CRM Featured Article

Jenzabar, which sells software to higher education, today announced that 11 institutions of higher education have selected Jenzabar’s Internet portal, “Internet Campus Solution,” so far in 2008.

 

The institutions that have chosen JICS include Avila Institute, Campbellsville University, Elizabethtown College, Green Mountain College, Goshen College, Molloy College, Naropa University, Northwestern College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Peace College, and Penn Highlands.

 

The JICS campus portal connects candidates, students, alumni, faculty, and staff to an institution’s database at any time and from any Internet browser, company officials say. It offers a single point of access to Web-based self-service, e-learning, communications, and community-building applications. Constituents have secure 24x7 access to role-specific content, from administrative records and reports to personal e-mail and calendars, from chat rooms to online exams, they say.

 

Last month, Jenzabar announced that social networking capabilities are available with its Learning Management System.

 

The functionality “allows faculty members to incorporate social networking services into their online learning curriculum,” according to company officials.

 

The social networking phenomena, in the estimation of the Jenzabarbarians, offers “one of the newest ways to engage students and has had a global impact online learning initiatives.”

 

According to a national survey published in January 2007, conducted by Pew (News - Alert) Internet & American Life Project, “a social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.” Think Facebook (News - Alert) and MySpace, engaging tens of millions of users.

 

According to the survey, more than 55 percent of all online American tweens and teenagers use online social networking sites. As does this fortysomething dad, keeping a toe in his kids’ world.

 

The functionality available on Jenzabar LMS allows faculty members to build links to social networking applications so that faculty members and students have the ability to interact on a social networking site within the content of an online course. Faculty members can also build course content on a social networking site using the Jenzabar LMS architecture.