Entries Tagged as 'Company'

2010 - A Year of Change

Company , New Company , SmarterServices No Comments »

Changing the way we do business was our new motto at the beginning of 2010.  As we sat around the big conference table planning the year, we quickly realized the year of 2010, would become a big part of our company's history.  Deciding to be "smarter" about our own business practices, it was time to share that philosophy with our clients.  Renaming, rebranding, and reviving our products, position, and purpose meant a strong commitment to embrace a new mission.  Continuing our high level of service, broading our offerings, and helping our clients use their data to make smarter decisions were our main goals. Twelve months later, and we have accomplished what we set out to do.  Climbing a few obstacles along the way, we have been able to successfully rename and rebrand our company with very little oposition from our loyal clients.

2010 has been a transformative year for this company. We are literally a different company now than we were this time last year. Because many of our services are being used enterprise-wide and not just in distance learning programs we changed our name from eLearningToolBox to SmarterServices. We also revised our mission from providing tools for distance learning programs to providing services that empower people to make smarter decisions.

In a time when many companies are reducing their work force, we are pleased to be providing services in a sector of the economy that is still growing. This year we were able to add three full time positions in sales and support.

The services that we provide have also transformed nicely during 2010. The SmarterMeasure Learning Readiness indicator was improved through integration into the Pearson Learning Studio learning management system. APIs were also developed to facilitate the transfer of data to and from student information systems. The addition of the Life Factors section was a substantial enhancement to the SmarterMeasure assessment. Our client base for SmarterSurveys continued to grow and we were awarded an exclusive contract with the University of North Texas to integrate their Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness (SETE) instrument and algorithms into SmarterSurveys. The database of faculty in SmarterFaculty continued to grow on a daily basis with over 11,000 faculty now using the service to seek additional teaching opportunities. The first phase of SmarterProctors was developed in 2010 and early into that project we already have over 1100 proctors in almost every state available through the service.

We are very fortunate to have as clients many of the best educational institutions in the country. Your appreciation for our services was demonstrated through the fact that 96% of the schools which used our services in 2009, continued to use them in 2010. This response rate is phenomenal in the current context of decreasing educational budgets. This communicates to us that are services are reasonably priced and are providing a real benefit to the schools and their students. Thank you for a transformative year!  We look forward to continuing to serve you in 2011!

 

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2010 - A Year of Change

Student Retention Presentation

Company , conferences , eLearning , Retention , SmarterMeasure , SmarterServices 1 Comment »

 

 

Are you planning to attend the 16th Annual Sloan-C Conference in Orlando, FL next week?  You don't want to miss our presentation on Student Retention!  Don't miss out on learning about the 2010 Student Readiness Report!

·         Using Learner Readiness to Improve Online Student Retention
Track: Student Services and Learner Support
November 4, 2010 - 2:25pm 
Concurrent Session: 5
Lead Presenter: Mac Adkins, SmarterServices
Edward Bowen, Dallas TeleCollege
Diane Yeoman, Midlands Technical College
Curacao 6

 

 

 

 

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Student Retention Presentation

Student Readiness Report 2010 - Press Release

Company , FREE Resources , Press Release , SmarterMeasure , SmarterServices No Comments »

(PRWEB) October 19, 2010 -- Distance learning continues to grow at an incredible rate. As more students begin to learn online, it becomes obvious that distance learning is a better fit for some students than others. Individuals considering distance learning desire to know if studying online will be a good choice for them. Schools which invest heavily in attracting new online students want to retain the students across their degree program. Both schools and students benefit when a student’s level of readiness for learning online is measured.

From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 a total of 209,025 students from 271 colleges and universities took the SmarterMeasure learning readiness indicator. Data from each of these students was analyzed in aggregate, and the findings are now being reported in the 2010 Student Readiness Report (SRR). Among these students 72% were female, only 28% were of traditional age (18-22 years old), 28% had “social” as their dominant learning style, 33% exhibited between 70%-79% of mastery in technical knowledge, and 45% scored 100% on technical competency skills. Statistically significant differences were found among the demographic factors of gender, ethnicity, age, institution type, and the number of prior online courses taken. For example, females were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of individual attributes and typing accuracy. Males were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of reading rate and technical knowledge.

The SRR will be presented publicly at the upcoming Sloan-C conference in Orlando, FL. According to Sloan-C over 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term – a 17 percent increase over the number reported the previous year. This 17% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2% growth of the overall higher education student population. When asked about how the SRR data could help with the growth of the online student population, Dr. Mac Adkins, President of SmarterServices said, “The Student Readiness Report is of substantial interest to distance learning leaders as they plan to continue to scale and improve their programs. For example, the aggregate data included in the report is useful to instructional designers as they craft their courses to be intuitive for learners of various learning styles and technical abilities, while the information about learners’ life factors and their abilities is useful to student services personnel”.

To download a free copy of the report go to http://www.smartermeasure.com/documents/2010_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf.
SmarterMeasure is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures students’ strengths and opportunities for improvement in six areas related to online learning and technology rich courses. Those include life factors, learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall. Serving over 300 institutions, SmarterMeasure is the premier readiness tool delivered in a custom user interface, complete with an administrative panel that includes access to student data, data export, communication tools, and custom features.

SmarterServices LLC provides research-based, data-driven services that empower schools and organizations to make smarter decisions.

For more information/interview contact: Dr. Mac Adkins 334 543 4026 or visit www.SmarterServices.com.

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Student Readiness Report 2010 - Press Release

Giving Back

Company , SmarterServices No Comments »

This summer we were approached about donating items to a group of soldiers in Iraq organizing a 10K Run in memory of 9/11.  Activities like this help pass the time, keep the soldiers in shape, and provide a welcome distraction from all the devastation going on around them.  SmarterServices was happy to send a box of sport balls for them to enjoy. Just a small token of our appreciation for all they do to protect our freedom!

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Giving Back

Education Nation - Learning Styles Interview

Company , Current Events , eLearning , In the news , SmarterMeasure , SmarterServices , YouTube No Comments »

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Education Nation - Learning Styles Interview