Campus construction projects suggest growth and prominence in a time when higher education costs are rising, privatization is increasing and administrators are perpetually challenged to compete for resources and faculty. When projects are carefully managed, they suggest vibrancy and viability to your most important customers: students, their families and, of course, donors. Virginia Wesleyan University's 10-year […]
College classrooms of yore were often fortresses reinforced with concrete floors and walls. Listening to a lecture in such hard-surfaced rooms was like trying to decipher sound in an echo chamber. After years of complaints from students and faculty, many colleges and universities have begun upgrading classrooms and lecture halls by installing ceiling baffles, fabric-covered […]
More than half of the 40,000 students at California State University, Northridge, are first-generation. Three thousand are international. And every one of them belongs, says Paul Schantz, director of web and technology services in the Division of Student Affairs for CSUN. “We want students to feel like CSUN is their home,” Schantz says. “And if […]
Leaders of the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative strive to provide students with more than just college access and employment. Graduation and a well-paying career—in fields such as health care, education and industrial maintenance—top the list of goals for the low-income parents who participate. “We don’t just want to put people in minimum-wage jobs or in […]
What are the most prominent lingering concerns that campus IT administrators have about moving more data into the cloud? “Many clients do not know how to properly vet or qualify a commercial datacenter. Cloud hosting is much more than a cloud server. What additional security measures do they need? What certifications does the datacenter have? […]
For Gonzaga University, like many organizations, the move to the cloud was born out of need. One of this small institution's claims to fame is its stellar men's basketball team. As the 2017 NCAA Tournament approached, Information Technology Services staff at the Washington university knew on-premise web servers couldn't handle the upcoming traffic load, says Darren […]
Morgan Neville’s documentary Won’t you be my Neighbor? chronicles the first and most famous attempt to adapt video technology to educate. In an early scene shot in 1968, Fred Rogers, seated before a piano, explains the basis of his signature academic video-presentation style—the importance of establishing a dialogue to teach. Due to the limitations of […]
Although "intrusive advising" is rising on the list of higher ed buzzwords, this approach is likely more than a passing trend. As colleges strive for greater levels of student success, some are finding this strategy can bring higher retention rates and, in turn, help the bottom line. Intrusive advising isn't just a rebranding of traditional […]
Hampshire College students used math, microbiology and hydrology classes to test the quality of the water going in and out of the wetlands constructed as a part of a building project at the western Massachusetts campus. A Purdue University intern blogged, tweeted and emailed to apprise the Indiana campus' community of the progress on a […]
Better academic performance. Increased student retention and graduation rates. Improved sense of campus community. Online exclusive: Edtech providers on student/faculty ties These are just three benefits that closer ties among faculty and students can yield. Here are nine places to foster such connections. Service-learning sites Tactic: Engage with the community through formal and informal service-learning projects. […]
