Columbus Technical College (CTC), a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, announced the rollout of a new video learning platform designed to give students greater, more reliable access to courses, digital study tools, and critical class content. As much instruction continues to be delivered through hybrid formats due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this new partnership with Echo360 gives faculty an intuitive video and content management suite to engage students in ways previously limited to face-to-face instruction.

"Long before the pandemic, CTC has been serving students whom we know benefit from the flexibility of online instruction and digital course materials. But the pandemic has presented an opportunity to think more holistically about how we give students the access, flexibility and support they need to be successful," said James "Art" Beveridge, Director of Distance Learning at Columbus Technical College. "Our faculty have done a tremendous job supporting our students in the midst of such an uncertain time for all of us, and this initiative is designed to support them as we continue to expand our online and remote offerings. Echo360 makes it much easier for faculty to adapt their instruction to a digital environment and address the needs of our students." 

Last semester, more than two thirds of students indicated that they want more technology integrated in their courses going forward -- and a similar amount said they'd like to take some online courses in the future. The new partnership will help Columbus Techcontinue to effectively transition to a learning experience that integrates both in-person and online instruction-- allowing busy, working students to access a more personalized, engaging education.

In the evaluation of options to replace the discontinued video platform Echo360 stood out among the rest as Columbus Tech's faculty favorite due to its extensive active learning capabilities. The platform enables students and faculty to engage with course material more deeply and easily collaborate with their peers. Students can access videos and content at any time, as well as take notes that are automatically time-synched to moments in the video, discuss course content with their peers, and gauge their comprehension through quizzes and polls led by their instructors. Faculty will use the platform to offer courses online, record short lessons or stream live lectures, and access a suite of analytics and features to better assess student engagement in real time.