Idaho's public colleges and universities can now share their online course offerings through the state's Online Idaho initiative, an effort to expand access to higher education via a statewide digital campus.
The Online Learning Consortium is calling for applications to participate in a new cohort that will work collaboratively to identify challenges and opportunities in online and blended learning.
Online education company 2U has announced it will acquire edX, the online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT, for $800 million.
When a recent survey asked higher education leaders if the pivot to remote learning during the pandemic changed their institution's priorities, the majority of respondents (53 percent) said yes.
Class, an application built on Zoom that adds teaching and learning tools to the popular meeting platform, is now widely available across Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad and Android tablet devices.
In 2015, California State University launched Graduation Initiative 2025, an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps in degree completion across the system’s 23 campuses. Then halfway through that work, COVID hit — and all those student supports and services had to shift online. We find out how CSU kept students on track despite the challenges of the pandemic, the technologies and infrastructure that were needed to support students remotely, and what will remain in place going forward.
Online student support became a key issue for higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their top priority: providing academic support services such as tutoring or academic advising, according to the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report.
The prevalence of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is helping to drive staggering growth in the worldwide e-learning market.
The League for Innovation in the Community College is working to expand online learning at community colleges with a new course sharing network that will allow colleges to offer more high-quality, credit-bearing online courses to their students.
A recent survey from Top Hat asked college students about their online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their expectations for instruction in the Fall 2021 academic term.
Blackboard has partnered with Concentric Sky, maker of the Badgr digital credentialing platform, to integrate micro-credential and stackable learning pathway tools into the Blackboard Learn learning management system.
Every Learner Everywhere recently released an in-depth guide to blended learning, designed to help faculty, instructional designers, technological support staff and other stakeholders in their strategic planning for blended learning courses and programs.
UpGrad, which produces online workforce courses created by university faculty, has purchased Impartus Innovations, a company that specializes in video training technology, in a £14.5 million deal.
For many years, the Horizon Report has been tracking trends, technologies and key practices in teaching and learning. In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Kathe Pelletier, director of EDUCAUSE’s Teaching and Learning Program and co-author of the report, about key technology trends, their impact on IT departments, new education models and more.
Every Learner Everywhere, a network of organizations focused on education technologies, teaching practices and support services for blended and online learning environments, is offering a free virtual workshop on the topic of equity in digital learning.
ProctorU, the academic division of Meazure Learning, has announced it is discontinuing services that rely solely on artificial intelligence for exam proctoring. Instead, it will use human proctors for every test session.
In a recent Cengage survey, nearly three-quarters of students — 73 percent — said they would prefer to take some of their courses fully online post-pandemic. However, only half of faculty (53 percent) felt the same about teaching online.
The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding grants ranging from $50,000 to $1 million to institutions supporting distance learning and telemedicine in rural communities. The deadline for this competitive grant program is June 4.
Claremont Graduate University maintains a high-contact experience for students, based on exceptional access to faculty — even during pandemic times, when many academic and administrative functions must be suddenly transformed to remote processes.
Cybersecurity company StrikeForce Technologies is making its SafeVchat secure videoconferencing platform available for free to both K-12 and higher education institutions that are holding virtual or live-streamed graduation ceremonies this spring.
To accommodate the hybrid model of remote and in-person teaching and learning, William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business has rolled out virtual classroom technology in three learning spaces on campus.
There's no doubt that the pandemic caused incredible upheaval in higher education — but the positive impacts of that disruption are significant. Here's how the shift to online learning will benefit both faculty and students moving forward.
Nine colleges across the United States are piloting a technology-focused career training initiative that aims to prepare 500,000 learners for jobs of the future by 2030.
The landscape of higher education has been transformed by COVID-19, and that impact is a major factor in the 2021 Educause Horizon Report. Here are three key technology trends to watch as the lasting effects of the pandemic play out.
When you picture a university innovation center, what comes to mind is usually a lot of hands-on collaboration and networking. But what happens when that heavily in-person experience is forced to go virtual? For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Matt Segneri, executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, to find out about the past year’s challenges and successes converting in-person student activities into virtual experiences that still capture that entrepreneurial vibe.
Open source learning management system provider Moodle is acquiring three United States-based partner companies and combining them to form Moodle US, a new services company for Moodle customers in North America.
Virtual lab company Labster has expanded its portfolio of learning resources with a variety of new offerings designed to complement its core science simulations.
A new study out of MIT's Sloan School of Management explores the use of ideas and tools from the gaming community to improve online teaching and student learning outcomes.
Bentley University's CIS Sandbox is building on 10 years as a technology learning space.
Every college and university must redouble its focus on IT security in these unprecedented times. In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights, best practices and predictions for security and privacy in the post-pandemic era.
Almost three in five students (59 percent) in a recent Wiley survey complained that they are doing more assignments online than they ever did in their in-person classes, and nearly as many (55 percent) protested that much of it felt like "busy work."
To help job seekers gain the skills they need for employment in today's economy, Microsoft and LinkedIn are extending their global skills initiative through the end of 2021, providing free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses as well as low-cost certifications that align to in-demand jobs.
Coursera is testing a new program that lets learners develop short courses for delivery on the MOOC platform. The pilot program is currently taking contact information from people interested in creating "community guided projects."
Many students have struggled with reliable internet access during the pandemic, according to a new report from Educause.
There's a lot that faculty have done right teaching with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic — but there have also been times when technology use has been subpar.
Online learning platform Udacity has launched a School of Cybersecurity, a set of nanodegree programs aimed at training the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Audiovisual technology manufacturer Aver Information USA has launched a new camera for education that uses AI to “seamlessly track” instructors as they move around the classroom.
In a recent survey, the majority of faculty (71 percent) reported that their teaching in Fall 2020 was "very different" or included a "number of changes" compared to pre-pandemic times. And almost half (47 percent) felt those changes would remain in place post-pandemic.
Communications students studying online at Connecticut's Sacred Heart University will be doing at least some of their learning via virtual reality.
Two-thirds of people in education expect to see a continuation of remote work post-pandemic. Sixty-five percent of respondents in education agreed that due to the success of remote collaboration, facilitated by videoconferencing, their organizations are considering a flexible remote working model, according to a survey from Zoom.
Learners who complete a MicroMasters program on edX can now apply up to nine credits toward a Master of Science in Professional Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
EDUCAUSE recently released its first Information Security Edition of the Horizon Report, profiling important trends, technologies and practices shaping the future of IT security and privacy in higher education. For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Brian Kelly, director of the cybersecurity program at EDUCAUSE, to discuss the new report, the technological trends on the horizon in IT security, how the pandemic is impacting privacy concerns, and more.
Atlanta's Morehouse College is launching an immersive virtual reality experience for students in two of its courses: Biology 105 and History 112.
The future of higher education means breaking down classroom walls, embracing digital tools and engaging students with creativity and innovation.
A new active learning classroom at University of Louisiana Monroe's College of Pharmacy is designed for one-on-one interaction in class as well as participation from remote students.
Financial pressures, political unrest, health concerns — here's how the pandemic and concurrent equity challenges have impacted both institutions and their students.
How can we move the remote learning experience farther away from a training model and closer to a collaborative learning model in which students participate together in the co-creation or discovery of knowledge? We asked Gardner Campbell for some perspectives from his research and from his own classroom.
Owl Labs has introduced a new suite of features for its Meeting Owl solution, designed to bring more immersive remote and hybrid capabilities to the flagship 360-degree camera, mic and speaker hardware product.
Open LMS has announced plans to release all of its Moodle modules and enhancements by the end of the year, as well as dedicate more resources toward developing features and code for the open source learning management system.
In a recent survey from Barnes & Noble Education, the vast majority of college students (94 percent) said they think schools should charge less for online courses. In contrast, less than half of administrators and faculty (43 percent and 41 percent, respectively) believe the same.
One unintended impact of the pandemic in higher education is the strain that remote work and learning has put on IT security. In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Stephen Heath, chief information security officer for Intrinium, an IT and security consulting and managed services company, to learn more about the security challenges institutions are facing — as well as evolving threats like ransomware.
When it comes to interactivity among classmates, nothing beats texting. Nearly a third of students (31 percent) in a recent survey chose that over any other interaction option in online learning, including interactive whiteboards (mentioned by 29 percent), breakout rooms (18 percent), live surveys and polls (14 percent) or gamification such as badges and contests (7 percent). That's according to a survey from customer experience company Sykes.
Instructure is selling the corporate side of its learning management system business for $50 million. The buyer will be Learning Technologies Group plc, a UK company with multiple businesses that produce services and technologies for digital learning and talent management.
What would students give up if they could head back to college in person? Seven in 10 would relinquish their AirPods for a month if it meant a month back on campus, according to a poll undertaken by Grand Canyon University.
Google announced a pallet full of changes to its education offerings, including a renaming of its education bundle of productivity applications and a limit to free storage for schools and colleges.
Instructure recently announced that it is making Immersive Reader from Microsoft freely available in its Canvas learning management system.
Southern New Hampshire University recently launched two credential programs with online learning platform edX.
As students adjust to the realities of college life during a pandemic, the majority (71 percent) are having trouble staying focused on their coursework, according to a fall 2020 survey.
To help academic administrators improve entry-level courses for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Every Learner Everywhere and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have created a free guide focused on best practices for equity and student success.
The longer the pandemic lasts, the more students question the value of a college education. A December survey by New America and Third Way found that nearly three in five college students (57 percent) agreed with the sentiment that higher education was no longer "worth the cost," a bump up from 49 percent in a previous survey in August.
Every Learner Everywhere has assembled a network of equity and digital learning experts to provide free professional coaching for higher education faculty, course coordinators, instructional designers and academic leaders across the United States.
The hybrid approach being taken by most colleges and universities to get through the pandemic could turn out to have the positive effect of making those schools more student-centered, not just in education but across the board. That's the takeaway in a new report by Deloitte.
In a recent survey focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in introductory-level courses this past fall, faculty reported increases in DFWI rates (the number of students who receive a D or F grade, withdraw or fail to complete a course) — particularly at two-year institutions or those serving Pell-eligible students.
The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on higher education. Here's how to weather the emerging "new normal" for the next semester and beyond.
How will higher education evolve as we head into — hopefully — post-pandemic times? Is it even possible to make predictions with circumstances still in flux? In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, we talk with Richard Garrett, chief research officer at higher education research firm Eduventures, about his predictions for 2021, the impact of the pandemic on online learning and ed tech, and the opportunities he sees for higher ed in the coming year.
Rhode Island's Brown University has announced its plan to hold commencement in person for graduates while members and guests will attend virtually.
Unity College in Maine, which frames itself as "America's Environmental College," has opened up debate about whether small institutions really need to have flagship campuses to survive.
Higher education's response to the pandemic has required agility, flexibility and perhaps most important, innovation. Join us Feb. 24 for this free one-day event, in which education and IT leaders will share how they are managing the challenges of remote work and learning, adapting to change and solving problems with outside-the-box ideas and practices.
The public mission of four-year colleges and universities needs to adapt to encompass adult learners, according to a new report. That's the population that may be most affected by the changes in education introduced during the pandemic — more so even than K-12 and college students, the report suggested.
San Diego State University is outfitting nearly 200 classrooms across its main and Imperial Valley campuses with Sony's MAS-A100 beamforming ceiling microphone, to support the hybrid classroom model.
A new initiative at California State University, Bakersfield offers prospective students dedicated enrollment coaches to help navigate the institution's online programs.
American College of Education, an online institution specializing in education, leadership, business, healthcare and nursing programs, has partnered with Study.com to offer adult learners affordable pathways to a college degree.
In higher education, we pay attention to who students are — to how they show up on our campuses and how they engage the university. But often that doesn't happen enough in online learning environments.
Math software company Maplesoft has launched a new online learning environment for high school and college-level mathematics instruction.
A new program out of Olivet Nazarene University's School of Graduate and Continuing Studies is using an online, asynchronous flipped model to provide adult students a pathway to earn a bachelor's degree.
The University of Arizona College of Engineering has signed a renewal agreement with online program management provider All Campus, extending the partnership that has been in place since 2015 to support the institution's engineering master's degree programs.
If you’re looking for software and services to augment online and blended instruction this year, start here.
According to a new report by Class Central, a company that tracks massive open online courses, of all learners who have registered for MOOCs throughout their history, a third did so last year.
When Boston University launched its hybrid learning initiative this fall, it also created a Classroom Moderator program: an army of student workers deployed in the classroom to help ensure that hybrid learning could run smoothly. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Ernie Perez, director of educational technology for BU Digital Learning and Innovation, and Jill Beckman, executive director of Client Services, talk about how they rolled out the classroom moderator service and made it a success.
The shift to online learning in response to COVID-19 has revealed pedagogical benefits that will carry on into the future.
The reopening of campuses post-pandemic won't necessarily spell the end to online learning, according to a recent survey from Top Hat.
A look back at the most-read stories of the year in higher education IT.
Georgia Career Institute, a vocational school with three campuses, has adopted 16 Google Jamboard interactive displays from BenQ to add interaction, engagement and better student comprehension to its remote instruction.
The pandemic has put higher ed institutions at an increased risk of liability and lawsuits. Here's how to navigate the legal considerations of reopening.
Learning Technologies Group, the parent company of Open LMS (formerly Moodlerooms), has acquired eThink Education. With the acquisition, eThink will be integrated into Open LMS.
Online program manager 2U has issued its first transparency report, which shares details of its agreements with 70 universities, all public or private nonprofit institutions that are supported to some extent by state and federal funding.
Purdue University Global, the institution's public online campus, is signing student transfer agreements with community colleges in states other than its own. In the last month, the Indiana-based university announced articulation agreements with Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona and Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland.
Pennsylvania's Manor College is rolling out the Echo360 video platform to support the student learning experience both in the classroom and online.
Overall learning management system downloads were 250 percent higher in August than February, according to a report from consultancy Sykes.
A company with a focus on "working learners" has launched a new marketplace for community colleges to sell their courses online. Unmudl from SocialTech.ai features courses from seven community colleges.
For colleges and universities that have pivoted to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evolution is not over. In order to better meet student needs both today and in the future, here are three key considerations.
The University of Wyoming has signed an online program management agreement with Wiley Education Services, to help faculty shift courses to online formats in time for the spring 2021 semester.
Education technology company Campuswire has introduced a platform that allows professors from around the world to deliver their live online classes to anybody on the internet.
Panopto and Webex users will now be able to transfer their video recordings to their media library. Panopto produces video management applications; Webex is a videoconferencing program.
Last fall, Oregon State University launched an Ecampus online program for its introductory physics courses, with an emphasis on collaborative, hands-on work. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Senior Physics Instructor KC Walsh and Associate Department Head David Craig talk about how they’ve used technology, open educational resources, take-home lab kits and more to engage students from a distance.
Even though first-year college students are more likely than students in later years to say they intended to return to school in the spring (73 percent versus 68 percent), they're less confident they'll see the value of the investment in higher education (45 percent compared to 51 percent), according to a recent survey done by education technology company Top Hat.
Unizin's 14 member institutions can now tap into Blackboard's Ally accessibility solution. The higher education consortium recently announced a partnership with Blackboard to help "create a more inclusive and data-informed learning environment" for its members, according to a news announcement.
Getting students actively engaged in their remote learning has a difference on the outcomes during a pandemic, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Two schools in Ohio have teamed up to help union members obtain bachelor’s degrees. In a new program called "CSU Career Plus+," Central State University is working with Eastern Gateway Community College to help graduates of the two-year college who are also members of the AFL-CIO finish their four-year degrees in online classes.
California State University has signed a site license with Labster, giving each of its 23 campuses the option of using the company's 159 virtual laboratory simulations.
Learning quiz program company Kahoot! has announced an integration with Zoom, allowing users to access, host and play Kahoot games directly in Zoom meetings.
As the pandemic continues, what's happening to all the data being collected by the various programs being used by colleges and universities to deliver remote learning? That's a question explored in a new report published by think tank New America.
Champlain College is piloting a new virtual education platform that allows students and instructors to interact online much like they would in physical spaces. Conceived by Narine Hall, a data science and machine learning professor at the college, and recently formed as a private company, InSpace is "designed to mirror the fluid, personal and interactive nature of a real classroom," according to a news announcement.
Pennsylvania's Duquesne University has installed audio conferencing systems in more than 40 classrooms to support its shift to the hybrid learning model, in which some students attend class on-campus while others participate remotely.
Since students have returned to school and remote learning this fall, there has been a dramatic increase in internet searches related to academic fraud — that’s according to data from Cisco Talos. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Jaeson Schultz, technical leader at Cisco Talos, about his research into academic fraud and the potentially hazardous websites and applications that go along with it.
Indiana's University of Evansville is developing its online education and learning efforts thanks to a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment. The university will use the funds to "implement major initiatives that will enhance the campus as well as the online learning environment," according to a news announcement.
Higher ed's response to the novel coronavirus has exposed issues of pedagogy, equity and more — but also offers opportunities to reshape the future.
On the horizon for 2021, 10G offers the promise of delivering 10 times the current most prevalent maximum speeds offered to consumers.
This week, during Instructure's virtual customer conference, CanvasCon Online, the learning management system company announced the Canvas Certified Educator program.
Coursera has announced that it is continuing its offer of free courses for students and whole campuses, along with some enhanced functionality.
Even with the recent emphasis on remote instruction, now is the perfect time to consider strategies for physical classroom spaces.
When asked about the most pressing issue on their campuses, college and university presidents in a recent ACE survey deemed the mental health of students their top concern.
In a recent survey, three-quarters of U.S.-based students, faculty and administrators reported that COVID-19 has negatively affected student engagement. Nearly as many (73 percent) said the pandemic has damaged their work and career readiness. And seven in 10 (70 percent) said they believed that more students are falling behind in their studies as a result of COVID-19.
A recent report from Every Learner Everywhere and Tyton Partners recommended five key actions institutions can take to ensure they are delivering high-quality digital learning experiences for all students.
Faculty feel ready to teach online this fall, either partially or fully. In a recent survey produced by Bay View Analytics in partnership with four online learning organizations and underwritten by Cengage, 49 percent "strongly" agreed that they're prepared, while 35 percent said they "somewhat" agreed.
As colleges and universities navigate the ever-shifting challenges of higher education's "new normal," they are also looking ahead: How can the lessons learned from the pandemic redefine teaching and learning moving forward? On Oct 20, the Campus Technology Distance Learning Summit will convene education and IT leaders to share their ideas, experiences and outlook for the future.
China’s Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University was one of the first to shift to remote learning when the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year. Now, it’s stepping things up for the fall by outfitting classrooms for the HyFlex model. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Roland Sherwood, manager of the university’s educational technologies team, to find out more.
A startup founded by ed tech veterans has announced a program intended to make Zoom more effective in replicating the classroom experience for instructors and students. Class for Zoom is currently seeking people to beta test the software.
While 40 percent of IT higher education IT leaders and instructional technologists said in June 2020 that their college or university was planning for "mostly in-person" classes for the fall, that share plummeted to less than 5 percent by August, according to a recent study by Educause.
The University of Kentucky has expanded the use of technology in classrooms to accommodate whatever format is appropriate for the course content and faculty and student preference. As the home page for the institution stated, "Work Anywhere. Learn Anywhere. Teach Anywhere."
New York's Colgate University has sought outside help to improve the quality of its hybrid learning experience. The university, which has reopened to students on campus, is also continuing its remote learning programs. Now, some faculty will have access to 2UOS Essential from 2U, a set of services for course production and development, technology and support.
The University of Massachusetts has launched the Inter-campus Course Exchange, an initiative to make courses from all UMass campuses available to students at any institution in the system.
To offer more than pre-recorded lab demonstrations or virtual laboratories to remote students, two chemistry instructors at Missouri S&T have refined their approach, which uses real-time live-streamed demonstrations of experiments.
Now that students are returning to campus at Missouri S&T, with a mix of online and in-person classes, an instructor in electrical engineering is perfecting his approach to lab activities.
Social networking giant Facebook is partnering with Coursera to launch a new Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate, designed to prepare learners of any background for jobs in the social media marketing field in just 20 weeks.
Nathan Mentzer, an associate professor in Purdue University's Polytechnic Institute and College of Education, got an early start with the HyFlex model just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to impact higher ed institutions across the country: He started blending both face-to-face and online instruction in his classrooms weeks before Purdue officially shifted to remote learning last spring.
Southern California's Pepperdine University has upgraded 166 classrooms on campus with hybrid learning technology for the Fall 2020 semester. While fall instruction will remain fully online, the institution wanted to ensure its learning spaces could accommodate any combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning, according to a news announcement.
According to a recent study out of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, students need a sense of community and connection in order to thrive in remote learning experiences.
Kyle Bowen tells CT how Arizona State University is continuing to offer students the experiences they expect from an ASU education during the current phase of remote learning and how, at the same time, the institution can leverage its work into plans for the future.
Emerson College has launched an online Data Analytics Boot Camp geared toward adult learners and working professionals.
The University of Louisiana System's Compete Louisiana college completion initiative is collaborating with StraighterLine to create a new re-entry academy designed to help adults who have stopped out of university return to earn their degree.
The University of Michigan's College of Engineering has dedicated $500,000 to help create high-quality learning experiences for students in hybrid and remote courses — particularly when it comes to hands-on projects.
Microsoft is expanding the features of the Education Insights app in its Teams collaboration platform.
The University of Cambridge is partnering with edX to launch a new MicroMasters program in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries — the university's first offering on the online learning platform.
Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is working with 2U to launch the Columbia Artificial Intelligence Program, an online executive education offering aimed at advancing the next generation of technology leaders.
According to a new survey from Visual Objects, 51 percent of high school and college students do not have consistent access to high-speed internet and WiFi.
Emory University, in partnership with Fullstack Academy, is launching online coding and cybersecurity training programs to help develop tech talent in the Atlanta area.
In a recent survey, just over half of faculty in higher education expressed doubt about the new academic year: Fifty-one percent said they were "uncertain" about the fall term. Yet 55 percent have said they're moderately or very satisfied with the plans their schools have publicly stated for the fall, and six in 10 said they'd rate the level of clarity their schools have provided regarding how students will be taught as either "excellent" or "good."
The fall semester is beginning, and we are finally starting to see reopening plans play out at colleges and universities across the country. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly explores the pandemic decision-making process with Dr. Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, and also the chair of UK’s Pandemic Response Team. He talks about how the team is structured, what types of data they monitor, what kinds of challenges they have been working through, and how they are approaching contingency planning.
Ryerson University is working with an augmented reality company to develop a series of labs for science courses. The project is based on InfernoAR from NexTech AR Solutions.
The University System of Maryland has partnered with Labster to provide its virtual laboratory simulations across all USM institutions.
Arcadia University is partnering with ed tech company 2U to launch an online Semester of Code program that will provide credit-bearing, market-relevant coding experiences for undergraduate students across the United States.
Healthcare has become a big topic of interest to college students. In a study by Quizlet, analysts found that while participation in healthcare (as measured by activity in the company's study tools) initially dropped to 86 percent of usual levels of interest as school closures took place, it rose to 113 percent as remote learning got underway.
Babson College, like so many schools, is priming for the start of fall classes, which begin in just a few days. Here's how the Boston-based institution has positioned itself to succeed.
In a recent survey of learners of all ages around the globe, 79 percent of respondents agreed that colleges and universities will fundamentally change because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stony Brook University in New York has introduced a virtual version of its "involvement fair," intended to help students on and off campus partake in club activities and meet other students, even if they can't do it in person.
A survey of college students found that most were comfortable heading back to campus. The survey was done by OneClass, a company that sells study guides posted by students and faculty.
A survey by online education solution provider 2U has found that nearly three-quarters of prospective students said the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more likely to consider online programs.
This fall, students at any of the seven participating Big Ten Academic Alliance universities will have access to free online courses at other Big Ten schools.
AVer has introduced a new distance learning camera that uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect and follow an instructor's movement in the classroom, with no need for a camera operator.
One outcome for the shift to online classes, according to the college and university instructors now teaching them, is that students will be more likely to cheat. In a recent survey, 93 percent of educators said they expected online learning to be more conducive to academic dishonesty.
In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College in Southern California, talks candidly about how his institution is making strategic decisions for the fall and what kinds of policies and infrastructure they are putting in place to move forward. The conversation comes from Campus Technology's recent Distance Learning Summit – a virtual event focused on the most critical considerations for managing higher ed's "new normal" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Southern California is investing close to $2 million in a project to deploy an AV network to cover 248 classroom spaces for hybrid learning.
Active learning courseware platform Top Hat has introduced Slate, an integrated communication tool that enables course announcements, real-time discussions, project collaborations, peer connections, community building and more, all in one centralized hub.
The University of St. Augustine faces a problem unique to programs delivering healthcare training — how to help students prepare for clinical careers.
Zoom Video Communications has announced a new device specifically designed for home videoconferencing. But at least one analyst suspects the price may keep buyers at by. In mid-July Zoom announced it would be taking pre-orders for Zoom for Home, a dedicated appliance for allowing employees to meet and collaborate online. Currently, the device is available for pre-order.
Learning platform edX recently convened the first (virtual) meeting of its MicroBachelors Program Skills Advisory Council, a group launched in early 2020 that brings together foundations, corporations and academic institutions to "solve shared challenges around reskilling and upskilling in order to address the demands of the future workplace." Discussions in the meeting centered on two key areas: credentials and content.
Just a few weeks after announcing a phased reopening plan for the fall semester that would have included both in-person and online instruction, Spelman College has made the decision to switch to an entirely online model.
As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
When the University of Arizona's fall semester begins on Aug. 24, instruction will be a mix of in-person and remote learning — with more than half of all classes including an in-person component.
Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces for Indiana University, has been working hard to make classrooms safe for students and faculty this fall. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, she talks with Executive Editor Rhea Kelly about how the new reality of COVID-19 is impacting IU’s campuses, the challenges of preparing classrooms for the fall, and technology’s role in ensuring a successful teaching and learning experience.
Education technology company Cengage is running free math readiness boot camps for students, to help them prepare for college.
A single-question survey of more than 17,000 incoming college students across the United States and Canada has found that students believe online courses don't have the same value as the in-person experience.
Google has unveiled some of its plans for updates to Meet, the web conferencing tool that's part of the company's G Suite for Education. The basic thrust is to give instructors more control over their real-time sessions and help them make the classes more engaging.
A survey among college-bound students in California has found that four in five have had to change their college plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indiana University has released preliminary findings from a survey of undergraduates and instructors across its all of its campuses, examining their experiences of the transition to remote instruction this past spring.
San José State University is partnering with Fullstack Academy to create two new Tech Bootcamp programs focused on coding and cyber security.
Vanderbilt University has announced a new Instructional Design Support Center focused on improving online teaching and course quality.
Google has announced three new certificate programs on Coursera: Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience Design.
Microsoft intends to provide free online job training through its company, LinkedIn, to 25 million people by the end of this year. The goal: to help those who have been hit by unemployment, furloughs and reduced paychecks to acquire new digital skills as part of accelerating the economic recovery.
Packback, an online platform that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate class discussions, has introduced an Instant Feedback feature that provides students with a real-time assessment of their contributions and allows them to revise and improve their work before final submission.
A new program at Rice University gives students outside the institution a chance to take select online courses for credit.
The University of Oklahoma has pulled together its online graduate degree programs under one central umbrella: OU Online.
Spelman College in Georgia has announced a phased reopening plan that includes both in-person and online instruction, in a "low-density hybrid" model.
Pre-pandemic, a slim majority of students considered affordability the most compelling driver for choosing their online school.
The University of West Georgia has announced plans for a "full return" to campus on Aug. 12, for in-person instruction. The school has also developed contingency plans, one for fully online classes and one that shifts from on-site to online at some point during the fall term.
According to a recent survey by education technology company Cengage, nearly nine in 10 colleges and universities (86 percent) haven't yet announced plans for the fall semester.
Arizona State University is hosting a free two-day online conference to help all higher education faculty prepare remote courses for the fall.
In this first episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, "A Futurist's View of the Fall Semester," Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with futurist Bryan Alexander about higher education's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the fall semester might play out as colleges and universities reopen.
Instructors teaching remotely or in HyFlex learning environments can now access Zoom videoconferencing directly from HoverCam's Flex 11 document camera software.
Colorado State University's online campus, CSU Global, has joined the Higher Education Course Recovery Consortium, a network of institutions that are sharing high-quality online courses to help connect students with the courses they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vermont's Champlain College has introduced a Virtual Gap Program that allows high school graduates to spend a semester focused on intellectual, personal and professional growth before beginning their higher education experience.
Refer your college students to these services to help them keep up with school work.
Now that the initial fires of COVID-19 response have been put out, institutions are faced with a lot of unknowns for the fall semester. Campus Technology is convening campus leaders and ed tech experts to share their ideas and best practices in a second virtual event July 16.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the massive rush to move courses online this spring, it’s that a sudden change to fully online, even in the year 2020, isn’t easy. Here, Jared Stein proposes an important takeaway from the pandemic: Blended learning environments can help us prepare for the future.
New Jersey Institute of Technology started the process of planning its return to campus with a strength — the concept of converged learning — and began building from there.
Online learning provider Coursera has opened up its certificate programs to current undergraduate, graduate or recently graduated college and university students.
In a statement today from President Michael McRobbie, Indiana University announced its plans for resuming fall instruction.
Arizona's Prescott College will reopen on-campus classes this fall with a new risk-management strategy: using a flexible block-class schedule to minimize contacts among faculty, staff and students.
Education technology company Kahoot has added integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing users to play Kahoot games while collaborating remotely via Teams’ web conferencing and chat tools.
In a special arrangement with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a new course by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Health is training people to do COVID-19 contact tracing.
A "playbook" from a team of higher education organizations provides advice and tips for faculty on how to design their courses for online delivery, enhance their online instruction and pursue continuous improvement.
Rice University transitioned its annual Center for Transforming Data to Knowledge (the D2K Lab) showcase to a virtual showcase.
The Online Learning Consortium has received a grant to work with minority-serving institutions as they shift to online instruction. The $50,000 award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will fund delivery of affordable, short-term workshops to reach instructors in institutions that need professional development resources most.
To cover all bases, Simmons University, a private women-focused institution in Boston, has announced its intention to develop an online undergraduate experience in time for the start of school in fall 2020. The new program, being built with the help of 2U, will give students the option of enrolling in hundreds of Simmons courses redesigned this summer for online delivery.
A survey undertaken by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association and online learning producer MindEdge found that two-thirds of respondents in colleges and universities have seen growing interest in alternative credentials among students in recent years, and nearly half would call it "significant growth" in interest.
Google has just made premium functionality in its online video meeting software freely available to anybody with a Google e-mail account.
From determining a remote learning strategy to planning for the new normal and enabling standards-based practices, these five phases describe the progress institutions are making toward excellence in teaching and learning online.
This fall, California State University will be keeping most of its institutions' courses online, in response to the ongoing health and safety concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Arizona plans to resume in-person classes this fall, after the state began statewide antibody testing with help of the university.
A new set of guidelines from the American College Health Association has provided a run-down of key considerations for safely reopening institutions of higher education as the COVID-19 pandemic slows.
The University of Arizona has expedited plans to launch a global campus, involving other institutions of higher education on five continents, to reach international students whose plans have been disrupted by COVID-19-induced campus closures, international travel restrictions or visa moratoriums.
A new report has identified five areas where colleges and universities will have to develop strength in order to woo future generations of international students: social engineering, sustainability, mindfulness, savvy use of technology and the ability to deliver a "transnational" education.
MOOCs — massive open online courses — have become a major part of the online learning conversation with the advent of school closures due to coronavirus. Class Central, a site that tracks and catalogs the online learning platform segment, reported a "surge" of attention on MOOCs beginning on March 15, a date when "social distancing" became part of the common language.
Thunderbird School of Global Management, a school within Arizona State University, is planning for a robot-filled graduation. The institution will be using telepresence robots equipped with a tablet computer to provide video and audio of the graduating seniors.
Three universities have gone public with their use of remote laboratory equipment from National Instruments (NI) to give students hands-on practice with live data and instrumentation, even as they made the switch from in-person to remote classes.
Video lectures may have worked as a stop-gap measure in the emergency move to online learning, but they just don't cut it for the long term. Here are nine ways to bring distance education courses to the next level.
Nearly half of faculty in a recent survey said they lowered their expectations about the amount of work they could expect from their students after the switch to online learning in response to school closures caused by COVID-19.
In an April survey done by education technology vendor Top Hat, a quarter of college students said they're undecided about whether or not to continue their education in the fall.
This community college was one of the first to announce its plans for the fall semester. And no matter what students might prefer, they won't be returning to standard classroom settings anytime soon.
Berkeley College resumed its spring semester this week with online courses. To make sure students had access to computing devices, the private for-profit school, with locations in New York and New Jersey, handed out free laptops to all new incoming students.
Higher education's current move to online learning may be leaving a sour taste in the mouths of students and faculty across the country, but there is a silver lining.
An education study site ran an informal poll with students about whether they'd return to school in the fall if it were only delivered remotely; a third said they'd withdraw.
Ed tech company ProctorU has created a "student bill of rights" that outlines seven areas of expectations students should be able to count on from their academic institutions.
Piazza, the company that produces a social learning application for colleges and universities, has added new functionality to its software. Piazza "Live Q&A" offers a dedicated place within courses where students can ask questions and upvote questions in real time as instructors are running their classes.
California State University, Fullerton has had to mop up the confusion generated when local news stations reported that the campus would be delivering its courses virtually on the first day of classes in fall. According to a statement issued by Provost Pamella Oliver a day later, the reporting was wrong.
When Arizona State University shifted the whole student body to online learning during its COVID-19 campus closure, it had an advantage: Lessons learned by EdPlus and ASU Online. In this interview, EdPlus CEO Phil Regier shares the pain and the promise of digital education at distance.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all higher education institutions (90 percent) in a recent survey used some form of emergency distance education to complete the Spring 2020 term. And 56 percent of faculty who moved courses online were using teaching methods they had never used before.
With campus closures leading education institutions everywhere to scramble to move instruction to an online format, Campus Technology is convening ed tech experts and practitioners to share their ideas and best practices in a virtual event on May 5.
Data analytics company HelioCampus has released the LMS Explorer Kit, a free tool that allows institutions to extract and organize data from their learning management system to better inform resource planning and decision-making.
An education technology company has enhanced a program for experiential learning and assessment that can be used with K-12 and career and technology students.
The University of Michigan is adding new online programs for the fall, including a new master's degree in public health.
At last count, 4,235 higher education institutions across the United States have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic — affecting an estimated 25,798,790 students, according to a visualization from Entangled Solutions.
Amazon Web Services Education has introduced a set of free resources intended to help teachers and faculty in K-20 with their transitions to remote teaching and learning.
With nearly all campuses transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 outbreak, California's community colleges will let students continue their science lab-based education by giving them access to virtual laboratories.
Coursera has introduced a new tool that helps universities identify courses on the company's online learning platform that most closely match their on-campus offerings.
These practices will help engage students and improve outcomes throughout the online learning process.
Colleges and universities have been impelled, in recent weeks, to conduct nearly all academic and business processes online for our health and safety amid the hazards of COVID-19. Out of this, a persistent question has emerged: Are we really able to carry on the best values of higher education through our online presence? Gardner Campbell considers the question.
To take advantage of the momentum created by a quick switch from face-to-face courses to online version, one Texas university is ramping up plans for a major online summer session too. Rice University, which switched to distance learning in March in response to coronavirus, has decided to offer all of its summer courses online.
A new analysis by App Annie has found that mobile education applications have experienced a 90 percent increase in weekly downloads usage worldwide between the last three months of 2019 and the first three months of 2020.
A Nordic company has introduced a virtual reality collaboration platform. Glue Collaboration's software by the same name facilitates virtual environments where remote participants can come together to learn, share, plan and create as if they were in the same physical space.
Some students are hitting Minecraft during their "self-quarantines" to recreate their campuses. And at least one group is planning a national graduation ceremony to take place in their virtual world.
Colleges and universities everywhere are rushing to move courses online and keep teaching and learning going during the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how to cope with what may feel like an impossible task.
While university instructors around the world scramble to implement delivery of their courses online — a medium with which they may have only limited experience — they can learn from the field notes of their counterparts at the largest international joint-venture university in China.
Enrollment for online education rose in 2019 at universities and colleges, but not as quickly as it had been doing in previous years, according to a new survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
This year's report on The Changing Landscape of Online Education comes as nearly every college and university in the land is taking its courses online in response to COVID-19. In an 11th-hour addition to the report, CHLOE researchers suggested that the immediate goal for any institution right now should be to have faculty communicate with students on completing the tasks and assignments they need to satisfy course requirements.
The rushed transition to online instruction during the coronavirus pandemic can be wrought with anxiety, technical issues, concern for students and more. What's the best way to stay positive and support faculty?
With the coronavirus pandemic closing college and university campuses everywhere, faculty are tasked with a quick move to online instruction. Here, education experts offer advice on how to make the transition.
As coronavirus changes life as we knew it, these education experts offer advice on how to make the transition to online instruction.
Foundry College, a two-year-old institution that provides "face-to-face" classes online, has spun off its active learning platform as a stand-alone service.
A tuition-free university, the University of the People, said it would make its online courses available to American universities, enabling their students to take courses for credit.
2U just launched "No Back Row PRO," a free set of services to help faculty who are part of its university partners ramp up their online delivery of courses.
The University of California, Irvine School of Education has created a new research center that will aim to provide "evidence-based resources, materials and guidelines for teachers and students to improve academic achievement and equity in online learning."
As more and more colleges and universities are shutting down their campuses over the next several weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
Learning management system company Blackboard has enabled a self-service portal where colleges and schools can immediately subscribe to its digital collaboration platform, Blackboard Collaborate.
Quality Matters, a nonprofit focused on standards for online learning, has created a set of checklists for rapidly moving classes online in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kahoot! has begun offering free access to the "premium" version of its game-based learning software. This move comes in response to the number of schools and colleges that are shifting to online education to minimize face-to-face contact during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country's largest community college system, Los Angeles Community College District, announced this week that it is moving as many courses as possible to online formats across its nine colleges, at least until April 13.
With universities all over the world looking to quickly move face-to-face classes online, massive open online course companies Coursera and edX have stepped in to offer access to their vast portfolios of course content.
In the face of coronavirus, institutions large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year are canceling classes for the foreseeable future to reduce the likelihood of face-to-face interactions as much as possible.
Blackboard has announced it will sell its Open LMS business to workplace digital learning and talent management company Learning Technologies Group.
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has launched a free online course to help instructors and institutions that need to make a quick move to remote learning.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued interim guidance for higher education administrators on how to respond to coronavirus.
To help institutions prepare for emergency situations such as a coronavirus outbreak, the Online Learning Consortium has put together a list of tools and advice for handling a quick shift to online courses.
While the physical campus at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has been closed due to coronavirus (now referred to as COVID-19 by health experts), faculty have quickly adopted an online teaching platform to reach their students through remote instruction.
As universities in China move courses online to serve students remotely in the face of COVID-19 lockdowns, instructors are rushing to modify their pedagogy and incorporate digital teaching tools. To help ease that transition, we've gathered our top stories on online teaching and instructional design, chock full of tips and best practices from the trenches.
Graduates at Purdue University Global recently had the option to participate in their commencement ceremonies virtually, thanks to a pilot program using virtual reality to provide an immersive remote experience of the event.
When New York University closed its NYU Shanghai campus in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in China, little did it realize how much students would appreciate the efforts the university went through to keep their learning on track. The spring 2020 semester kicked off with school officials determined to use digital tools to deliver learning online as an alternative.
A new study from the Online Learning Consortium and Every Learner Everywhere outlines seven primary trends in digital learning innovation as well as four secondary trends worth watching.
Want to improve your course videos? A video producer at Miami University shares her expert advice.
Instructure's CEO will be stepping down in a couple of weeks after the latest purchase agreement with Thoma Bravo is complete.
In a revised agreement announced today, venture capital company Thoma Bravo has increased its offer to acquire Instructure, from the prior $47.60 per share to a “best and final offer” of $49 per share in cash.
Instructure's pending acquisition by venture capital company Thoma Bravo appears to have bitten the dust.
An intensely researched study published on Class Central has dissected the economics of boot camps and found them to be poor venture capital investments — and possibly poor investments for their students too.
Boot camps generated nearly half a billion dollars in 2019 and graduated almost 34,000 students, yet the year-over-year growth rate slowed, according to a report from Career Karma.
A virtual version of the escape room concept is engaging students at Northampton Community College. Here's how the setup works.
A company that has made a name for itself in lecture capture and web streaming has acquired another company that provides similar services.
A new online science education platform offers free access to personalized learning content, virtual lab experiences and networking with the global scientific community.
The University of North Texas is giving non-traditional students a pathway to complete a bachelor's degree online. The Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program will launch on Coursera beginning in fall 2020.
More than half of faculty prefer using a blended environment with their students, which includes both blended and in-person elements, but nearly three-quarters would choose a completely or mostly face-to-face approach for most elements involving interaction with students, according to a survey from the Educause Center for Analysis and Research.
A two-year campaign is being undertaken by the Flipped Learning Global Initiative and Teachers Pay Teachers to develop high-quality flipped learning resources for the classroom.
Google has introduced a new Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate, a program designed to provide job-ready skills in Python, Git and IT automation in under six months.
Online exam security and identity management company ProctorU is merging with Yardstick Assessment Strategies, a provider of psychometrics and computer-based exam administration for professional testing organizations.
EdX has introduced a new MicroBachelors program designed to offer working learners job-ready skills in a credit-backed, stackable credential that can be applied toward a full bachelor's degree.
According to a team of researchers from Canadian University Dubai, Lancaster University and the University of Adelaide, a review of literature found that massive open online courses can provide flexible learning, address rapidly changing skills needs and deliver credentials.
The flipped learning model doesn't necessarily work in the long term, according to an experiment at West Point.
The company that staked its claim in the LMS market by taking its learning management system open source in 2011 has agreed in principle to be acquired by a venture capital firm. Instructure recently announced the transaction. Thoma Bravo has offered stockholders $47.60 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $1.79 billion.
Recent research uncovered just a handful of distinct elements that set great online teaching apart from the merely good. The findings came out of interviews with eight faculty members who have won awards for their online teaching from three professional associations: the Online Learning Consortium, the Association for Educational Communications & Technology and the United States Distance Learning Association.
A statewide study of 30 SUNY community colleges found that, overall, students who successfully completed online courses nearly doubled their chances of earning a degree or transferring to a four-year college.
China's government has gotten into the MOOC game, setting annual targets for how many high-quality massive open online courses should be produced each year.
To prepare students for the job market of the future, online institutions must equip them with interpersonal skills such as leadership, communication and management. Here are four strategies for prioritizing the human connection.
The latest word on the use of "pre-class activities" — flipped learning — is that it improves student engagement in the class itself as well as students' assessment scores. A recent study by a team of researchers from Macmillan Learning and the University of Connecticut examined the use of flipped learning through Achieve, a new Macmillan digital learning tool, and found a "significant effect" with its use.
A recent report from child care and education benefits company Bright Horizons found that four out of five working learners do some of their learning online, and more than half are enrolled in courses that are entirely online.
Pearson has announced the acquisition of Lumerit Education, an ed tech company that uses data analytics to match learners to academic programs and helps them earn the right credits for their desired degree path.
If schools were wondering whether student success tools are worth the investment, a survey among students by Educause has put the question to rest. Students rated degree audit tools that show the degree requirements completed as the most useful (ranked by 80 percent of respondents as "very" or "extremely" useful).
Kapi'olani Community College instituted comprehensive training to help faculty design, develop and assess online courses — including supportive incentives to make sure instructors can successfully complete the program.
A new software coding program at Bellevue College aims to build students' tech skills for technology jobs in the software development field. The institution's Continuing Education division partnered with coding education company Coding Dojo to create the new line of accelerated education courses, beginning with a 12-week program in Python development.
Temple University's College of Public Health is a diverse school experiencing significant growth online. Here's how the institution is supporting the development and maintenance of high-quality online faculty.
Coursera is expanding its portfolio as an online learning platform to work with colleges and universities on campus. Coursera for Campus provides universities with content that they can integrate into their curricula as credit eligible courses and supplemental learning.
According to a recently published research project, large classes — those with 40 or more students — are best for "foundational and factual knowledge acquisition," and smaller enrollments — 15 or fewer students — are better for courses intended "to develop higher order thinking, mastery of complex knowledge and student skill development."
California is taking on the skills gap directly by opening a community college dedicated to addressing the needs of working adults and hiring managers. Calbright College, which opened for course registration today, will use a combination of online classes, mobile apps and in-person apprenticeships to give its adult students the specific skills they need to get higher paying jobs.
Purdue University recently announced a major learning management system change: By the start of the fall 2020 semester, the entire university system will move from Blackboard Learn to D2L Brightspace.
For students to succeed in online learning, faculty must be encouraged to go back to class themselves.
Instructional design firm iDesign has unveiled a new competency-based education program for learner experience professionals.
A do-it-yourself mindset is changing the face of education worldwide, according to new survey results from Pearson and Harris Insights & Analytics. Learners are "patching together" their education from a "menu of options," including self-teaching, short courses and bootcamps, and they believe that self-service instruction will become even more prevalent for lifelong learning.
A damning report from the Century Foundation calls into question the continuing use of for-profit companies to deliver online courses in public institutions, referring to the companies as "wolves in sheep's clothing."
Even as the Century Foundation was doing its best to damn the practices of online program managers that work with colleges and universities to deliver online courses and programs, OPM pioneer 2U sought proactively to counter the report's punch by calling for greater visibility in online program management with a new "Framework for Transparency."
Students in the Los Angeles Community College District now have access to online tutoring to augment on-campus tutoring services.
Chegg is growing its learning platform with the acquisition of Thinkful, an online learning company specializing in bootcamp-style tech training.
Coursera has introduced Coursera Labs, a new offering that allows learners to work hands-on with almost any third-party software application, without any environment setup or software downloads.
Arizona State University is finding out what refugee farmers in Uganda and online course creators have to teach each other about making do with very little.
Masterclass co-founder Aaron Rasmussen is turning his attention to making introductory college courses more affordable for students. His new venture, dubbed Outlier.org, is launching online courses for Calculus I and Introduction to Psychology this fall.
Capella University has issued a report of findings based on five years of learning outcomes from its competency-based education or "direct assessment" program. According to the fully online institution, CBE students have a higher two-year persistence rate than peers following traditional programs; they're getting through their courses of study at a faster pace; and they pay less in tuition and also borrow less.
A new partnership between Southern New Hampshire University and Salesforce will give students the opportunity to earn college credits for completing Salesforce training badges.
The top five free online courses of all time follow no pattern whatsoever. One covers programming, two are about natural sciences and two others examine brain topics from very different perspectives, and they come from universities all over the world. But all five have one thing in common: They've been judged as the best-ranked by the people who have taken the classes and voted on them through Class Central.
Making videoconferencing available to students who can't attend class in person can improve attendance and student satisfaction, according to a two-year project that took place at Indiana University.
Recently, GitHub announced integrations between GitHub Classroom and popular learning management systems Google Classroom, Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace and Moodle, enabling the automatic syncing of students from the LMS platform to GitHub Classroom.
This year coding bootcamps are expected to graduate more than 23,000 developers, an overall growth rate of 705 percent since 2013, according to a recent report by Course Report, and an increase of 49 percent over 2018.
This week, Google introduced Assignments, a revamp of its Course Kit toolkit (in beta last year), designed to streamline the process of collecting and grading student work.
A new report has provided SWOT analyses of seven regions around the world related to digital and distance education. The bottom line: While online learning is on the rise everywhere, programs and courses show great unevenness because of a lack of standards.
The U.S. Department of Education is allowing California's new process for students receiving federal aid despite a change in ED regulations that would have impacted 80,000 online students.
2U is partnering with the London School of Economics and Political Science to offer the company's first online undergraduate degree program.
Boston University's Questrom School of Business has partnered with edX to create a fully online Master of Business Administration with a total tuition cost of $24,000.
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has launched a new set of courses through Coursera that will help prepare non-technical people to tackle technical master's degrees.
Education technology company Sonic Foundry recently announced integration between its video platform and learning management system Blackboard Learn Ultra.
Recent reporting by Class Central shed light on a new initiative in Europe among MOOC providers and the universities they work with to launch a program for creating portable credentials for learners. The European MOOC Consortium announced its Common Microcredential Framework in April.
Remote proctoring company Proctorio has added two plagiarism detection tools to its Learning Integrity Platform.
Blackboard has introduced the Blackboard Reporting Stack Developer Tier, the first release on the Blackboard Data platform, which gives colleges and universities direct access to data sets to analyze their learning ecosystem and support institutional goals.
Blackboard's Ally accessibility solution is now available for D2L's Brightspace learning management system.
Moving a course from brick-and-mortar to online requires rethinking how you deliver content, replicate in-class interactions and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Canvas and Proctorio are partnering to launch new solutions to help students and teachers identify plagiarism.
California's community college system has issued 70 grants totaling $27.5 million to help its colleges develop and strengthen career education programs that can be taken online.
South Carolina's Claflin University is working with ed tech startup Upswing to offer a variety of support resources for its online students.
A new collaboration between edX, Arizona State University and MIT has resulted in an online master's degree program in Supply Chain Management that stacks credits from both universities.
In an effort to expand access to online learning, the University of North Texas is partnering with Coursera to offer non-credit courses in the massive open online format.
Online institution Capella University is opening its first brick-and-mortar Campus Center.
Amazon Web Services is releasing three new badges focused on robotics, augmented reality and machine learning.
A new survey from learning platform edX has identified two major skill areas where respondents reported feeling a lack of proficiency in their jobs: data sciences, and business and soft skills.
The University of San Diego Division of Professional and Continuing Education is working with online coding school Thinkful to provide job training for high-demand tech careers in the greater San Diego area.
In spite of the notion that students could conceivably take online courses from an institution anywhere in the world, two-thirds stick close to home — choosing a college or university within 50 miles of where they live, according to an annual survey of online students done by Wiley company Learning House.
For the last five years, Gallup has surveyed a national sampling of 75,000 college graduates to understand their post-college "well-being and workplace engagement." Recently, the survey company did the same specifically for graduates of Western Governors University.
Does online learning spend more on technology and less on people? That's the latest question posed by Eduventures Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett, in an essay published on the Encoura website.
Today, Western Governors University is launching a new competency-based series of courses through an independent entity. According to the institution, the courses to be offered through WGU Academy, as it's called, are intended for students who need a little extra help before they're ready for college.
A new report from Strada Education Network offers key takeaways from last fall's Online Student Success Symposium, a two-day workshop focused on challenges, innovative practices and future opportunities in online learning.
Purdue University is expanding into the corporate learning realm with two new deals with Fortune 500 corporations Cisco Systems and Eli Lilly and Co. The institution worked with each company to create custom courses for their employees, with a focus on providing high-quality content in a flexible online format.
Colorado State University's College of Business has set up a pilot for what it calls a first for a business school: a blended classroom that connects on-campus and remote students in real time. The approach uses technology from mashme.io for live connectivity and collaboration.
A Wisconsin university has signed on with an online bootcamp to provide crash courses in in-demand tech skills to address the state's job training needs. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Continuing Education is working with coding school Thinkful on the initiative.
The Christensen Institute has weighed in on the potential for coding and computer science bootcamps to disrupt traditional higher education. In a new report, "Betting on Bootcamps," the organization, which focuses on "disruptive innovation," has offered five scenarios for the future of these short-term, workforce-aligned training programs that emphasize professional success.
Arizona State University is joining forces with The Rise Fund to launch InStride, a new partnership program with employers to provide opportunities for employees to obtain a university education.
Udacity is launching a new Nanodegree program on the foundations of C++, the programming language used to code self-driving cars, robotics and other complex autonomous and artificial intelligence software systems.
Computer-based testing center company Pearson VUE will be embedding new identity verification into its remote testing service.
Arizona State University intends to co-launch a for-profit company to expand the number of partnerships with corporations for its education programs.
In a typical online course, students are more likely to interact with course materials — 52 percent of the time — than they are with faculty, other students or staff, according to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Where faculty are compelled to work with instructional designers on development of their online courses, students have better outcomes, according to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research
Students who takes classes fully online perform about the same as their face-to-face counterparts, according to 54 percent of the people in charge of those online programs. Another 11 percent of "chief online officers" said the online students did better; and 35 percent said they did worse. Those results came from a recent survey done by Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Fully online courses are more likely to drive enrollment growth, according to a recent survey of institutions from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central, has been tracking the machinations of the MOOC business since before it was a business. Here, he provides perspective on the revenue side of open and online courses.
How long is a credit hour? That's the question at the heart of a discussion going on in a committee of distance learning influencers who are part of a negotiated rulemaking process that has met for the last three months to set out a proposal for federal regulation on accreditation for the U.S. Department of Education.
Purdue University will be working with Chegg, a company that produces online homework help among other lines of business, to amplify its Online Writing Lab services.
Could online learning help institutions provide a lower-cost education to more students? That's a question that Richard Garrett, Eduventures chief research officer, examined recently in a brief on the Encoura website. What's needed, Garrett concluded, is a "creative [blend] of in-person and online learning" within institutions to "produce the best mix of cost reduction and high quality."
A "data point" study by the National Center for Education Statistics reported that about a third of high school students in the 2009 to 2013 cohort took dual enrollment classes, mostly at their own schools.
A survey of chief academic officers at public colleges and universities found that while most online courses are taught by full-time faculty, their preparation for and oversight in doing so is highly inconsistent. The survey was undertaken by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities working in tandem with Learning House, a Wiley division that provides online program management services.
Blackboard has announced the execution of a definitive agreement to sell its Transact business unit to private equity firm Reverence Capital Partners.
Digital academic program management provider 2U is collaborating with LinkedIn and the We Company to give students and faculty in its partner institutions access to new resources.
University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan recently announced plans for the five-campus university to launch an online college intended for adult learners.
The University System of Maryland is experimenting with the use of massive open online courses to accelerate the path to an advanced degree — and the work has shed light on surprising new benefits of the MOOC format.
In a recent survey, community college students cited online learning as one of their top five challenges to success. Conducted by researchers from North Carolina State University, the Revealing Institutional Strengths and Challenges Survey polled 50,097 students at 10 community colleges across the United States on the challenges they face in five areas: academic support services; campus environment; finances and financial aid; succeeding in their courses; and work and personal issues.
Instructure, maker of the Canvas learning management system, announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire e-portfolio and student success company Portfolium.
Nonprofit Hypothesis is offering an app that allows for “open annotation” of web content. The organization is especially interested in wooing educational users (both K-12 and higher ed) to serve as test pilots.
Florida International University is testing out the use of a virtual learning assistant pegged as "artificial intelligence tutoring" in an online program. The university has begun a pilot with Cognii, an education technology company that uses natural language processing to interact with the student as he or she learns a particular topic, gets assessed on comprehension and receives coaching to master the concepts.
A publishing company that creates digital learning experiences has introduced a new course to help students navigate through difficult obstacles on their path to graduation. Perceivant launched reMIND, which is designed to improve the success of first-generation, low-income college students but is applicable to all undergraduates.
A look back at the topics that resonated most over the last year
From artificial intelligence to STEM education, these technologies and topics are worth paying attention to this year.
Ever-increasing numbers of universities and colleges are teaming up with boot camps to deliver tech training. Does your campus need one too?
A Washington, D.C. blizzard was bad enough to knock a day and a half off of the first three-day effort to dig into work on proposed regulations for federal student aid programs. The regulations, authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act, are being undertaken by a "negotiated rulemaking" committee that brings together various stakeholders to hammer out language that the U.S. Department of Education is expected to use for two regulatory areas: accreditation and innovation.
Coursera has partnered with 15 universities to develop a portfolio of health-related online courses to help address the global shortage of skilled workers in the healthcare industry.
In our latest Teaching with Technology Survey, the vast majority of faculty members said they teach in either a fully online or blended format.
EdX has gone public with its latest monetization plans. In an effort to develop a "sustainable long-term business model," the MOOC provider has made changes to both its free and paid options for courses.
Coursera today launched a three-course specialization that lays the groundwork for certification in SAS analytics skills. The SAS Programming Specialization "takes learners from the basics through what they need to become SAS certified," according to a news announcement.
Gen Zers aren't shy about saying money motivates them to learn. According to a survey conducted online for LinkedIn in October among 3,072 adults working full time, the top two reasons these individuals consider learning important is to improve at their jobs and to make more money.
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and College Consortium recently hammered out an online course-sharing initiative. The program is intended to help the private schools increase course access to students, with all kinds of benefits.
The share of college students taking online courses has grown, up by about 6 percent, even as the overall number of people enrolled in higher education institutions dropped by about half a percent. According to preliminary numbers issued by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, of the 20.1 million students enrolled in fall 2017, 6.7 million were taking at least one distance education class, representing 33 percent of the total — a boost from 31 percent in the previous year.
The University of Oxford's Saïd Business School is using cutting-edge videoconferencing technology to connect students and academic scholars in a truly global classroom.
Microsoft has introduced a new series of open access courses on cybersecurity that can be taken for free or, for more formal recognition, as a certificate program for a fee. The Microsoft Professional Program Cybersecurity track includes 12 courses — 10 of which must be completed successfully to earn the certificate. The program is hosted on edX and includes labs, community interaction and quizzes. Content is delivered online through videos.
Facebook is launching Learn with Facebook, a career development site offering training, tools and resources aimed at helping people access new job opportunities.
Education technology company Blackboard has introduced enhancements to the Ultra Experience version of Blackboard Learn, its learning management system, including integration with Ally, an accessibility checklist tool.
Southern New Hampshire University, which in a few short years has transformed itself into an online learning powerhouse, is merging with LRNG, a nonprofit organization focused on workforce and education needs of urban communities.
Online program manager 2U has signed a 15-year contract extension with one institutional client and announced a new suite of online "short courses" with two others.
South Carolina has introduced free coding education for all of its residents through an agreement between the state's Department of Commerce Office of Innovation and Build Carolina, a nonprofit that generates internships, apprenticeships and other education endeavors in innovative fields.
The University of North Dakota has teamed up with for-profit training company Woz U to provide short-term technology education programs. The institution is including the courses provided by Steve Wozniak's education company as part of its "personal & professional development" catalog.
A research project at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is exploring the use of flipped teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.
The University of Colorado Boulder has formally introduced a "remote presence" technology to enable students who can't be physically present in a course to attend remotely. Kubi is a robotic neck that holds a tablet and is controllable by the remote user to allow him or her to look around the room through a Zoom videoconference meeting.
Over the past five years, the higher ed LMS market for institution-wide adoptions in the United States and Canada has become increasingly dominated by "the Big Four": Instructure Canvas, Blackboard Learn, D2L Brightspace and Moodle, according to a 2018 analysis from e-Literate's Phil Hill.
The Khan Academy has launched a new series of videos focused on civics for students in K-12 and higher education — and anybody else interested in learning how government works in the United States.
YouTube, a Google company, has announced plans to invest $20 million in YouTube Learning, an initiative hinted at during the summer. The goal: "to support education-focused creators and expert organizations that create and curate high-quality learning content on the video site."
Drexel University created an open source website to showcase leading technologies, practices and research in virtual education.
Even as online enrollments continued growing (3 percent last year) while overall higher education enrollments fell, a new survey among deans and directors has uncovered a "mismatch" between the online programs they help deliver and student preferences. These kinds of disconnects, according to a report on the findings, result in "mass-market opportunities that are being lost" by the institutions. The project was undertaken by the Association for Continuing Higher Education and Learning House.
A new initiative at Trinity College is tasked with preparing students for the digital workplace of the future. The college has partnered with Infosys, a provider of consulting, technology and next-generation services, to establish the Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative.
Learners who complete a M.I.T.x. MicroMasters credential in Data, Economics, and Development Policy or Supply Chain Management can now apply their work toward a Master of Liberal Arts degree at Harvard Extension School.
Online learning destination EdX today announced nine new master's degree programs, which offer a top-ranked, high-quality alternative to an on-campus degree at a fraction of the cost, according to the company. Three of the programs, in fact, are from top-10-ranked institutions and priced at under $10,000.
A new two-year online college opening in January 2019 promises to instill the "future-proofed" skills students will need for management jobs that are ubiquitous and growing. Intended for working adults in the United States, Foundry College will be granting free tuition for the entire two years for its first cohort.
Some of the University of Michigan's most innovative strategies for online learning are based on values held throughout its 200-plus year history. Here, U-M's associate vice provost for academic innovation explains why Michigan Online — a relatively recent initiative — brings communities of motivated learners together, both to learn together and to apply their knowledge to solving significant problems.
Houston Community College launched a new online college, HCC Online, with 31 fully online programs, including 15 associate degree-level and 16 certificate offerings in both academic and workforce areas.
For Puerto Rico's Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, the process of restoring campus systems after Hurricane Maria led to new opportunities for active learning and community engagement.
A new self-evaluation tool from the Online Learning Consortium measures the services and supports in place for online students.
In an effort to increase degree attainment for non-traditional students, Ohio's Central State University is rolling out Oracle's Student Management product for student recruiting, engagement and support.
Blackboard is rebranding its open source learning management system. The LMS formerly known as Moodlerooms will now be called Blackboard Open LMS. The company said it's also "accelerating investment and development of the product."
The University of Pennsylvania will become the first Ivy League college to offer an online bachelor's degree program in the fall of 2019.
This coming January, the University of Oregon is launching its first coding bootcamp: a 24-week, part-time web development program geared toward adult learners and working professionals.
Washington State University has made a deal with Examity to use its online proctoring platform exclusively for up to 18,000 exams per year. And that number is expected to grow by 20 percent over the next seven years, according to a news announcement.
When you can bring huge numbers of students together with lots of well-branded universities and global enterprises seeking a highly skilled workforce, could those linkages be strong enough to forge a new future for massive open online courses?
The latest version of ProctorU's Live+ online proctoring solution is using artificial intelligence to add a "second set of eyes" to live human proctoring.
In a recent survey from Champlain College Online, 41 percent of respondents said they would consider returning to college for a cybersecurity degree or certificate in order to prepare for a cybersecurity job. And 72 percent would be willing to do the same if their current employer would pay for their training.
Columbus State Community College created a multimedia e-book for English composition students that reduces textbook costs and reimagines the ways learners engage with course material.
When Arizona State University Online students hit the biology lab, they head to their locker, don a lab coat and gloves and start following through on the exercises they've been assigned, perhaps taking blood samples from basketball players to measure their blood glucose levels, using confocal microscopy to help a farmer save his crop from a mysterious plant disease or sequencing DNA. Except these students haven't left their own study spaces. They're tackling these activities through virtual reality, which means they can take as long as they want, repeat the activity multiple times and get feedback from the software when they get something right or wrong.
Education technology company ProctorU announced that it has integrated automated online proctoring into Pearson's MyLab product set.
A study undertaken jointly by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and education technology companies Blackboard and VitalSource found that early activity with digital tools is a "strong predictor" of passing a class — even more so than the grade point average a student enters the class with.
IBM is introducing two new Professional Certificate programs on the edX platform, focused on emerging tech in artificial intelligence: deep learning and chatbots.
In time for back-to-school season, Google has polished its education offerings. Changes include updates to Classroom, Google Docs, its virtual reality offerings and teacher training.
GitHub has released four new courses on its Learning Lab, an online learning hub intended for people "of all skill levels."
The Certified Lesson Planning Specialist is a set of online courses designed for educators who want to see what flipped classes look like and hear from peers about the reasons for their instructional choices.
In the wake of news of its split from Moodle, Blackboard has reaffirmed its commitment to its Moodle-based Software-as-a-Service product and the open source community.
Open source software company Moodle today announced it is ending its partnership with Blackboard.
The University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science is launching its first fully online master's degree. Delivered on Coursera, the online Master of Computer and Information Technology costs a total of $26,300, about a third of the cost of its on-campus equivalent.
Loyola Marymount University is rolling out the Echo360 cloud-based video platform in more than 100 classrooms. Key factors behind the implementation include the need to provide students with consistent, on-demand access to their courses on any device, as well as ease-of-use for faculty, according to a news announcement.
The University of Phoenix has signed a four-year deal to scale up its use of Blackboard Learn with the Ultra experience across the institution. The implementation is expected to be complete in the first half of 2019.
The Online Learning Consortium has introduced a series of original reports to keep people in education up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of digital learning. The first report covers accessibility and addresses both K-12 and higher education. The series is being produced by O.L.C.'s Research Center for Digital Learning & Leadership.
Google is seeking beta testers for Course Kit, a free toolkit that uses Google Docs and Google Drive to create and collect assignments, give feedback to students and share course materials within the learning management system already being used.
At the BbWorld conference taking place this week in Orlando, Blackboard introduced a new version of CourseSites, a free platform for individual instructors to deliver e-learning.
Coursera is now allowing for A/B testing on its MOOC platform. This lets instructors and researchers test a single variable to see how it affects some aspect of the course, such as participation. As a Coursera blog article explained, the testing is done by "randomizing enrollees into different versions of the same course" and then seeing what impact the change-up makes on the "learning outputs."
What do students want in the learning activities for their online STEM courses? They'd prefer more real-life problems to solve and instructional resources such as simulations, case studies, videos and demonstrations, according to a research project from the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida
As colleges and universities seek innovations that will allow them to address their current crop of challenges — a growing number of non-traditional students, a bigger emphasis on workforce preparation, the use of data and new technologies to improve learning — accreditors can help or hinder those efforts. A new report from the Christensen Institute has suggested that until accreditation bodies do a better job across the board of helping their institutions by supporting innovation, they're just getting in the way and allowing unaccredited schools to hold the competitive advantage.
Five organizations with expertise in online education have collaborated on a new resource for students looking for online programs. Together, Berkeley College, the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, the Online Learning Consortium, Quality Matters and the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies formulated a list of questions students should ask themselves in order to find an online program that best fits their needs.
Starting this fall, Google's IT Support Professional Certificate will be available through more than 25 community colleges in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, California and New York. The company's charitable arm, Google.org, is funding workforce development nonprofit J.F.F. to help community colleges integrate the certificate into their IT education programs.
In spite of the fact that nine in 10 people believe online and distance learning programs will grow in popularity over time, seven in 10 don't think that students can a get a "true college experience" from an online-only program. That drops to five in 10 for those students who have attended a blended learning course. Those results surfaced in "Online Education Trendspots," a survey intended to understand experiences and perceptions of online or distance education programs.
Class Central recently made a list of all the courses it could locate that are part of for-credit programs and are still free to access. There are 370 of them, according to the company, which operates an online MOOC search engine and curates a MOOC catalog. The search found offerings from 49 different universities, with subjects "spanning technology, business, the arts and engineering."
In a survey of 1,500 "past, present and prospective fully online students," most are taking advantage of — or want — the option to use smartphones or tablets for their class work. Among current and past students, 67 percent completed at least some of their online coursework on a mobile device. The research was conducted by Learning House and Aslanian Market Research.
In a survey of 1,500 online students, most considered the value of their degree equal to or greater than the cost they paid to take it. Among those who have attended face-to-face and online courses, the majority said that online learning is as good as or better than attending courses on campus. The survey was conducted by Learning House and Aslanian Market Research.
MOOC provider edX will be moving away from its current model of offering almost everything free. The nonprofit announced last month that the decision was intended to help it and its partners "achieve sustainability." The first charge to be introduced is a "modest" support fee, according to a blog post on the change.
Google and Udacity have teamed up to offer 12 free career courses for recent graduates, mid-career professionals and those re-entering the workforce. The duo tested out the concept in March, when Udacity launched a "Networking for Career Success" course for 60,000 "Grow with Google" learners in Europe and the United States.
An online educator offers a way to get your e-mails noticed — and get a few laughs.
A new report has recommended continuation of a pilot to allow high school students to use Pell grants to cover the costs of college courses. The Alliance for Excellent Education is pushing Congress to consider the test involving early college high schools and dual-enrollment programs because it believes the move could boost college enrollment and completion.
The California State University and California Community Colleges systems have teamed up to launch a new online course finder that will provide students enrolled at either set of institutions access to more than 10,000 online, transferable classes. "Finish Faster," as it's called, is part of the Online Education Initiative, a collaborative effort among several community colleges in the state to push students to finish their educational goals faster.
The University of Michigan's Office of Academic Innovation has launched a new portal, Michigan Online, to bring all of the university's digital learning opportunities together in one place. The new site serves as gateway to more than 120 programs, including massive open online courses, certificates, teach-outs, specializations, Xseries courses, micromasters and more.
Western Governors University made the offer for people who want to earn their bachelor's or master's degree in education and aren't already enrolled there.
A new nonprofit has formed to focus on "identifying and supporting global standards for flipped learning and related active learning instruction." Known as the Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences, the organization was created out of the Flipped Learning Global Initiative's Global Standards Project, an effort to establish an international framework for flipped learning.
New tools are helping colleges and universities tackle the accessibility of instructor-created content, student coursework, note-taking and more.
Research suggests that blended learning is more effective than both face-to-face and online education, according to a new e-book released by the Online Learning Consortium and academic publisher Routledge.
D2L has updated its learning management system. The "Emerald Release" of Brightspace offers new analytics features, improvements to the user experience and functions to expedite use of the LMS by educators.
Less than a year after Rice University in Houston announced plans to introduce a new online master of business administration with program management company 2U, the institution said it would work with the company to deliver master's-level "online short courses" in business and management as well. The first short course to be offered by Rice and 2U will be project management, expected to launch this fall.
All college students in one Canadian province will receive access to Lynda.com courses. The Ontario government has signed an agreement with LinkedIn, a Microsoft company that owns Lynda.com, to provide skills training through LinkedIn Learning that will help post-secondary students "prepare for the jobs of the future."
Blackboard today introduced Blackboard Ally for Web, a solution for assessing and improving the accessibility of institutions' websites. The tool expands on Blackboard's Ally product (launched last year), which focuses on the accessibility of course materials in learning management systems.
Cornell University's Department of Sociology is offering five large introductory courses that have been reimagined as part of the College of Arts and Science's Active Learning Initiative. The initiative is remaking discussion sections and lectures, in part by better relating them to one another. Other changes include clicker polls, short data analysis assignments and "think-pair-share" activities.
Gale has updated its resources to be compliant with Learning Tools Interoperability 1.0 standards and Deep Linking from the IMS Global Learning Consortium. The move enables single sign-on and allows instructors to embed content from their library's Gale collections to into any learning management system that supports the standards, including Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Schoology and more.
The Statistics and Data Science Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is launching a new online micromasters in statistics and data science. Currently under development by M.I.T. faculty, the program will be available through edX in the fall and will feature a curriculum covering foundational knowledge of data science's methods and tools, in-depth coverage of probability and statistics and opportunities to experiment with data analysis techniques and machine learning algorithms.
A study at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that in a health science course following the flipped classroom model, there was no statistically significant differences in test scores or students' assessments of their course, compared to a traditional lecture course.
Crypto currency is funding development of ODEM, an "on-demand" education marketplace with aspirations of replacing or supplementing a college education. ODEM, which deals in digital tokens on several crypto-currency trading platforms, recently announced completion of its "crowdsale," selling more than 100 million ODEM tokens, equivalent to about $9.6 million at the current trading rate. The company said the proceeds will be used to fund on-going development of a blockchain-based service that brings students, instructors and other professionals together online to buy and sell education.
Many postsecondary professional schools are recognizing that they must develop innovative programs to address the changing environment that surrounds them as well as the new requirements their graduates currently face. Here, CT talks with Dean and Professor of Information Thomas A. Finholt at the University of Michigan School of Information to find out what changes UMSI is anticipating.
Universities that contract with an online program management company tend to outperform those that go it on their own, according to research by Eduventures. On average, schools working with O.P.M. providers have seen a five-year online enrollment increase significantly above that of peers.
Online courses are associated with higher retention and graduation rates, increased access and cost savings of as much as 50 percent, according to a new study from Arizona State University.
NYC Data Science Academy, a provider of bootcamp-style data science and data engineering training in New York City, has launched a remote option for students who are not able to attend in-person classes. The Remote Intensive Bootcamp offers live-streamed lectures plus access to prerecorded modules and more than 1,000 practice questions. Students attend full-time, five days a week; the first cohort began this week and runs through June 29.
D2L's Brightspace learning platform now features a variety of ways to organize and manage faculty and staff professional development. Bringing these capabilities into Brightspace eliminates the need to maintain a separate learning management system for faculty development, according to the company. "Instructors and staff can use the same learning system to develop their professional skills that their learners are using — which saves organizations money, resources, budget and time,” explained John Baker, president and C.E.O. of D2L, in a statement.
EdX has its "MicroMasters" program. Now Coursera has introduced the "MasterTrack." The massive open online course provider recently announced that it will pilot three MasterTrack certificate programs in coming months: one at the University of Michigan and two others at the University of Illinois. The news came during Coursera's partners conference, hosted at Arizona State University. The idea: to parcel up degrees in small, more digestible chunks for prospective students.
MOOC provider turned for-profit educational provider Udacity has launched a new "School of Artificial Intelligence," which features four "nanodegrees" covering AI and machine learning. Each program has tuition and a set period in which to participate and complete the lessons. The courses consist of video lectures, personalized project reviews and a dedicated mentor. Those who successfully finish the program receive certification.
In an effort to provide a more inclusive learning environment for students, the Utah Education Network has partnered with Blackboard to roll out the company's Ally product at nine universities across the state. Ally integrates with an institution's learning management system and automatically checks course materials for common accessibility issues.
The majority of online education leaders agree that most relied-upon metrics currently in use by online programs are student retention and graduation rates and student course/program evaluations, according to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research. While those two indicators topped the list by far, other quality measures, such as faculty training, summative student assessment, program reputation and external rankings, were less commonly cited by the survey respondents.
When instructional designers are involved in online course design, student-to-student interaction goes up, according to a new survey of online education leaders from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research. The survey compared reported student interaction levels at institutions where instructional design support is required for online course development vs. those where such support is absent or optional. Perhaps not surprisingly, respondents perceived interactivity to be significantly higher for the former.
Asynchronous discussions and group projects are the most important techniques currently used for online learning, according to a new survey of online education leaders from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research. When asked which online learning methods were most important at their institutions, respondents pointed to those two activities first, followed by problem-based learning, quizzes and research projects.
When asked what tools and technologies they would most like to adopt for their online programs, online education leaders cited adaptive learning and learning analytics as their most wanted tech, according to the latest Changing Landscape of Online Education report, a joint initiative of nonprofit Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Infusing online courses with a little fun can make a big difference in engaging and motivating students.
Following a semester-long pilot of Blackboard's Ally solution for accessible course content, the University of California, Berkeley is expanding its use of the technology across campus. The rollout will begin this fall, and by the end of next year, the system will provide accessible course materials to more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students, according to a news release.
When MOOCs generated a huge demand for video production at Princeton University, the institution responded with organizational change, an AV upgrade and a new commitment to sharing campus resources.
Oral Roberts University built a Global Learning Center that combines anytime, anywhere access to information, course materials and streaming media with a deep dive into augmented and virtual reality.
MIT's Connected Learning Initiative has won the King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The project uses pedagogical design and technology to improve the academic prospects of students underserved students in India.
Online learning company 2U is extending its partnership with WeWork by offering $390,000 in additional scholarships and apprenticeships for WeWork students. Twenty students in WeWork's Access Labs Initiative will be able reduce their tuition payment by half with 2U's new "No Back Row" Future Devs Scholarship. And 10 graduates of the program will receive paid internships at 2U.
The University Professional and Continuing Education Association has launched a program to recognize excellence in online higher education: the Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership Review. The program evaluates online education programs based on seven key elements, such as internal advocacy, entrepreneurial initiative and faculty support, and then issues Credly digital badges to qualifying colleges and universities.
A wiki developed by Contact Nord, a nonprofit funded by the government of Ontario, describes the "breakthrough innovations" being tested at open universities around the world. TeachOnline.ca profiles the work of 66 open universities dedicated to increasing access to courses for those who want higher education, no matter what their backgrounds.
Rice University and 10 other institutions in Europe, Asia and Australia have agreed to be part of a three-year "Credits for MOOCs" program that allows students from the participating schools to enroll in specific free online courses from the other member schools and receive transfer credits for passing them. When it's fully up and running, the pilot effort will feature from three to 10 credit-bearing online classes from each institution for the "virtual exchange." The program, which is in its second semester for the 2017-2018 academic year, currently features 18 courses.
Online education platform vendor Coursera has announced six new online degrees with major universities, more than doubling the number of degrees offered on its platform. The new degree programs, all expected to launch later this year or in 2019, will bring the number of programs offered on the platform to 10.
Video doesn't need to be a passive medium. Here's how to keep students watching and make them feel like they have a stake in their own learning outcomes.
The disregard for net neutrality voted into reality by current White House appointees may inspire commercial internet service providers to charge colleges and universities more to deliver their bandwidth-hungry videos, simulations and interactive programs to students. That would add additional pressure to fiscal management of online programs, according to a new report by U.S. higher education consultancy Hanover Research. Other challenges outlined in the report include shrinking enrollment; skepticism on the value of higher ed; and unsustainable tuition strategies.
A proposed budget by California's governor would allocate $10 million to set up a new online "intersegmental" higher education initiative. The project would fund competitive grants for intersegmental teams of faculty to create new and redesign existing STEM courses — both online and hybrid — in a program titled the "California Education Learning Lab." While the Legislative Analyst's Office found Governor Brown's goal of improving student outcomes "laudable," this approach isn't the answer, the office wrote in an analysis of the proposal. First, the analysis noted, the proposal doesn't address "the root causes of STEM disparities among student groups"; and second, it overlaps with other online initiatives already underway.
The Online Learning Consortium is launching a new program that provides hands-on research and networking opportunities for current and recently graduated doctoral students in the field of digital learning. Participants in the O.L.C. Emerging Scholars program can contribute to projects in the O.L.C. Research Center, collaborate with researchers at institutions and organizations around the world, and network with peers and mentors.
According to Class Central's annual review of MOOC stats and trends, massive open online courses are evolving from a technology expected to disrupt higher education to one that generates revenue with tiered services targeted to lifelong learners. MOOC platform Coursera, for example, saw a 70 percent increase in paying customers in 2017.
A new survey from Champlain College Online reported that while most adults see the value in higher education to prepare them for career advancement, concerns about college affordability are the major barriers they face in returning to school. Three-quarters of respondents said they didn't want to be "burdened with student debt." Seven in 10 said they couldn't afford college. A solid third said they couldn't afford to return to school because they were supporting their children's education.
MIT considers its ongoing experiment in "MicroMasters" to be a success. The first cohort of students is expected to graduate this June, earning a full master's degree in supply chain management at a much-reduced cost compared to tackling the program fully on campus. Announced in 2015, the program combines months of online work with a shorter period of on-campus courses. A group of 40 students from around the world have now begun their first residential semester in Cambridge at MIT's campus.
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has introduced a new effort to establish international standards for flipped training. The standards are meant to ensure that educators are trained using the most current global research and best practices in flipped learning, according to a news announcement.
A deal between 2U and WeWork will give students enrolled in 2U-produced online university programs access to physical co-working space around the world and provide scholarship funding for WeWork members interested in pursuing graduate degrees in 2U schools.
One of the founders and former CEO of online proctoring company ProctorU, Don Kassner, is launching a new venture: MonitorEDU, an online proctoring service powered by technology from ProctorExam. Kassner created Proctor U in 2008 with colleague Jarrod Morgan while serving as president of Andrew Jackson University, and left the company in 2016.
Shortly, colleges and universities that use the Blackboard Learn or Moodlerooms learning management systems will also be able to offer "day-one access" to digital curriculum for their students, through an agreement between Blackboard and VitalSource. Under the terms, faculty will be able to select content from VitalSource's catalog of digital textbooks and make them available to students on the company's digital textbook platform through their LMS from the first day of class.
Wake Forest University's School of Business is expanding its Master of Science in Business Analytics program through a partnership with online higher education provider Noodle Partners. The new offering will cater to working professionals who want to hone their big data skills in an online format.
Google today took the wraps off new security features for its education productivity suite, G Suite for Education, which includes Google Classroom, Docs, Sheets, Slides and a range of other tools.
Attempts by the faculty union at Eastern Michigan University to fight a recent agreement the institution made with online education services provider Academic Partnerships have failed. But an independent mediator warned campus officials that the university had better limit AP's services to the confines of its contract. Otherwise, faculty and administration could well find themselves back in arbitration.
According to the Babson Survey Research Group's latest annual report on distance education in the United States, online student enrollment has grown for the 14th year in a row. Nearly a million additional students took distance education courses in 2016 compared to 2012, and more than 30 percent of college students took at least one distance education course during the 2015-2016 academic year.
This week Google and Coursera will officially kick off the "Google IT Support Professional Certificate," a program that offers training to people who want to enter the information technology field but lack the time and resources for a formal education. A new series of massive, open, online courses available through Coursera and developed by Google experts will train beginners and prepare them for job readiness in eight to 12 months, according to the two companies.
Over the next year, the higher education segment can expect to see a major shift to blended learning; an innovative education stack from an existing institution to "rival" the bachelor's degree; and serious inroads to cross-border online learning. Those are the predictions for 2018 from Eduventures, a membership advisory service for colleges and universities.
According to a new report, the California State University system could do a better job of tracking enrollment and outcomes and helping students know what's available online.
The University of St Thomas will begin offering graduate certificates in STEM engineering education online this year.
Purdue's New U, the online institution formed from the university's acquisition of Kaplan University, is now going to be called "Purdue University Global."
Virtual reality, online learning, digital literacy and tech adoption concerns have all been among the most popular topics on our website.
A new report from the Community College Research Center has suggested that while a college degree or a certificate has an impact on earnings, the impact of stackable credentials is still iffy.
California may open an all-online community college by 2019, if a line item in the proposed budget by Governor Jerry Brown makes the final cut. California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley said the new institution would be targeted to offering short-term credential programs aimed at serving the working adults in the state who have some or no college experience and lack the time to enroll in a traditional community college. The goal: to help them earn higher wages.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will be offering a free online course on how to operate drones.
A report recently published by New America posed a set of questions related to how those policies affect the early education teachers who need to attain bachelor's degrees, especially in areas of quality and access — and whether online education could provide a leg up.
Following a nearly three-year pilot, Indiana University has chosen to adopt the proctoring platform Examity over other choices for its "flexibility, security and support."
The University of Southern California will be launching two new graduate degrees completely online.
Founded in 2014 by Colorado State University, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Florida, Unizin is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to improving the learning experience with technology and creating a common, interoperable infrastructure for education.
Online learning platform Udemy has partnered with Unity Technologies to create a series of online courses that teach developers how to build interactive 2D and 3D games with the Unity game engine.
In an effort to increase access to its bachelor's and graduate programs and improve time to degree, the University of Nebraska is partnering with iDesign to grow its online offerings.
The program allows students to take a mix of self-paced and traditional courses, as well as self-directed interactive assessments whenever they feel prepared to do so.
Fifty-three percent of students in a recent survey said they prefer classes that use digital learning tools, according to a new report from McGraw-Hill Education.
Faculty and students vary widely in their impressions of technology's impact on campus, and their expectations are evolving rapidly, according to research presented last week at the 2017 Educause Annual Conference in Philadelphia.
North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have teamed up to launch a competency-based teacher education program they hope will help address a widening teacher shortage in the state.
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is teaming with a private partner to launch a competency-based master's of education in online teaching program.
OLC's Quality Scorecards are worksheets that gives schools criteria and benchmarking tools to assess the effectiveness of their online instructional efforts.
Echo360 today announced a new video content management system (CMS) that combines lecture capture and active learning features with video management for a variety of campus needs.
Nonprofit consortium Unizin is expanding its suite of education technologies and services through two new partnerships with edX and Cengage.
D2L today introduced the Autumn17 release of its Brightspace learning management system. The latest features focus on flexibility and streamlined workflows, according to a news announcement.
A certification provider has begun issuing credentials via the blockchain, a technology that is becoming a new standard for ensuring trust and verification of data.
These two institutions faced the same goal — convincing all their instructors to use the learning management system. Here's what's working.
Binge-watching leads to poorer sleep, less family time in front of the TV and even less enjoyment of the content. But at the same time could it also generate better learning outcomes and higher completion rates?
Students taking courses through Excelsior College's CourXam platform can now take exams from anywhere using a computer, webcam and internet connection, thanks to a partnership between the institution's Center for Educational Measurement and online proctoring company ProctorU.
This fall, Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Sciences, a private, nonprofit higher education institution in Cincinnati, is rolling out a new learning management system from D2L.
MIT Professional Learning is launching a new program designed to offer organizations courses for their employees that feature project-based challenges designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty.
Lessons will train participants in smart transportation, including the software skills needed for building autonomous flight systems.
The University of Oklahoma and several other institutions recently held what they believe to be the first multi-state, multi-campus virtual reality class.
Barely a week after Apple unveiled its new augmented reality development framework, dubbed ARKit, for-profit online educational services provider Udacity has announced a new program for developers who want to learn how to use the framework to build AR apps for iPhone and iPad.
A new bootcamp is coming to America, this one by way of France. OpenClassrooms is an online program that offers certification tracks in development, product management and, soon, design.
The Online Learning Consortium is launching a new research center focused on digital teaching and learning.
A new online program from SAS provides training in big data management, advanced analytics, machine learning, data visualization, text analytics and communication skills.
Ohio University students and alumni will now have access to intensive online and on-site training in coding and other tech skills, thanks to a partnership with technology talent development company Revature.
Loma Linda University has tapped a private partner to help design an online bachelor of science nursing program that reduces tuition costs for students by nearly 50 percent.
Most faculty in our second annual Teaching with Technology Survey said they employ a mix of online and face-to-face instruction, and many are using the flipped model in their courses.
Video has become as ubiquitous in higher education classrooms as big screens in the fitness center and Hulu in residential halls, according to the latest results of Kaltura's "The State of Video in Education" report.
A recent survey of thought leaders in the nursing field revealed that nursing education programs are accelerating adoption of virtual simulation and other cutting-edge technologies.
A lack of widely available broadband is correlated to a smaller percentage of residents with college degrees or certificates. That's the suggestion of a presentation made recently in Florida to the Higher Education Coordinating Council.
A new online program from Rochester Institute of Technology launching on edX will help learners hone their "soft skills" — the interpersonal, communication and social intelligence skills that help build relationships, improve productivity and foster collaboration in the workplace.
Online proctoring and identity management company ProctorU today launched ProctorU Auto, an automated online proctoring solution that uses artificial intelligence to flag suspicious test-taking behavior in real time.
Ohio's Eastern Gateway Community College is turning to Barnes & Noble Education for an array of digital content and other services, including bookstore operations, learning management system, predictive analytics and digital courseware.
The Modern States Education Alliance, a group of public colleges and universities, has posted a set of on-demand college classes that wannabe-students can take for no cost, including digital textbooks used in the courses.
Kent State University is teaming up with Proctorio to protect the academic integrity of online exams in its undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs.
Purdue and Infosys will work together to develop course materials in digital agriculture, cybersecurity, biopharma analytics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
The Georgia Institute of Technology is opening the "Robotarium" this month to allow users from around the world to test out their code on a rotating pair of robot swarms.
Tulane University has tapped a private partner in an effort to expand and improve its online offerings.
Carnegie Mellon University has deployed an array of videoconferencing technologies in an effort to enhance the education experience for remote students and faculty.
These accelerated computer science education programs have grown 10-fold in five years and continue to attract more aspiring developers, according to a new study.
Ed tech companies Instructure, iDesign and Credly have partnered on Course Market, an online marketplace that works with higher education institutions to deliver workforce-relevant credentials and certificates to working learners.
The institution, one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, also launched a new online degree certificate for artists who want to teach.
Sinclair Community College's competency-based education program for online students forces candidates to write a "vision" statement, has disabled discussion forums in its courses and boots out students who don't make the 80 percent cut score. And its CBE students are credentialing at three times the rate of students in ordinary online programs.
The private Catholic university in Ohio saw 39 percent growth in its master's nursing program between 2011 and 2016 and a 62 percent growth in its RN-BSN programs over the same period.
COpilot now offers video-powered PD through Edthena. Educators can use the platform to upload videos of their classroom instruction and then share those videos with coaches who can give timestamped comments categorized as questions, suggestions, strengths and notes.
A shift to the cloud is causing market change for learning management systems, according to a new report from education technology research firm e-Literate.
There is no single best way to handle proctoring for digital courses, as this community college system pilot discovered.
Four higher ed IT leaders weigh in on the current state of education technology and what's ahead.
Students love to hear good news about how well they're doing in their courses or how their performance — good or bad — compares to other students in the class, according to a research project undertaken by Blackboard's analytics and research team.
Blackboard today unveiled Blackboard Instructor, a mobile app designed to help faculty manage their courses, engage students and complete course-related activities inside and outside the classroom.
This fall, courses delivered on the Open edX platform will be able to incorporate live, recorded or fully automated proctoring from online proctoring and identify verification company Examity.
D2L is rolling out a number of enhancements to its Brightspace learning management system with a new Summer17 release.
It's time to get serious about growing online education programs if your institution wants them to be sustainable. This Arizona State University research project is examining the costs and benefits of scaling digital learning in order to share replicable return-on-investment mechanics and tools for any school willing to take on the challenge.
Online students at Oregon State University will soon be able to perform lab experiments virtually, thanks to a new project with adaptive learning and instructional design company Smart Sparrow.
The University of Nebraska system has expanded its membership in the Unizin Consortium, with the University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska Medical Center joining Unizin founding member University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the nonprofit consortium.
Seeing a conflict between open and proprietary developments in educational technology and in society at large, Moodle founder Martin Dougiamas has started to refocus the open source learning platform's activities to do a more effective job of spreading openness.
With more than 1.3 million positions in computer and mathematical occupations expected to be open by 2022, the Kentucky Department of Education, Amazon Web Services, Project Lead the Way and others are taking action to build a pipeline of talent for a cloud-enabled future workforce.
The University of Arizona developed a toolkit to help new instructional designers and online instructors get up to speed in creating courses for students that might never show their faces on campus.
A professional development program operating in rural Maine was recently awarded a $1.85 million grant from the National Science Foundation to turn its hybrid video coaching program into an entirely online format. The Afterschool Coaching for Rural Educators in STEM teaches educators as well as librarians how to bring out-of-school STEM learning opportunities into their communities.
Giving students "voice, choice and connectivity" will help them gain a sense of belonging in a group even when they're states and countries apart.
Follett, a provider of education technology, services and content, this week is rolling out a new tool, Collections by Destiny, which will allow librarians, teachers and curriculum staff to share free or purchased resources across a district, schools or between users.
Younger students are more interested in alternatives to traditional degree offerings, such as microcredentials, certificates and other short-term opportunities, according to a new report from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) and Blackboard.
More than two-thirds of college and university deans in a recent survey believe that in 10 years, the United States higher education system will be much different than it is today. But many are also worried about their own institution's to respond to change.
Online students crave interaction with classmates and instructors, according to a new report from Learning House and Aslanian Market Research.
A "gameful" instructional tool created at the University of Michigan is now available for purchase by K–12 schools and universities across the country.
Student engagement and safety platform ClearScholar Friday launched a new feature set for institutions that leverages student data to deliver targeted content to individual students. ClearScholar Align, as the solution is called, works by combining data from disparate college systems to build individual student “personas" that enable administrators to broadly and narrowly deliver content to students.
