Inside the Development of HBCUv, a New Online Learning Platform for HBCUs
Outside of that, we do want to leverage the best in breed in terms of big data and algorithms. As I mentioned earlier, we want there to be predictive analytics, so that we can help teachers know when a student's in trouble. But we also want that data to be a two-way street. We don't just want it to be teachers monitoring their students for opportunities to improve and evolve. We also want students to be able to provide real-time feedback to the faculty members. Could this course be more engaging? Did you lose me somewhere in this lecture? Was this confusing? Was this homework fair? Those are all questions that have never really been asked and data that has never really been collected in the higher education environment, that we're going to attempt to collect in order to make it a more equitable space.
Smith-Lewis: More than the features and functions of the platform, what gets us excited is who's at the table, deciding how we want to implement and use those features and functions. We think technology is the great equalizer. The challenge is that often the technology and its capabilities don't meet the community and its needs, because we don't take the time to work with people directly to solve for their challenges. As opposed to the other way, where we solve for technology and expect others to adopt it. So we're taking a fundamentally different approach, and that's what gets us excited. It's not going to be the features and the functionalities necessarily on their own. It's going to be the integration of those features and functionalities, and how the institutions decide to use them to ensure that we deliver a student-focused, engaging online learning platform.
CT: Technology wise, is this being built from the ground up? Are you looking to integrate existing products?
Smith-Lewis: Yes. Is that a fair answer? Because everything's on the table. We have a limited set of resources. We have a timetable. But beyond that, the world is our oyster in terms of what we want to create. And so we are talking to existing tech platforms and providers about their opportunity to support us and the execution of HBCUv. But at the same time, we're thinking about those opportunities that we have yet to fully see. If there's not a solution, Deloitte and Deloitte Digital are open to the idea of creating that solution. But if there is a critical path that exists already, then we're also open to leveraging that critical path. So the short answer is, HBCUv most likely will be a combination of them all. We will leverage some existing products, potentially create some new ones, but it's really about the integration of those tools.
Young: We're also cognizant of the fact that we are standing on the shoulders of innovators who have been in this game for a very long time. We don't think that all LMSs are bad. We just feel like LMSs were built for a different time. And we feel like this is our opportunity to contribute to the larger ed tech conversation in a real way.
Many LMS platforms have really cracked the code on the best way to turn in your homework or the best way to grade assignments in an efficient way. And because they've done that so well, we are free to singularly focus on, what would an LMS centered around student expression look like? What would an LMS centered around connection look like? When we combine our technology with that existing technology, we're going to get something that's best-in-class, that feels radically different than other LMSs that are existing on the market.
Smith-Lewis: Let's call a spade a spade. Most LMS systems were designed to make faculty teaching easier and to execute the act of delivering learning opportunities to students. We did not design LMS platforms to engage students in their own learning journey, meeting them where they are. Now the capability's there; we know that for sure. But today, to think about students first, and then to leverage technology to meet them where they are, especially the set of students that we're engaged with, we think can be a value add to all of higher education, not just HBCUs.