A computer lab is a space where computer services are provided to a defined community. These are typically public libraries and academic institutions. Generally, users must follow a certain user policy to retain access to the computers. This usually consists of rules such as no illegal activity during use or attempts to circumvent any security or content-control software while using the computers. Computer labs are often subject to time limits, this is to allow more people have a chance to use the lab. It is also common for personal login credentials to be required for access. This allows institutions to track the user's activities for any possible fraudulent use. The computers in computer labs are typically equipped with internet access, scanners, and printers and are typically arranged in rows. This is to give the workstation a similar view to facilitate lecturing or presentations, and also to facilitate small group work. For some academic institutions, student laptops or laptop carts take place of dedicated computer labs. However, computer labs still have a place in applications requiring special software or hardware which are not easily accessible in personal computers.
Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns towards effective decision-making. It can be valuable in areas rich with recorded information; analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming and operations research to quantify performance.
A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Learning management systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. The first introduction of the LMS was in the late 1990s. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A learning community is a group of people who share common academic goals and attitudes and meet semi-regularly to collaborate on classwork. Such communities have become the template for a cohort-based, interdisciplinary approach to higher education. This may be based on an advanced kind of educational or 'pedagogical' design.
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a survey mechanism used to measure the level of student participation at universities and colleges in Canada and the United States as it relates to learning and engagement. The results of the survey help administrators and professors to assess their students' student engagement. The survey targets first-year and senior students on campuses. NSSE developed ten student Engagement Indicators (EIs) that are categorized in four general themes: academic challenge, learning with peers, experiences with faculty, and campus environment. Since 2000, there have been over 1,600 colleges and universities that have opted to participate in the survey. Additionally, approximately 5 million students within those institutions have completed the engagement survey. Overall, NSSE assesses effective teaching practices and student engagement in educationally purposeful activities. The survey is administered and assessed by Indiana University School of Education Center for Postsecondary Research.
A course evaluation is a paper or electronic questionnaire, which requires a written or selected response answer to a series of questions in order to evaluate the instruction of a given course. The term may also refer to the completed survey form or a summary of responses to questionnaires.
Student engagement occurs when "students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success (grades), but in understanding the material and incorporating or internalizing it in their lives." Since the U.S. college dropout rate for first-time-in college degree-seeking students is nearly 50% It is increasingly seen as an indicator of successful classroom instruction, and as a valued outcome of school reform. The phrase was identified in 1996 as "the latest buzzword in education circles." Students are engaged when they are involved in their work, persist despite challenges and obstacles, and take visible delight in accomplishing their work. Student engagement also refers to a "student's willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in, the learning process promoting higher level thinking for enduring understanding." Student engagement is also a usefully ambiguous term for the complexity of 'engagement' beyond the fragmented domains of cognition, behaviour, emotion or affect, and in doing so encompass the historically situated individual within their contextual variables that at every moment influence how engaged an individual is in their learning.
University student retention, sometimes referred to as persistence, is of increasing importance to college administrators as they try to improve graduation rates and decrease a loss of tuition revenue from students that either drop out or transfer to another school. The topic is also of high importance to students, who invest their time and resources in support of the hope of earning a degree.
Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs. The growth of online learning since the 1990s, particularly in higher education, has contributed to the advancement of Learning Analytics as student data can be captured and made available for analysis. When learners use an LMS, social media, or similar online tools, their clicks, navigation patterns, time on task, social networks, information flow, and concept development through discussions can be tracked. The rapid development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offers additional data for researchers to evaluate teaching and learning in online environments.
Educational data mining (EDM) describes a research field concerned with the application of data mining, machine learning and statistics to information generated from educational settings. At a high level, the field seeks to develop and improve methods for exploring this data, which often has multiple levels of meaningful hierarchy, in order to discover new insights about how people learn in the context of such settings. In doing so, EDM has contributed to theories of learning investigated by researchers in educational psychology and the learning sciences. The field is closely tied to that of learning analytics, and the two have been compared and contrasted.
The CUNY Academic Commons is an online, academic social network for community members of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Designed to foster conversation, collaboration, and connections among the 24 individual colleges that make up the university system, the site, founded in 2009, has quickly grown as a hub for the CUNY community, serving in the process to strengthen a growing group of digital scholars, teachers, and open-source projects at the university.
A virtual learning environment (VLE) in educational technology is a web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions. They present resources, activities, and interactions within a course structure and provide for the different stages of assessment. VLEs also usually report on participation; and have some level of integration with other institutional systems.
MERLOT is an online repository and international consortium of institutions of higher education, industry partners, professional organizations and individuals. MERLOT partners and members are devoted to identifying, peer reviewing, organizing and making available existing online learning resources in a range of academic disciplines for use by higher education faculty and students.
The Horizon Project is an initiative by EDUCAUSE to chart emerging technologies and trends impacting the future of higher education across domains such as teaching and learning and information security. Drawing on insights from a global panel of leaders from across the higher education landscape, the objective of each Horizon Report is to shape decision-making among higher education professionals by helping them imagine a range of possible futures and think through the present-day implications of those futures. The Horizon Project was launched in 2002 by Laurence F. Johnson, CEO of NMC, and since the 2018 edition has been published by EDUCAUSE.
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU), founded in 2010, is a distinguished state higher education institution in Ankara, Turkey that prides itself on its strong international perspective, high quality research-based education and diversity.
Unizin is both a consortium of higher education institutions and a service provider. The Unizin consortium was founded in 2014 by Colorado State University, University of Florida, Indiana University, and University of Michigan. On July 22, 2014, Unizin named Amin Qazi its founding CEO. The Unizin service debuted its first offering, Canvas by Instructure, in late summer 2014. The goal of the Unizin service is to establish the standard gauge rails of digital learning, creating common standards that enable collaboration within the higher education community. The Unizin consortium offers a channel for collaborating on solutions to the many challenges being faced by educational institutions, as well as a means for those institutions to collectively govern resources and cost-effectively control infrastructure necessary to enable innovation at their universities. Unizin, Ltd. is a registered 501(c)(3).
Higher education in Myanmar has experienced a large expansion since 1988, although ranks as one of the lowest globally for universities. Due to the student protests in the 8888 uprising, the Myanmar government closed down all universities for two years. Additional student protests in 1996 and 1998 caused all universities to be closed for another three years.
A learning relationship management (LRM) software system manages and facilitates student-led instruction to maximize student engagement, achievement, outcome and long-term success. Unlike learning management systems (LMS) in which elements are organized around specific courses, LRMs are student-centric in design, facilitate personalized learning, and provide individualized learning paths, a central point for analytics data and a way of tracking interventions and related results. The LRM system provides a comprehensive foundation for end-to-end student support", which may include communication with and/or support from a learner network consisting of educators, administrators, parents/guardians, mentors, advisors/guidance counselors, etc.
Online learning involves courses offered by primary institutions that are 100% virtual. Online learning, or virtual classes offered over the internet, is contrasted with traditional courses taken in a brick-and-mortar school building. It is a development in distance education that expanded in the 1990s with the spread of the commercial Internet and the World Wide Web. The learner experience is typically asynchronous but may also incorporate synchronous elements. The vast majority of institutions utilize a learning management system for the administration of online courses. As theories of distance education evolve, digital technologies to support learning and pedagogy continue to transform as well.
The Campus Privacy Officer (CPO) is a position within a post-secondary university that ensures that student, faculty, and parent privacy is maintained. The CPO role was created because of growing privacy concerns across college campuses. The responsibilities of the CPO vary depending on the specific needs of the campus community. Their daily tasks may include drafting new privacy policies for their respective college campus, creating a curriculum that informs teachers and students about privacy, helping to investigate any privacy breaches within the university, and ensuring that the university is abiding by current state and federal privacy laws. CPOs are also responsible for connecting with student and faculty groups across the entire campus in order to understand the privacy concerns of the campus. The role of CPO is an expanding profession within the United States and other countries, such as Canada and South Africa. There are numerous organizations that exist to provide training for CPOs and support them.
