The University of Puget Sound in February became the first higher ed institution to accept a gift of digital currency, when alumnus Nicolas Cary gave the Washington school 14.5 bitcoins—equal to $10,000. For the uninitiated, Bitcoin is a global, open source virtual economy created in 2009, and bitcoins are its cyber currency, used for electronic […]
University of Pennsylvania was one of Coursera’s first four partners, having started its open course initiative in April 2012. Today, it offers 25 courses from 10 of its 12 schools, and has logged 1.9 million enrollments. Edward Rock, director of open course initiatives at UPenn, is speaking on the evolution of MOOCs in higher ed […]
Workforce development has long been a bastion of the community college environment. But with student-loan debt topping $1 trillion and enrollments falling, many four-year colleges and universities are devoting more attention to the area, in part as a way to boost their own relevance within a challenging global economy. Because these programs tend to be […]
“Generation C” is demanding video in all aspects of their lives, including in their learning experiences. Universities ought to harness the power of academic video not only to meet these expectations, but to realize the power of lecture capture, personalized education, and flipped classrooms. In this web seminar, broadcast on August 20, 2013 and hosted […]
Online lectures, classroom capture, MOOCs, e-books and other digital content mean that questions about intellectual property rights are on the rise. Kevin Smith will help guide attendees through the legal landscape in his UBTech featured session “Yours, Mine or Ours? Intellectual Property in a Digital Age.” Smith is the director of copyright and scholarly communication […]
A Midwestern state university budgeted about $12 million for a major addition to its library several years ago. At the time, there was not a tightly controlled project planning process at the institution and the library’s plaza—already a major central gathering space on campus—was not included in the project budget. Officials thought they would raise $2.5 […]
These days, institutions can't say they fully "control" their recruitment and enrollment process—but they can adjust to how prospective students and their families are navigating it. Five years ago, RuffaloCODY set out to understand the student perspective by conducting what is now an annual survey of high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The goal was […]
For decades, academic libraries have been distinguishing elements of campuses across the nation. Providing abundant resources along with quiet environments conducive to individual study, these buildings withstood the test of time, serving the needs of students and faculty alike. Today, modern technology, along with rapidly changing student study habits and expectations, are significantly reducing the […]
Preparing to take a college-level course once meant simply heading to the campus bookstore and purchasing the textbook. Today, preparing for a course may require students to gather a wide variety of resources, both printed and digital. And while the printed items are still available at the bookstore, accessing a variety of digital materials is […]