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Blackboard Mobile Central Software Powers VCU Mobile at Virginia Commonwealth University

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October 26, 2010

Blackboard Mobile Central Software Powers VCU Mobile at Virginia Commonwealth University

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor


Virginia Commonwealth University is leading the way among colleges in mobile computing with its first release of VCU mobile, a mobile website and an app for the iPhone (News - Alert) and iPod touch – built using Blackboard's Mobile Central software.


The ground-breaking app makes course information, campus maps, news and events, images and videos, and the university directory available to students, faculty and others on-the-go.

VCU is the first school to integrate with the university's course registration system for students to check seat availability in almost real-time, making it easier to plan course selection during registration.

"It's just the beginning," said Scott Davis, director of Application Services for VCU Technology Services, who is overseeing the effort.

Plans are being formalized to add library catalogs, athletics updates and a guided campus tour, as well as a Blackberry app, due later in the fall 2010 semester.

VCU also plans to develop an app for Android phones.

In addition to the mobile website, VCU worked with Blackboard (News - Alert) to offer Mobile Learn, a free app for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Blackberry and Android. It allows access from virtually anywhere to much of Blackboard's content, including announcements from instructors, course discussions, class rosters, grades, blogs and journals, added course media and task lists.

"I think that within the next three years, what we're going to see is a vast majority of students coming into the classroom or coming to the university with Web-enabled handheld devices," said Jeff Nugent, co-director of VCU's Center for Teaching Excellence and leader of the Faculty Learning Community at VCU that is exploring potential uses of smartphones and mobile computing in higher education.

"The Pew (News - Alert) Internet and American Life Project put out a study last year in which they said that in the next three to five years, they anticipate that 85 percent of access to the Internet is going to be through a smart phone," Nugent said.

Kirk Richardson (News - Alert), an associate professor in the University College and a member of Nugent's group, suggested that having everyone in class with an Internet-accessible handheld device could open broad new avenues for learning.

"It would be fantastic to read one of [Richmond author] Ellen Glasgow's short stories in the place where she actually wrote it," he said. "It is a way to put literature back into context. Likewise, if you're doing history and you want to go to a battlefield, why don't you look at some of the diaries that had been written about that war, at that moment on the battlefield."

With an increasing number of students living much of their waking lives connected to the Internet, Nugent said it only made sense that higher education should be joining them there as partners in learning. He added that many professors already enhance their classroom instruction with content from the Internet, along with activities and drills that use cyberspace as a blackboard.

Jennifer Sherry, coordinator of advising and recruiting for the VCU School of Education, tries to transmit as many materials as possible to her students electronically so they'll have nearly everything in one place when they're studying for a test.

"Not a notebook here, a textbook there, a binder over there... they end up with all this stuff in different places," she said.

In addition, when she is directing a rehearsal for a play, Shaun M. McCracken, an academic adviser for performing arts and fashion merchandising in the University College, said she can record sound files in the rehearsal room and upload those files to a website with comments.

"I can directly influence how my actors are performing from my phone," she said.

As Nugent discusses with colleagues from across the country about mobile devices in higher education, the responses have been mixed.

Yet what is certain, he said, is that students are acquiring and using Internet-enabled mobile devices in huge numbers and their expertise with those devices -- as well as their expectations -- are growing exponentially.

Nugent said there seems to be an emerging consensus in academia. He explains, "They’re saying, 'If this is the wave of the future, how do we make sense out of it together?'"

Visit the VCU mobile website at http://www.vcu.edu/mobile/

Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.


Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard







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