Tag Archives: Student Life

November 15, 2012, 11:30 am

10 Highly Selective Colleges Form Consortium to Offer Online Courses

A group of 10 highly selective colleges has formed a consortium to offer online courses that students enrolled at any of the campuses can take for credit.

The group, which includes Wake Forest and Brandeis Universities, will offer semester-long online courses using software from 2U, an education-technology company formerly called 2tor. Students already attending the institutions can earn credit from any college in the group, while students who are not enrolled at those colleges can apply to take the courses.

Leaders of the effort say it will give students a wider selection of course options. A student at the University of Notre Dame with an interest in music, for example, will be able to take an online course from the University of Rochester’s music department for credit.

The software from 2U will give universities a platform for small online undergraduate courses capped at 20…

October 30, 2012, 9:17 am

Colleges Install Cellphone-Charging Stations for Hyperconnected Students

A low cellphone battery is a source of anxiety for many college students these days, sending them searching dining halls or libraries for a place to recharge. To reduce panicked questions about where to find the nearest power outlet, universities are purchasing charging stations like those already common in airports. Some are even installing small lockers with power outlets inside, for students who want to keep devices safe while they power up.

Companies like goCharge and KwikBoost say they have seen an uptick in sales to colleges in the past year. KwikBoost has sold units to about 200 universities since April, said Paul Mecca, the company’s co-founder. GoCharge expanded from conventions and bars to universities this year and has sold units to 12 colleges so far, said David Walke, the company’s chief executive.

Mr. Walke said colleges were primarily interested in buying charging…

October 18, 2012, 10:45 am

‘Hackathon’ Events Proliferate for Student Programmers

Many computer-science majors dream of creating start-up companies in California or New York, taking a brilliant idea from their undergraduate days and transforming it into a successful source of profit. This year, “hackathon” events for student programmers—where teams guzzle caffeine as they code for daylong competitions—are proliferating as technology companies look to find top talent and students seek hands-on experience.

Although the term “hacking” often refers to breaching private information or disrupting systems, college hacking competitions ask students to do just the opposite. Programmers have a short span of time to quickly build a usable application from scratch, usually around a theme.

Web sites with hackathon listings show an uptick in events this year, particularly in California and New York. The API Evangelist Web site lists about a hundred events around…