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In 2010, Professor Sharon Feaster began offering Connect Anatomy & Physiology to her students as an extra study tool. Professor Feaster was hesitant to require McGraw-Hill Connect and have her students go to two course websites – Blackboard Learn and Connect – so she made it optional for students.

As soon as the Blackboard integration became available, she immediately jumped on board and started requiring her students to use McGraw-Hill Connect.  As a result, she experienced significant improvements in course and exam pass rates, demonstrating the effectiveness of Connect and LearnSmart on student learning.  In addition, she saw a 29% reduction in course withdrawals, which she assumes is a result of fewer students feeling compelled to withdraw because they were succeeding in the course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read this case study to find out why Professor Feaster credits Connect with having made a real difference for her students.

For years it seemed, the rest of the world was hooked on SMS – while Americans were slow to adopt the technology. But is that really true today?  Is the US still behind, or have we caught up?

Consider: of the 5.6 trillion text messages sent around the world last year, 2.3 trillion were sent by Americans – that’s over 40 percent of total global SMS traffic.

Consider: the average US mobile subscriber sent over 660 texts annually – that’s more per capita than any other country on Earth.

Those are some of the remarkable statistics you can find in this infographic from Blackboard Connect, “Rising Text: Do you have the tools to meet the challenge?”

A seismic shift has occurred in the way Americans communicate – and it’s happened while we weren’t watching.  Sure, if you pay a teenager’s cell phone bill, you won’t be surprised to learn that young people send over 3,400 texts every month. But did you know that 65 percent of Americans say they ‘need’ SMS, and 45 percent say they can’t live without it?

Guest blog post from BbWorld 2012 Blogger, JD Ferries-Rowe. For additional content, click here.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media with @NMHS_Principal
Talk about a change…this session is what keynotes should be: focused on education, challenging and inspiring, with real-world examples and a smattering of sappy inspirational videos.
The lead in was a challenge: It is a problem that those who are tasked with leading our schools, with developing 21st century skills are sometimes the least knowledgeable. While a few schools are reinventing themselves for the digital age, most are not.

We want our teachers to be adapters, communicators, learners, visionaries, leaders, models, collaborators, and risk-takers. — whew. When you look at that list, it is overwhelming. But imagine if we created a system where the teachers who left the profession left because they did not fit that model, not because they were drained from 45 days of examinations per year or because their checklist evaluations combined with a metric of student-value-add indicated that they were only so-so. Its a stretch goal, but its achievable.

How do we start? We start by getting teachers to share their visions…by getting teachers to converse with others…by using social media.

Interesting point: Education is changing (collaborative, student centered), the landscape is changing (content overload, distributed learning opportunities, free sources), the learners are changing (connected, social learners, gamers, tech-as-default) — but education keeps looking the same.
He preached the #digcit mantra and talked about PLNs

He showed the social media revolution YouTube video

This post was written by guest writer and BbWorld 2012 VIP Blogger, Lacie Crone.

Remember the days when student orientation began with “look to the left, now look to the right, our goal is that all three of you graduate.” No? That wasn’t the speech you heard? Me neither, until today. Conference keynote speaker, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski took the stage with a dynamic and engaging message of responsibility, creativity, innovation, and student success.

Before the keynote address began, I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Hrabowski in the green room. It was evident to me from the moment I shook his hand that we were in for a powerful afternoon. There are plenty people who can get on a stage with a well-written speech and with enough effort generate excitement. After all, we have how many products being sold on TV? This however, is not the case with Freeman Hrabowski; he is genuinely invested in his message and excited to share it with the everyone, particularly the next generation. While discussing student engagement and success, he shared a text message he had received the previous week from a former student. The message included words of thanks for previous encouragement she had received from him during her education. Included in the message was a picture of her employee ID…as a physician. As an undergraduate student she hadn’t believed that she had what it took to take on a medical career but credits her success in part to the consistently encouraging message she had received from him. How many university presidents do you think receive a text like that?

Once on stage, the magnitude of belief in his message was clear. After sharing some stories, and pointing out why he used stories instead of just concepts, he left us with the challenge to be the leaders who educate the campus leaders to elevate our student’s experience and success. We need to stop making decisions based on anecdotal information and mine Blackboard for the data: what works, what doesn’t, how does student engagement with the LMS relate to student success, and how do our students want to learn. We have been talking about access, but now it is time to be talking about success. Lastly, we must believe that the student to the left, the student to the right, and the student in the middle all have the power to succeed.

Don’t miss the opportunity to read about Dr. Hrabowski. You can also have the opportunity to become infected with his enthusiasm by watching this CNN interview.

As one of the leading education technology companies in the world, we strive to help you to address the evolving education needs of today’s students.  Just who are today’s students?

See how many you recognize:

 

 

Movie produced by JESS3

As digital natives become the majority in classrooms and lecture halls, we are at critical turning point in education.  What’s that light around the corner?

A world where everyone in education can access infinite teaching tools, information, and analytics from anywhere at any time.

A world where all kinds of education activities, from discussions to lectures to collaboration, can be done virtually.

A world where all students have numerous choices in subject and method.

Active learners are changing everything for the better. At Blackboard, we are active too—active providers of the technology and proactively connecting folks who support the needs of the active learners  who bring about change.

So, how will you go active?