For the busy business student, studying is no longer confined to the physical four walls of the classroom. Business students will most likely already possess iPhones, Blackberries and iPads. Perhaps the biggest advantage of mobile learning, is that with the widespread use of smart phones and tablets, students will always have access to classroom learning. It also facilitates better communication between student and teacher and also opens up access to industry experts. Besides following conferences and online seminars, they can now interact with various thought leaders.
It is no surprise then, that a business school and a technology provider should team up to offer next-generation learning. EmpoweredU and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley together rolled-out a new mobile learning platform for the Berkeley MBA for Executives program. EmpoweredU’s mobile learning platform provides the tools, mobility, and ease of the iPad for a mobile learning experience. The partnership is the result of a recently completed pilot program that allowed students in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program to test out the mobile education technology.
EmpoweredU was founded in 2011 by a team of mobile technology entrepreneurs and education specialists. The idea is, there are many low-cost and feature rich mobile devices high speed broadband, that can be tied to interactive and engaging learning platforms. As a result online education today is vastly different than the disconnect of self-paced video from the past.
The mobile platform features built-in functionalities and tools for streaming content via the Internet, course site creation, on-line lectures, assignment, test administering, grading, user publishing, live chat, peer-to-peer interaction, discussion forum, development of student portfolios, messaging, and news and web-content access. The platform greatly enhances student-to-student communication and student-to-instructor communication.
Haas students will be able to access the platform’s mobile discussion boards and social learning tools. The mobile platform allows for audio, video, and essay creation. It also integrates key iPad features like Notifications and Facetime.
“We are so proud to have gone from demo to pilot to deployment in just a few months and we are now helping Haas students get an online mobile experience unlike anywhere else,” said EmpoweredU CEO Steve Poizner. “This partnership merges the best innovation of Silicon Valley with one of the premier executive MBA programs in the world.” Poizner is a successful high-tech entrepreneur with over two decades of starting and running technology companies in Silicon Valley.
Mr. Poizner also founded and served as CEO of Strategic Mapping Inc, a software company that developed a program to display geographic data on digital maps. He then founded SnapTrack which pioneered technology that put GPS receivers into cell phones.
Steve Polzner and Mika Salmi, both heads of growing online education startups, last September warned traditional universities that they must catch up to online curriculums, if they plan on continuing to charge students higher fees for higher education at TheWrap’s Media Leadership Conference, TheGrill.
“They’re pricing themselves out of the market, effectively. Something needs to change in the education field”. Online education is currently a $100 billion worldwide industry.
image credit via educationnews.org