Take the Vision K-20 Survey to monitor your school or district’s progress toward digital education goals! All who take this survey are entered to win one of twenty $25 Amazon gift cards. This survey provides all educators (teachers and administrators) with a chance to see how they measure up to national averages and provides SIIA with important data on the state of digital technology in schools. Link: http://siia.net/visionk20/survey.asp. More...

Grand View University announces the reinvention of how students and their families finance their college degrees. The university is piloting “whole-degree financing” to help students and their families make their college education more affordable and predictable – and reduce student debt -- by planning for the entire four-year degree, rather than a year or semester at a time. Grand View’s Financial Empowerment Plan (FEP) enables families to know what their degree will cost and to plan for the long term. More...

By Carol Patton. Developers focus on products that deliver adaptability and user-friendliness. Integrated. Upgradeable. Simple. Affordable. That’s the message HR professionals at universities and colleges are sending to software developers. More...

By Tim Goral. The University of Puget Sound in February became the first higher ed institution to accept a gift of digital currency, when alumnus Nicolas Cary gave the Washington school 14.5 bitcoins—equal to $10,000. More...

By Nicholas Economidis. Dealing with data breaches can cost a university from tens of thousands of dollars up to many millions, depending on the breach and its handling. In 2011 the largest reported data breach in the university world was suffered by a Virginia institution of higher learning, which reported more than 176,500 records breached. More recently, in late 2012, a Florida university suffered a breach involving data on more than 200,000 students and some of the university's top employees. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. The need for a strong social media presence for universities and colleges continues to grow with each passing semester. The need for a strong social media presence for universities and colleges continues to grow with each passing semester. Unfortunately, budget sheets don't always recognize the resources necessary to maintain several social media accounts 24/7. More...

By Ron Schachter. To gain NACEP certification, a college or university has to adhere to more. The National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) defines concurrent enrollment—a subset of the dual-enrollment approach—as providing college-credit-bearing courses taught to high school students exclusively by college-approved high school teachers. More...

By Thomas W. Durso. In the past, University of Wisconsin-Platteville staff had to manually enter the records of any student pursuing an online degree. With more than 2,500 students enrolled, this was no easy feat—especially considering staff also had to manually enter course registration, financial aid and even basic contact information. This effort required approximately 500 hours of staff time each semester—or 1,500 hours a year—to accommodate the university’s three-semester system. More...

By Matt Zalaznick. Adult students are treating themselves to a higher ed buffet through a handful of programs where all-you-can-learn tuition lets them move as quickly as they can toward a degree and advancement in the workforce. More...