College students who grew up with the Internet are highly adept at technology, and yet schools have been slow to introduce online tools that can support higher education. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working to change that.
This week in Austin, Texas, higher education technology was a prevailing discussion topic at the South by Southwest Education summit panels, housed by the Foundation. College students, educators and researchers convened from across the country to identify solutions for closing technology gaps at schools as technology vendors presented new innovative learning tools.
Tiffany Mfume, director for Morgan State University’s Office of Student Success and Retentions in Maryland, spoke on a panel and said one reason that some schools are behind is that faculty can find new technology daunting, and slow to embrace change.
“I think there is some fear, first of all, when we try to change something, because change usually requires us to do something different and to learn something new,” she said.
She also said educational professionals may feel like learning new innovations would require additional work, although she recognizes the benefits.
“Long term, after you learn the tool, it should take your work load down [and] make you work smarter [and] more effective,” she said.
Ever since Morgan State implemented a new tool called Starfish Retention Solutions about a year ago, Mfume said the university has seen its second highest retention rate, ever. The university’s retention rate for all students is 72.1 percent, according to Maryland Higher Education Commission’s 2015 Data Book.
Starfish Retention Solutions provides early alerts to faculty members about a student’s behavior. Faculty receive notice if students are not attending class, failing a course, or showing improvements, according to Mfume.
“The more feedback students are getting from faculty and advisors, and the more we are staying on top of their progress inside the classroom and out, then they are more likely to come back,” she said. “And they are not just coming back. They are coming back with higher GPAs and doing better.”
Co-Founder and COO of Three Ring, an education technology company with an office in Atlanta, Steve Silvius said at the summit that colleges mainly use technology for mandatory purposes, like processing payments, but not particularly during classroom instruction.
To change this, Silvius said higher education faculty should create safe spaces at colleges for students to share ideas with faculty.
Sharla Berry, University of Southern California Rossier Dean’s Ph. D Fellow and student, said she thinks professors are really working hard to adapt.
“The ones that are really good are very good at integrating feedback from the students and what we tell them, so that they can learn how to be support students in the classroom,” she said.
She also said that adopting live polling – as the Gates Foundation did during panel discussions at the summit — is an effective technology practice that teachers can mimic to solicit feedback from students in class.
Berry is currently developing a mobile app called College Knowledge LA with her colleagues at the University of Southern California to engage students more effectively on campuses.
The goal “is to connect low income students with college prep resources in their community. So we want to provide real access to real people,” she said.
Andy Allred, a Baylor College of Medicine student and SXSWedu’s Improving College Completion by Guided Pathways summit panelist, agrees the college experience can be enhanced with technology use.
“Online learning can be great, especially when video is included,” he said.
Similarly, Nabeal Musa, a Georgia State University computer science major, said online tools can enhance classroom instruction.
“The classes where I’ve had more technology [and] more things to do online, like tests online and stuff like that, I have done better than just normal classes,” he said.
Musa also said adaptive learning, one of the technology practices showcased at the summit, should be implemented into teachers’ websites and instructors’ presentations, along with hybrid courses.
“I just feel like it gives the students more time to do things. And if you are familiar with online, it’s a lot easier,” he said.
