Campus Technology

A new study has tracked nationwide effects of spread of COVID-19 by college students returning from popular Spring break destinations.

Story notes the MOOC is a joint initiative involving faculty and students from Ball State University along with cable staple Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Story quotes Scott Reinke, coordinator for the BSU Achievements Program at Ball State. He was involved in the development of Ball State Achievements, a mobile app designed to improve student retention by gamifying positive activity outside the classroom (and winner of a 2015 Campus Technology Innovators award). He advocates a "fail fast" mentality when gamifying a course.

Story quotes Jonathan Blake Huer, director of emerging technologies.

Story focuses on Ball State Achievements and quotes Kay Bales, vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

Story features a question-and-answer session with Kyle Parker, senior software engineer for developing technologies, about a new service called Campus Hub.

Story quotes Jonathan Blake Huer, director of emerging technologies and media development.

Story notes that Ball State has gone public with its use of a desktop video creation and publishing tool to support the growth of distance and flipped learning.

The story notes that a three-year experiment at Ball State suggests that innovative classroom spaces can create a positive attitude change in students, but the verdict seems to still be out on whether it affects academic performance.

Ball State's interactive learning space initiative is featured.

BSU at the Games is featured.

Given these limitations, a MOOC teacher has to find other ways to help students work with one another, both within the forums and elsewhere. "You have to remember that this is something that people are doing on their own time because they want to," says Christina Blanch, a doctoral student at Ball State University (IN) who taught her first MOOC last spring. "They're not getting credit or anything. So you really have to work to make them want to be there, and I think a lot of that has to do with the community. I'm one of those people who believe you have to have discussion to really learn instead of just having things go in one ear and out the other."