One university got so frustrated with Blackboard they finally ditched it. But this experience highlights a big problem with almost all enterprise software. Read full article
1 commentUser experience lessons from a university dumping Blackboard
Archive — Universities
UI vs UX — Xkcd
Xkcd’s take on this perennial debate. I guess it had to happen sometime. 🙈
Nine years ago, soon after I started working on a university website, Xkcd published the classic comic called University Website.
Do academic disciplines engage society?
Do academic disciplines engage society?
An idea for how academia can make itself more relevant and accessible:
[I]t has been my view that universities should present their ‘shop windows’ in a more thematic way, with less of an emphasis on traditional Faculty structures (law, economics, physics, engineering, and so forth), and more on issues of general public and social concern. This will be easier if we do not construct all academic argument around the single subjects in which we were once trained.
When alumni interviewers screw up, things get weird
When alumni interviewers screw up, things get weird
The perils of using alumni to reach out to prospective students.
This article mainly pertains to examples found in the US. I am not sure how common this technique is in the UK.
There is a tricky balance to be struck between two of universities’ main sources of income. On the one hand there is the need to keep alumni engaged, which is thought to make them more likely to donate. But if it turns off students — particularly the right kind of students — the long-term risks could be greater.
Although highly selective colleges have become racially and socioeconomically diverse, alumni interviewers tend to be white and affluent. That can lead to awkward moments, said Ari Worthman, director of college counseling at Lakeside School, in Seattle. He recalled a low-income student who sat down with the graduate of a big-name college a couple of years ago. I’m so glad you’re looking at our school, the applicant was told, because we don’t normally interview students like you.