Open education resources (OER) provide significant cost savings to low-income students and strengthen instruction and learning, according to a recent study from Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit that supports evidence-based institutional improvement. The study also examined, for the first time, OER-related costs and revenue for an institution. Developing an OER course averages $11,700 (including […]

What is the state of unstructured data on college campuses today? There is a huge proliferation of information produced, from emails to applications for financial aid and dorm rooms. Gartner estimates that upward of 80 percent of enterprise data today is unstructured. But the business strategy to capture this content and organize it for efficiency […]

Colorado Mesa University’s new campus ID platform tracks the most popular items in the dining hall, but more importantly, it tracks when students aren’t making it to the dining hall in the first place. “We have about 2,500 beds on campus, but if 2,500 people aren’t entering our dining hall during the first couple weeks […]

A Kentucky university saw Cohort Default Rates plummet and financial literacy improve almost immediately after implementing two programs that take different, but related, approaches to student success. At the end of 2013, the three colleges that now make up Sullivan University in Louisville had Cohort Default Rates of about 25 percent each. At the end of […]

Ten years ago, Auburn University began using E&I Cooperative Services for purchasing, a move that dovetailed perfectly with the school’s shift to a strategic sourcing model of procurement. As a result, Alabama’s second-largest university now has the time and money to build strong relationships among employees and further increase efficiencies, says Missty Kennedy, director of […]

Education played a key role in state and federal congressional races, and placed second among issues promoted in gubernatorial campaign ads. Twenty new governors took seats from incumbents, while Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives. Policy analysts said several gubernatorial candidates won on the promise of reforming higher ed systems to provide affordable […]

Veterans Lounge Niagara University (N.Y.) This lounge, which will be located in the university’s primary science building, comes after Victory Media recently recognized Niagara as one of the country’s top 10 small private schools for veterans and families. Size: 1,763 square feet Features: Meeting area and TV lounge with new furniture, computers, workstations, microwave and […]

Three months before going live with a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system—Workday— Indian River State College was missing one important piece: payment processing technology, specifically a cashiering product for in-person payments. “We would’ve been dead in the water,” says Amanda Bock, bursar. “The payment technology company [we reached out to] wasn’t even communicating with […]