With a new semester kicking off at many professional colleges and universities, we’ve
been thinking about the ways these institutions will evolve over the coming year.  There’s no doubt that technology will continue to play a pivotal role in the way career colleges educate learners – helping these schools maintain their leadership in leveraging technology for student success.

Here are the top five ways professional colleges and universities will continue to get the most out of technology in 2013:

MORE hybrid and online-only classes
Did you know that 30% of today’s higher education students take at least one class online? Recent studies show that those numbers are growing, and we believe professional and career colleges continue to lead in the pack when it comes to transitioning classes to the online environment. Of the many benefits to online learning, perhaps the most pertinent to career colleges is that e-learning will allow more non-traditional students to gain access to higher education.

MORE mobile course content
We’ve written before that nearly half of all students already use smartphones for school-related tasks, and with increasing adoption of smartphones and tablet PCs alike, we expect this number to grow in 2013.  Professional colleges and universities are already delivering campus news and information, as well as course content, on mobile devices, and we look forward to seeing how they develop mobile-specific content such as lectures and exam delivery this year.

As colleges and universities of all types continue to expand their online learning offerings, professional institutions continue to lead the way in adopting the latest technologies to enhance the educational experience. So, we asked some of our cutting-edge professional college and university clients about their journeys into online learning, and what ‘best practices’ and ‘lessons learned’ they uncovered along the way.

In our new infographic, we explore some of these findings, questions, tasks, and ‘bumps in the road‘ schools often face as they develop and execute an online learning strategy, such as:

• Creating a business plan
• Avoiding mission creep
• Knowing your market and how to reach it
• Preparing your faculty

As we prepare for another great year on the Next Level Learning blog, we wanted to look back at some of your favorite posts from 2012.  So, without further ado, here is a list of some of our most popular blog posts from the past year:

 

Career Colleges
Mulgrew: “The lecture does not work.” Do you agree? At this year’s Professional Colleges and Universities Summit, Frank Mulgrew of Post University discussed the disadvantages of passive learning at career colleges. This post explores his arguments as well as the important role active learning plays in professional education.

One of the best ways to reach today’s active, tech-savvy students is to deliver learning where students already are: on smartphones and tablets. Since studies show that smartphone users spend the majority of their phone time on apps, and nearly half of all students already use smartphones for school-related tasks, leveraging mobile platforms is an easy way for schools to connect with students whether they are on campus or on the go.

That’s why we developed Blackboard Mobile Learn and Blackboard Mobile Central, two robust online platforms that give learners, educators, and school communities access to all aspects of the educational experience on their mobile devices. Blackboard Mobile Learn extends the experience of the online learning management system, Blackboard Learn, onto mobile devices.  Blackboard Mobile Central is a suite of features in a single mobile application that provides campus life resources and information – like student and faculty directories, news, brick-and-mortar campus maps, dining menus and more – on mobile devices.

If your professional college or university is looking for ways to go mobile, here are my top 5 reasons to choose Blackboard:

You don’t need to work in the education space to see that technology is playing an increasingly important role in higher education.  These days, it isn’t unusual to see innovative tools such as Smart Boards, e-books, and even mobile devices in the classroom. This pervasive state of technology in higher education is especially evident at professional colleges and universities, which have been leaders in bringing disruptive technologies to the classroom.

Just as career colleges have been leveraging new technology for education, we at Blackboard have also been working to drive innovation in our own solutions. We’ve asked ourselves:

• How can Blackboard course administration become more efficient and effective for instructors?
• How can our solutions give instructors more insight into their classroom and help them retain students?
• What can we do to improve the student experience on Blackboard?