As of this past Friday, colleges can say auld lang syne to traditional teaching, learning and safety tactics.
2015 brought in waves of change that will take the higher education industry to new heights this year.
Before launching into spring semester, take a minute between classes to check out how 2015 shaped higher education as whole.
• 2015 was “the year of active learning” – due to the implementation of virtual reality technologies, renovations in large physical spaces and telepresence solutions, higher education is establishing itself as a solid active learning vertical.
• Higher education end users and integrators nominated 15 solutions that helped them do their jobs more effectively. The nominations featured switchers, alert systems, safety apps and more.
• The evolution of projectors – industry experts revealed how old school technologies like projectors are changing to better serve students and instructors in college classrooms, including lampless and interactive projectors.
• Extending the distance of remote learning – instructors are utilizing new methods to better engage and include distance learning students in physical classrooms. Some colleges, like Florida International University and Oral Roberts University invested in telepresence robots to reach distance learners, whereas other institutions studied James Cross’s advice on how to manipulate video to attract and keep students’ attention.
• Creating on-campus workplaces – many colleges invested tons of time and dollars on new technologies and renovated spaces to give students a taste of what a real world workplace will look like. These spaces function to prepare students for the work world post-graduation and increase the ROI of an institution.
• Press play on gaming technologies – institutions like Case Western Reserve University installed gaming solutions to attract prospective students, engage large-sized classes and modernize teaching strategies.
• Facebook and free speech – schools like the University of Tulsa were under fire this year due to violating students’ right to free speech on social media. Cases like the University of Tulsa’s caused other colleges to question and revise their social media policies.
• 2015 Tradeshows – HigherEdTD attended more than five tradeshows in 2015, including ACUTA, InfoComm, EDUCAUSE, the newly introduced EduComm, and more.
• Security increase – institutions, like the School of Visual Arts, amped up security techniques to better monitor access control, evacuation routes and overall campus safety.
• School shooting tragedies – school shootings in colleges reached an all-time high this year, totaling over 23 as of October 2015.
• Going and growing green – colleges invested in greener teaching tactics, such as 3D printers, and energy-saving resources, like solar panels, to put some green back in their pockets.
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