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Higher education has been driven by in-classroom learning

For learners who aren’t close to a university they want to attend or who juggle difficult work and family schedules, this is a major challenge. Requiring bodies in classrooms is also limiting for universities. Even if the institution has the capacity to teach more qualified students, its enrollment is limited by the available physical space.

The bottom line is that students miss out on learning opportunities and universities miss out on the chance to educate more students.

While the continues to rapidly diminish, it’s still alive and well—especially among those who remember the early days of correspondence courses and televised university classes.

What many don’t realize though is that virtual learning has dramatically improved in recent years, with higher quality, more rigorous instruction being delivered thanks to better technology and an evolution in delivery methods.

Perhaps that’s why we’ve seen a shift towards virtual learning over the last two decades—a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Defying naysayers, online education has proven to be resilient, adaptive, and highly effective – paving the way for its further adoption. In fact, many universities now realize online education is vital to their long-term strategies.

Nursing jobs across the globe are going unfilled because universities don’t have capacity for every student who applies. ºÚÁÏÊÓƵEDGE addresses that, showing us how we can best work with our partnersÌýto meet market needs while delivering the best student experience and outcomes – a goal we share with every university we work with.

Universities don’t always have the resources to answer these questions or find the answers—so our team does it for them. ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ takes market data and third-party data sources and gives it to our analysts who use our proprietary tools to develop a clear picture of industry trends and what’s driving them.

We identify the social, economic, and environmental factors that are shaping the future of work and use that knowledge to help make our university partners’ programs better. We also use those findings to build out a customized ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ BLUEPRINTâ„¢ – our guiding framework tailored to each partner’s mission and values, created collaboratively with the partner, and used to develop new programs and continually improve what we and our partners do to deliver the best student experience.

But that’s just the beginning.

This work is essential to creating a career-relevant program and a positive student learning experience. Our program modeling and course development process helps our partners map each student’s learning goals, so they can make clear decisions around what, where, and how students learn.

Technology should never get in the way of a positive student experience—it should enhance it. And it should help our partners both meet market needs and facilitate great student outcomes.

Here’s an example: If we see an opportunity to offer a program and a university doesn't have it, we'll work with their faculty to custom-build the curriculum from the ground up. We’ll work with them to answer critical questions around who potential students are, and to identify the ultimate learning or career outcomes of the degree.

After the program has been developed, ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ’s full learning design team (many of whom are current or former faculty) works with our partners to create the courses online. Our goal is to help our partners build highly engaging and highly interactive programs so that the online experience is as good or better than the on-campus experience.

It’s an iterative and highly collaborative process. We co-build the courses with faculty—assignment by assignment and module by module—resulting in engaging, immersive courses. The faculty brings their subject matter expertise and teaching experience, and we bring the technological and andragogical know-how. It’s a very effective way to work. We know because we’ve done it for years.

We aid the prospective students through the decision-making process as they identify their program, then guide them through the application process, all the way to getting accepted into the program and becoming a proud member of our partners’ student family.

ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ’s advisors can respond to student needs in real-time and help them navigate any challenges they experience, including getting in touch with university support services and the academic support they need to successfully work through a program and graduate.

Using predictive analytics and performance data, our team also identifies ‘at-risk’ students who may require additional resources and attention. Our data and technology platform allows us to optimize and enhance the student experience, improving engagement and retention and maximizing outcomes for students and our partners.

For programs that require a clinical or field-based placement, the student experience extends beyond the virtual classrooms. While organizing clinical and field placements once prevented bringing traditionally ‘offline’ education programs online, ºÚÁÏÊÓƵEDGE Experience data and technology enables our Placement experts to develop, refine and optimize field placement networks. That’s how ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ connects students with the quality placement opportunities critical for many professional programs, such as aspiring social workers, counselors, and nurses. These on-site opportunities are needed to practice and hone skills learned during coursework and are essential to filling vacancies with high-quality practitioners in areas like nursing, where a shortage of in the coming years is projected.

ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ Education works with our partners and students to source placement opportunities nationally and connect learners with them by drawing upon our large network of health systems and clinical sites. And because our coursework is focused solely online, the geographical barriers around in-person learning are removed.

ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ connects students with placement opportunities where they live, not where the university campus is. It’s a game-changer for programs that include a clinical component, and ºÚÁÏÊÓƵEDGE is leading the way in making it happen.

By partnering with ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ and utilizing the insights gathered from ºÚÁÏÊÓƵEDGE, universities can educate more students across the globe with career-relevant degree programs, preparing them for the future of work.

And for students, they graduate with the necessary skillset that are seeing significant occupational demand, projected job growth and have the potential for creating economic and social impact.

Universities are stepping up. We’re here to help them and their students.

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Contact us today if you're interested in learning more about how partnering with ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ Education can help you expand the reach and impact of your degree programs.Ìý