Professional Education

Not long ago, I wrote a post about BlackboardPay, a card-based solution that can enhance the efficiency and ease of financial services at professional and career colleges in a way that represents students’ interests. You may have also heard, however, that there has been controversy surrounding another card-based solution in the news lately.  Below is a brief explanation that should help dispel misconceptions about this situation as well as provide insight into what an institution should look for when searching for a financial aid disbursement partner.

Financial Aid Disbursement Solutions

Currently, several companies’ financial aid disbursement solutions are built upon a model of charging fees on students’ bank cards and checking accounts designated to receive financial aid credit balances or refunds. This model has generated much controversy in recent months, as this approach, in addition to putting institutions at risk for not meeting federal disbursement regulations, is not designed to maximize the educational benefit of students’ financial aid. For a student on a tight budget, excessive fees add up and can significantly impact their higher education experience. Below, we offer 3 principles to keep in mind when selecting a partner to distribute financial aid:

1. Standards that Institutions should Seek in Financial Aid Disbursement Solutions “Traditional” fee-based banking models were never designed with the unique needs of students in mind, especially those receiving financial aid, and should be significantly modified.

Let’s face it – it’s not just the students checking their Facebook accounts and watching videos on YouTube these days.  So why wouldn’t we transition these tools to education delivery?  Looks like these worlds are crossing more often than we think!

With Dreamforce 2012 just a few weeks away, we’ve been thinking about ways attendees can get the most out of this year’s conference. Though attendees usually see a significant ROI on their time spent at Dreamforce, stop by to speak with us and hear about specific ways Blackboard clients (or those interested in learning more about our solutions) can take their Dreamforce experience to the next level.

1.  Learn how customers like M5 Networks are improving sales training with Blackboard

2. Watch a demo to see our training solutions in action

3. Have a one-on-one meeting with Salesforce MVP Matt Brown

Before you head to San Francisco for Dreamforce 2012, I also suggest checking out the list of sessions to see which presentations are most relevant to you and your industry. There are over 750 expert-led sessions this year, so be sure to plan out some of your must-see presentations ahead of time!

If you want to learn more about the ways you can enhance your Dreamforce experience with Blackboard, check out our resource page here or watch the video below:

And if you haven’t registered for Dreamforce yet, it’s not too late! Click here to learn about the special Blackboard discount code so you can register today.

Follow us on Twitter throughout Dreamforce with the hash tag #DF12 and at @BlackboardProEd, @lperlis, and @mattybme!

These days, many of us take PowerPoint and other slide-sharing tools for granted.  Presentations that feature slides have become so commonplace in colleges, boardrooms, and professional training environments that the phrase “death by PowerPoint” is not unfamiliar to those who feel inundated with slide-centric lectures.

But how can those of us in the military and government space ensure that we aren’t boring our audiences to death with slides, but are instead using PowerPoint to make presentations more engaging and memorable? A recent post by Federal Computer Week’s Steven Kelman titled “Confessions of a PowerPoint convert” offers some insights to help answer this question.

As a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, author of several books on public policy, and former Administrator at the federal Office of Management and Budget, Kelman can speak from many perspectives on the ways we learn and teach in the government space.  Kelman offers the following tips to government readers on delivering engaging, informational PowerPoints:

1. Minimize text on slides and use concise bullet points instead of paragraphs
2. Use different colored text to draw focus to specific content
3. Try animations (such as text zooming into view) to grab viewer’s attention
4. Focus on appealing visuals such as photos and charts – and don’t be afraid of image-only slides!

And what results did Kelman see when using PowerPoint for the first time in his classroom while following the guidelines above?  He states:

“I saw the first results while I was teaching, which was a dramatic increase in the amount of student notetaking. But I just got more detailed results — my students’ evaluations of the first classes where I used the PowerPoint presentations. My overall teaching ratings went up. But there was a very dramatic increase in one specific area: “Clarity of the main ideas presented in class.” With the slides, participants were able to absorb main points and themes better.

This has been a real eye-opener. I know some people believe slides inhibit learning. I am now inclined to think that, used well, they really do help learning. And this is with executives who are not part of the videogame, text-message generation. I haven’t even tried this yet on my twenty-something master’s students; this will happen when the semester starts in a few weeks. There is something here, I think, not just for professors, but for managers or anybody else trying to get messages across.”

Be sure to read the rest of Steven Kelman’s “Confessions of a PowerPoint convert” for his full thoughts on adopting slides in his presentations, and please share any additional PowerPoint tips you have with us in the comments below!

 

“Education without action is just entertainment.”

I recently heard the quote above, and it has got me thinking about ways Blackboard brings action to corporate education.  In general, it seems to me that increasing employee participation in training through teamwork and hands-on activities is one of the best ways to teach workers actionable skills they can immediately apply on the job.

Though Blackboard offers numerous solutions that can help companies bring more action to education, Blackboard Collaborate is specifically designed to help companies offer a more collaborative, interactive, and mobile learning experience.  Since content delivered through Collaborate often requires learner participation, you’ll keep everyone engaged like never before.

Here are just a few of my favorite ways you can leverage Blackboard Collaborate for more engaging, participatory corporate training:

• Mobile collaboration: Modern, active learners have a need for speed. Collaborate offers mobile-enabled web conferencing features that allow learners to join live meetings from iPhones or iPads and to interact via text chat and two-way audio.
• Voice board: Instructors and students alike can post and listen to voice messages within discussion boards, bringing group discussion to students even if they access training from different locations or at different times of day.
• Interactive whiteboard:  As one of the most disruptive elearning features found in Collaborate, the whiteboard allows faculty and students to collaborate in real-time to create course content.  With simultaneous presenters, you’ll have highly engaging discussions where everyone can contribute and participate.

Want to learn more? Visit our website to learn additional best practices for using Blackboard Collaborate, or contact us to request a demo!