Cultus
Austin, TX (November 12, 2015) — The New Media Consortium (NMC), an international not-for profit organisation focused on educational innovation, has received a major grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead a postsecondary initiative in personalised learning. The NMC will promote the adoption of high-quality personalised learning solutions, including courseware and integrated planning and advising services, to colleges and universities across the US. Over the next two years, the NMC will organise and convene key influencers and leaders in the field to move the most innovative ideas and solutions from the foundation’s vast network of grantees and partners into practice.
The grant capitalises on the NMC’s role as a catalyst for transforming solid ideas from experimental and pilot stages to wider adoption in higher education. The NMC will engage the Postsecondary Success network of grantees, partners, and thought leaders in a variety of synchronous and face-to face events, build upon and organise the existing communities, devise programmatic strategies, and capture the key ideas and outcomes from this work.
Along the way, the NMC will continuously identify new synergies within the network and provide more visibility into the grantees’ progress by showcasing exemplars. The grant will focus on several areas of development within the foundation’s Postsecondary Success mission including Courseware and Integrated Planning and Advising Services (IPAS).
The Courseware initiative focuses on finding the best courseware solutions to help low-income students succeed in high enrolment general education college courses. Through the Next Generation Courseware Challenge, seven grantees received $20 million of funding from the foundation to design and implement digital courseware offerings for this purpose. IPAS aims to develop tools and technologies that will help students navigate the path to a certificate or degree using predictive analytics to identify at-risk learners.
“Our new project stems from the growing body of work in learning and student success that is energising conversations at every level of higher education, and we look forward to being part of this exciting community of innovators,” said NMC CEO, Larry Johnson. “For over 20 years, the NMC has helped create a wide range of communities around progressive ideas and practices in higher education. We are very excited to have this opportunity to apply the NMC’s experience and expertise gained over that time in support of the foundation’s vision and grant making. Our two organizations share a deep commitment to improving student outcomes, access, and success in postsecondary education. I can’t wait to see where this collaboration takes us!”
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About the New Media Consortium (NMC)
The NMC is an international not-for-profit consortium of learning-focused organisations committed to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. The NMC is world-renowned for its NMC Horizon Project, which produces the NMC Horizon Report series, charting the uptake of emerging technologies in various learning sectors worldwide. Since 1993, the NMC and its members have dedicated themselves to analysing and developing potential applications of emerging technologies for teaching, learning, research, and creative inquiry. To learn more, visit www.nmc.org.