Dive Brief:
- Four Virginia universities — George Mason University, James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech — have joined together in the 4-VA consortium to expand access to specialized classes for students at participating institutions.
- Renee Patton, leader of US Public Sector Education at Cisco, writes for eCampus News that the universities have developed immersive video rooms, letting students feel as though they are on another campus, learning remotely, but face-to-face.
- The consortium has focused on course sharing, course redesign, degree completion, and collaborative research, expanding the number of active projects between institutions from 59 to 94 and opening course sharing enrollments to 394 students during the 2013-14 school year.
Dive Insight:
In Minnesota, a statewide cluster within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System uses similar immersive rooms to offer new courses to students in underserved, rural communities. This is seen as an important workforce training opportunity, as rural students were once unable to take advanced engineering courses that teach job functions these communities still need.
The power of digital connectivity is being felt on campuses across the country. Besides clustering with nearby institutions, colleges and universities are offering remote learning opportunities for students to tune into their campuses from all over the world. Collaborative classrooms are giving students a chance to use digital technology in student-centered lesson plans. With ed tech investment ballooning, the pace of innovation is not likely to slow anytime soon.