While e-mail remains the official method of communication on most campuses, colleges are expanding their presence in the virtual world, trying to reach students where they hang out. But without careful planning, that can lead to a scattershot approach as new platforms keep popping up and students' attention becomes increasingly dispersed. The…

Surely "massive open online course" (MOOC) has one of the ugliest acronyms of recent years, lacking the deliberate playfulness of Yahoo (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) or the droll shoulder shrug suggested by the word "snafu" (Situation Normal, All Fouled Up). The author is not a complete neophyte to online…

There is no doubt that as technology continues to change, the generation of students will change also. The best preparation, then, is to train one's own mind to think digitally so that one can best create policies, programs, and interactions that enable a student to connect the two worlds in ways that are productive, satisfying, and meaningful.…