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Flexibility and Collaboration. Columbia University on Stekio
Columbia University is among the oldest and best of America’s Ivy League research universities. It has a rich heritage, with its Upper Manhattan location continuing its legacy as the oldest institution of higher learning in New York state – and the fifth-oldest in the USA. While Columbia’s reputation was forged long ago, the people who lead it today face ever-greater demands when it comes to offering a quality education. At Columbia Business School, the Executive Education department has begun taking its first steps into providing online learning solutions for the executive learner. Like many universities, Columbia Business School is striving to offer in-demand collaborative learning solutions that help students, teachers and administrators be their best – and to meet that challenge, they’ve chosen to test out Stekio. We chatted with Columbia Business School (CBS) Senior Associate Director Veronica Thomas about the appeal of Stekio for their collaborative learning needs. In her position, being an early adopter on the front lines of innovation can create huge value for her organization. We asked her what Columbia likes from testing out the system so far.
Stekio: What challenge were you facing that made Stekio appeal to you?
CBS: We started out with Participants of Columbia Business School’s Executive Education programs. These do not fall under the category of full-time or even continuing education students. This presents unique challenges for onboarding them into our University CRM systems and associated Learning Management System (LMS) platforms.
Frankly, LMS platforms are often too much and too inflexible for our needs. We’ve been very open to exploring LMS alternatives to meet the unique demands of a highly transient niche market who is looking for a simple, user-friendly interface that makes the process of getting the information they need to prepare for an executive education program as easy and as smooth as possible. Because of the short-term nature of our programs, we also face the challenge of building and sustaining a sense of community around our Exec Ed participants once they complete a program. We need a way to keep them connected to the content, to us, and to each other. We also have to consider the needs of an administrative staff who are often managing multiple programs concurrently. They need a very easy tool for uploading, updating and disseminating program information and for communicating with program participants— ideally through one platform. What I find appealing about Stekio is the approach they have taken to enlist the input of Exec Ed providers to build a tool that is designed to make the onboarding and communication process easier from both the administrative and user perspective.
Stekio: What features do you feel are going to make a big difference for you?
CBS: We use iPads in the classroom for a few select programs. Therefore, having an iPad app that integrates with LinkedIn and Salesforce and enables push notifications, video capabilities, and discussion features is great. What I also find impressive about the Stekio team is their commitment to building a product that will be responsive to the client’s needs. The system is not just something based on assumptions. It’s a product developed from really listening to and studying client and user needs.
Stekio: As far as implementation goes, what challenges do you foresee — and how can we help you with that?
CBS: Helping faculty and staff make full use of the Stekio app’s capabilities will require some encouragement, demonstration, and support. There may also be some questions about accessibility for Android devices, PCs or Macs. Higher education as a whole tends to be far behind our K-12 peers in the use of technology in the classroom, so we face the tremendous challenge of changing mindsets and skillsets. These are all challenges that can be overcome with flexibility and collaboration.
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