Often students enrolled in any class, from any institution, will look for guidance from others, preferably expertise. Students will seek out professional tutors when looking for academic help, but that can be expensive. Students exploring music may need to seek off campus to find a musician to help them practice. Others may need help navigating around an online course and setting up a program, in which they would need to find a computer technician. Many students feel that they need to find these specialists separately, and may spend hundreds of dollars doing so. However, a college institution is full of thousands of intuitive teachers, specialists, and experts. Some of these people may in fact be the same students that walk the campus. Why not look to student peers, whom are attending the very same institution as those looking for help, to be the experts? By allowing students to teach other students, universities can easily create an environment in which there is a strong sense of community. Students can feel comfortable in confiding in teachers and students from the same school, and will want to give back to their school. In addition, students will be able to learn immensely from teaching […]
Anyone living the 21st century has probably heard of online courses somehow or another, and the motivation for online education has increased even more in recent years. But what is it exactly that is taking over the pupils of traditional education? The answer: MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. These classes are what students are looking for; they’re practically free. Not to mention that thousands of students can take the same online course, with the same teacher and classes never fill up. Even more, those who do not have access to high quality education and live in all corners of the world can enroll in an institution. Those who have busy schedules can take classes around their schedule. In reality, MOOC is what students all over the world has been looking for. However, MOOCs are the prototype for what has to come in the online education world. Online courses are a work in progress, and MOOCs certainly have fallbacks. In fact, there is a main component of MOOCs that create a barrier for those students who have chosen the online route-a lack of collaboration with both students and teachers. Traditional classrooms have a valuable and critical building block for conversation […]
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been one of the largest private foundations in the world and has influenced the world globally for the last 15 years. The foundation is dedicated to supporting countries that have suffered from extreme poverty and innovated new ways to provide quality healthcare for those in need around the world. However, in the United States, the Gates Foundation is focused on something entirely different. The foundation has realized the increasing education fallback in young students and their inability to compete with the rest of the world in almost all subjects. Even more importantly, the foundation wants to support struggling students and find relevant ways to allow them to receive quality higher education. The foundation, in addition, knows that times have changed for young students, and older education systems are just not working anymore. Similar to the beliefs of iQ technology, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation states, “We live in a globally connected, information saturated world. To thrive, our students need to learn in and out of school, in person and online, together and independently.” From this belief, the Gates Foundation has created two new programs that are built for to support and inspire […]
The landscape of college education is different from what it was thirty years ago; we have an entire new generation of college students who had grown up in a world of technology. The children who had grown up with the start of the internet are known as the “net” generation, while those who have grown up with smart phones, social media, and iPads may very well be the next “mobile” generation (Geist). This new age of students entering into higher-education have been immersed, almost their entire lives, in some sort of mobile technology. They are used to mobility, in which they have access to whatever they are working on, wherever they go. Books, homework assignments, and class textbooks are all available on mobile technology, and young students are constantly in search of a way to utilize these tools. What makes technology in the classroom so unique is the increased intractability that is produced when the entire class is involved. Students who have grown up in this technology driven world aren’t just programmed to use technology, but prefer what technology has to offer compared to the traditional style classroom. In fact, more than six out of ten college students say that […]
We live in a world in which sports fans of all ages connect and collaborate with one another from all parts of the world, simply for the love of their team. Sports fans everywhere are constantly engaging in game conversation, investing in team merchandise, and always on the look out to find the latest media coverage of their favorite player. These fans, and their interactions between other devotees, sports media, and players, are what keeps the team supported. When an easy access medium is created between the fans and their team, an entirely new world of fan-to-team collaboration is opened. We have created a way in which this medium will channel content-specific media to it’s fans, and allowing your team to reach the largest target audience possible. iQ technologies has created some of the most up-to-date social networking features available to sports enthusiasts and team owners. iQ Sports empowers you to create authentic, rich experiences to strengthen your sports brand and differentiate your team from the competition. Our intelligent platform provides deeper user data for analysis, and the power to offer more sophisticated advertising and sponsorship opportunities. Sports fans are particular and savvy when it comes to receiving and sharing […]
The Ivory Tower: Is it worth the cost? In a CNN documentary, “The Ivory Tower”, addresses the question, “Is college worth cost?” With the thousands of students applying for college, the reality of college tuition becomes real. No longer is it a question of “Will I get in?”, but a question of “Can I afford to go?”. CNN analyzes the costs for the real-time students who are currently carrying the burden of yearly tuition, “when student loan debt in the United States grew to over $1.2 trillion and tuition increases continued at nearly triple the rate of inflation.” Young adults have been raised to romanticize the 4-year undergraduate degree as the ultimate goal. Often, students forget why the idea of a college education is so valuable–building skills and an education that will push them towards a successful career. But with big name, ivy-league colleges, attending a 4-year institution seems like the only pathway to gaining respect and landing a job. CNN, however, begins to analyze that new options for the every-day student that we didn’t have 20 years ago. Today, nearly all young adults have access the online world. For students in particular, technology has brought us more options than […]
In Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a widespread education crisis. The crisis is simple, yet creates a number of complicated problems. There are too many students and not enough spots in one of the only quality universities in South Africa. In fact, this crisis had boiled over in January of 2012, when thousands of students stampeded into the University of Johannesburg eager to fulfill their dream of a college education and to create a brighter future for themselves. The real danger surfaced when many were injured from the stampede and one woman killed, all whom were desperate to find a better life for themselves or their child. In an interview with The New York Times, a local Johannesburg woman described the event, “They were pushing and pushing,” she said. “Even the gates fell over. Many people were injured.” About 85,000 students had applied for only 11,000 seats at University of Johannesburg, leaving a clear overflow of students who were left without a spot. Many students who are well-deserving and hard working are still unable to claim a seat at an institution. This lack of access to higher education has left citizens who were once aspiring college students are now jobless […]
What makes a business successful? With the thousands of independent businesses struggling to make it in the world, it is easy to forget what consumers value in a business platform. The key to a successful business is simple; an easily accessible business-to-consumer connection. Your business should be able to connect with others at any level. Employees, customers, partners, and fans should all have access to your platform’s information and be able to easily collaborate with your business or organization. When consumers, employees, and partners have constant engagement with their company, they feel safe and confident in their investments. The result: A more effective, connected business. Whether your goal is to increase brand awareness, improve workforce productivity, or measure customer satisfaction, our community platform helps you achieve your business goals. Business, along with any organizations, all have the ability to achieve this level connection. With iQ, your business/organization will have the capability to: • Provide contextual real-time communications across all user bases • Leverage your organization’s collective expertise to make informed decisions • Accelerate new employee onboarding with more seamless assimilation into your company culture • Quicken customer onboarding faster with your brand familiarity • Enrich corporate learning systems across the […]
We share our past experiences in education, employment and interests with others so that connections can be established. We find ourselves doing this all the time; whether it be to apply for a job, or submitting an application to a university. We repeat the same information over and over again; where we’ve gone to school, the degrees we’ve earned, our past employment, and the things we do best. What makes iQ different, is incorporating rich, academic profiles for all members to represent their academic learning journey. Members can use a profile that tracks the history and progress as they go. Learners can track their achievements, certificates, skills, courses, grades, portfolios, employments, and even payments. Profiles can also track competency-based learning programs and any online courses a student has taken. This modern-day online transcript enables institutions to more efficiently review an applicant’s information. Viewers see an organized and mapped-out journey of the learner, rather than a disordered group of events packed into a couple paragraphs. Using this unique iQ feature, members applying to an online institution can apply with just a click of a button, submitting what they already have built up on their rich academic profile. In addition, connections between […]
Blogging has taken over the internet community as we are encouraged to share our ideas, teach others, and express our passions with the world. Even more convenient is the fact that we can do this from anywhere, at anytime. Blogging has become so popular, that according to a recent study, nearly 77% of all internet users are also internet blog readers. This means blogging has an effect on us more than ever. Blogging may influence our opinions, convince us to purchase new products, and most importantly, allows to be open to a whole new world of learning. Expertise on a wide variety of subjects are able to express their knowledge to an endless community eager to learn. What we have available to us is an infinite teacher-to-student interaction ready to be used. Why, then, shouldn’t we integrate blogging into the world of online education? Not only will teachers be able to share what is going on in their classroom, but students will be able to share their ideas, information, and knowledge of the topics they’re interested in. Combining blogs with the classroom allows students and teachers to share their passions with an entire institution community all at once. In addition, […]