"Tuning the blend" is a phrase that educators hear a lot these days. It refers to finding the correct balance of online activities and face-to-face instruction in hybrid--or blended--courses. Finding a mix that meets the needs of both faculty and students requires experimentation, experience, and constant tweaking. And, as with coffee, the same…

The "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) wave has engulfed the campus, with students bringing their own devices into the classroom, and professors and administrators expecting access to e-mail and other applications from their preferred operating systems. While BYOD brings numerous benefits to campus users, it can be challenging from an IT…

Blended learning has become a meme. While mixing online instruction with face-to-face time is not exactly new, momentum for hybrid learning has been building ever since a Department of Education meta-study in 2010 quietly announced that traditional education simply does not stack up. In that study, online education was determined to be more…

Against his better instincts, the author, an educator at West Texas A&M University, shares his school's recipe for developing a successful online learning program. He discusses six easy steps to online success. These include: (1) clean up one's act; (2) answers in 24 hours; (3) plenty of structure; (4) format phone conferences at midterm; (5) do…

As soon as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) announced last May that it would be giving all 400 incoming freshmen Apple iPads, a lively debate broke out online at TUAW.com (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) between people who saw it as a marketing gimmick to attract students and others who believed it was an honest attempt to implement a new…

The burgeoning consumer-tech market is creating new challenges for higher education IT departments. As increased expectations of mobility and connectivity have students and faculty looking to consumer technology to meet their academic needs, IT must revamp operations and infrastructure to meet the demand, while keeping security risks and budgets…

The annual Campus Technology Innovators awards recognize higher education institutions that take true initiative--even out-and-out risk--to better serve the campus community via technology. These top-notch university administrators, faculty, and staff demonstrate something more than a "job well done"; their vision and leadership have…

Video-heavy distance learning programs can put a strain on the campus network. This article describes how three institutions are managing bandwidth to ensure high-quality service for eLearning students.

Educators know that people learn best by doing. When students are doing something rather than reading or learning about it, they learn better. Immersive environments help students retain more information and speed up their learning. There's an enhancement in the way they learn. Immersive environments--which utilize technologies like simulations,…

Given a blank slate, what should the 21st century college classroom look like, and how should it be operated? Answering those questions is the idea behind setting up "incubator classrooms," spaces dedicated to trying out new technologies and new ways of teaching and learning. By incubating new ideas, faculty members and IT staff discover which…

In many ways, unified communications (UC) is the Holy Grail in the world of campus telecommunications; everybody wants it, yet the phrase means something different to everyone. "Campus Technology" (CT) tackled this subject in the recent webinar sponsored by Applied Voice & Speech Technologies (AVST), "Ten Steps for Building an Affordable, Reliable…

Digital lecture capture and broadcast solutions have been around for only about 10 years, but are poised for healthy growth. Frost & Sullivan research analysts estimate that the market (which amounts to $25 million currently) will quadruple by 2013. It's still dominated by a few key players, however: Sonic Foundry holds a hefty 40 percent-plus…

Building access control (BAC)--a catchall phrase to describe the systems that control access to facilities across campus--has traditionally been handled with remarkably low-tech solutions: (1) manual locks; (2) electronic locks; and (3) ID cards with magnetic strips. Recent improvements have included smart cards and keyless solutions that make use…

This article features the 14 winners of the 2008 Campus Technology Innovators. This article offers an insider's view of the winners' campus technology initiatives, their project leads, and vendor partners jointly recognized for a unique ability to advance teaching, learning, administration, and operation on North American college and university…