Building Successful Digital Tools at SOCCCD with Human-Centered Design

For decades, developers at South Orange County Community College District have been creating innovative and useful digital tools that automate tasks to assist faculty and benefit students. Here, SOCCCD's Vice Chancellor of Technology explains how a strategy of human-centered design has been key to the success of these tool-building development efforts over time.

Florida Tackles Textbook Affordability with OER Partnership

Last year, the State University System of Florida embarked on an "action plan" to give students "access to quality and affordable textbooks and other instructional materials, thereby increasing the likelihood of their success in higher education." The system has partnered with open educational resources company Lumen Learning to provide course materials within its textbook affordability mandate.

New Data Literacy Institute Will Help Institutions Harness Data for Student Success

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and Association for Institutional Research are teaming up for a pilot that will provide data literacy training to APLU member campuses.

$1.1 Million in ED Grants Available to Ed Tech Companies

The U.S. Department of Education has $1.1 million in grants available to for-profit ed tech companies.

OER in Oregon Shrinks Cost of Course Materials by Three-Quarters

A recently released study showed that an investment by the state of Oregon in promoting textbook affordability has led to a dramatic drop in the cost of course materials for transfer degrees.

Competency-Led Hiring on the Rise

Employers are increasingly considering competencies — rather than degrees — as the most important factor in hiring, according to a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Competition Recruits CC Students to Find STEM Solutions for Real-World Problems

The American Association of Community Colleges and the National Science Foundation have opened up the Community College Innovation Challenge.

Program Aims to Propel CC Graduation Rates

A new program from MDRC is gaining a tailwind as it pursues helping more low-income students and students of color graduate from community college within three years.

James Madison U Incorporates Job Feed into Undergrad Major Webpages

Students who view the webpages for each undergraduate major at James Madison University can now see a live feed of related job opportunities.

Affordable Learning Georgia Releases Interactive OER Lab Manual

Two faculty members from the University of Georgia have developed a lab manual for anatomy and physiology and made it available as an open educational resource.

Gale to Bring Udemy Learning Content to Libraries

A partnership between Gale and Udemy is bringing learning video content from Udemy to public libraries. "Gale Presents: Udemy" will provide library patrons with access to 3,500 on-demand video courses in 75 different topics from Udemy's business collection.

Community Colleges Pilot Virtual Labs as a Service

Three community colleges in California's Inland Empire/Desert region are rolling out virtual, cloud-based labs to give students any time, anywhere access to the computing tools they need to hone job-ready skills, all in one place.

2020 Higher Ed Challenges Include Student Success, Financial Health

Educause and its membership have identified four challenges that higher education will face in the coming year: student success; financial health; reputation and relevance; and external competition.

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