For Education

She and the University’s Chief Information Officer co-chair a task force on allocating federal economic stimulus money for education technologies. The University’s President prioritized several needs, including improvements in data-driven decisions, educating a growing off-campus enrollment base to drive revenue and extend the University’s brand, attracting top-talent (teachers and professors) from a worldwide pool, and increasing its alumni funding base.

The task force felt the solution needed to:

• Integrate with the campus LMS (learning management system)
• Be used by administrators, fundraisers, and researchers as well as students and teachers
• Leverage current university technology investments
• Work on both Mac as PC-based computers
• Support independent breakout groups
• Archive and edit sessions for reuse

The Solution
The task force recommended iLinc for several important reasons. iLinc was the first virtual classroom tool developed by academics for the purpose of creating an online learning and professional development. Configurable beyond the classroom, it also provides administrators a tool for worldwide teacher recruitment, research collaboration, fundraising, brand awareness, and alumni outreach. Most importantly, it integrates easily with several common LMS systems.

Members also noted that iLinc is a hosted solution that does not require any extraneous expenditure on hardware. They liked iLinc’s patented Green Meter technology which actively tracks saved carbon emissions for every teaching session which aligned with the University’s Green policies. iLinc’s Professional Services team would also assist University instructional designers transform traditional asynchronous classroom lesson plans into synchronous learning experiences, leveraging iLinc features to more fully engage students in their own education.