Top 10 Schools "Ace" Digital Community Colleges Survey

SACRAMENTO, CA--(Marketwired - April 16, 2015) - e.Republic's Center for Digital Education (CDE) has announced the results and winners of its Digital Community Colleges Survey. In its tenth year, the survey analyzes how community colleges use digital technologies to improve services to students, faculty, staff and the community at large. Findings include: 58% support student job placement through online resume-building tools, 43% have strategies in place for the use of mobile devices and 81% of colleges surveyed use cloud computing services resulting in cost savings.

"Technology is being used on campuses and in lecture halls to lower costs and improve student outcomes," said Alan Cox, Senior Vice President for the Center for Digital Education. "This year's survey indicates that community colleges are making great strides in using data to improve decisions, providing professional development to assist faculty in the use of technology, and creating robust online and mobile environments for their students. Congratulations to this year's survey winners."

Colleges placing first in each classification:

• Northern Virginia Community  College, Va. (10,000 students or more) NVCC's  online "campus," the Extended Learning Institute, provides two fully online AS degrees, online advising,  proctoring, and extracurricular activities in order to ensure that online  students have a full collegiate experience, even if they never go to a  campus. Examples include the virtual student  union and an online "transfer fair" with "break out rooms" for each  participating college. With free digital materials also available,  students enrolled in online courses have saved over $800,000.
• Lord Fairfax Community College, Va. (Between  5,000 and 10,000 students) LFCC planned  ahead years ago and built a fully-scalable, upgradable wireless network to  support students and guests -- before the mobile boom. This has served  students and faculty well in providing digital content and courses.  Accessible IT infrastructure is the college's first priority, and best  practices for security measures have been implemented to protect the data.
• Carl Sandburg College, Ill. (Up  to 5,000 students) CSC launched the Open Education Resource  Course Initiative (OERCI) last year to provide support and opportunities  for faculty to use open education resources in their courses. This has saved  students $130,000 to date by reducing textbook requirements and increasing  the number of textbook-free courses. Mobile devices are encouraged and  used campus-wide; the sciences department utilizes 3D and 4D apps and the  college has a 3D printer for student and faculty use.

All accredited U.S. community colleges are eligible to participate in the survey within three classifications based on size of enrollment. View the full list of colleges honored.

About the Center for Digital Education

The Center for Digital Education (CDE) is a national research and advisory institute specializing in K-12 and higher education technology trends, policy and funding. CDE provides education and industry leaders with decision support and actionable insight to help effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21^st century. www.centerdigitaled.com

CDE is a division of e.Republic, the nation's only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education. www.erepublic.com.

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