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Full Sail taps VR to help online students feel less isolated
Taking online classes is an easy way to fit college into your schedule without the need to physically be on campus. But, there are drawbacks. Full Sail University hopes that implementing virtual reality into its courses will help eliminate some of those faults. The Florida-based school is collaborating with Doghead Simulations on a virtual classroom app. The idea is to help remote students feel more like they're sitting in a lecture hall rather than watching a professor's YouTube video or taking an online survey, according to VR Focus.
College esports is set to explode, starting with the Fiesta Bowl
As executive director of the Fiesta Bowl, one of the largest postseason college football games of the year, Mike Nealy was more familiar with shoulder pads than mousepads. Six months ago, he didn't know people were making money playing video games professionally, he'd never heard of Twitch, and the last time he picked up a controller, it was attached to an Atari 2600. That all changed after a conversation with John Pierce, an esports consultant and former marketing head for the Phoenix Coyotes and US Olympic Committee. Pierce outlined the professional-gaming boom to Nealy and explained how it could tie into the collegiate football scene. He put Nealy in touch with Blizzard, the studio behind Overwatch.
College students can pay for Amazon Prime by the month
Amazon is no stranger to discounting its services for college students. You've still had to pay for Prime by the year, however, which can seem wasteful if you're only on campus for some of the year. Thankfully, you won't have to pay more than you have to. Amazon has introduced a by-the-month option for students that asks you to pay $5.49 per month only for as long as you need it. If you don't need fast shipping when you leave for summer break or have no inclination to watch The Tick during exams, you can put that money to better use.
Comcast tries using Roku to hook college kids on cable
A few years after launching the Xfinity on Campus service, Comcast says it's now available for over 100 schools -- up by 60 percent from last year. Originally, its streaming TV setup only worked through phones, PCs and tablets, but this fall new and returning students can also watch via Roku. That should work via a stick, box, or even a TV with the system built-in -- like the TCL set included in our Back to School buyer's guide -- with live TV, video on-demand and a cloud DVR setup. Of course, getting college students used to cable service is a big deal for Comcast too, as it tries to stem the tide of cord-nevers who graduate and avoid traditional TV service altogether. Even if it leads to another internet-delivered service like its planned Xfinity Instant TV or DirecTV Now, getting the kids a taste of cable now could keep them from sticking to antennas and Netflix in the future.
'Collegiate Rocket League' is invading campuses this fall
The world of competitive gaming has broken out of livestreams and plugged itself into network television. These days, eSports sit alongside traditional sports and popular TV shows on networks ranging from ESPN to TBS. To ensure this industry continues to flourish, developers (such as Riot Games, and Blizzard) are supporting grassroots college eSports groups. And, so too is Psyonix, the company behind the modern multiplayer classic Rocket League. In partnership with college gaming network TeSPA, the developer is putting its weight behind a new competitive college league.
There’s a college scholarship for talented ‘Overwatch’ players
If you've ever thought that your Overwatch plays were a fine art worthy of college recognition, then it looks like your dreams may have just been answered. After introducing a League Of Legends scholarship last year, The University of California Irvine (UCI) is now adding an Overwatch scholarship to its program. Starting later this year, those awarded a scholarship will be given $2500 a year towards their tuition fees. In return they are expected to spend between 15 and 20 hours a week split between practicing their plays, attending team meetings, entering competitions and even doing a bit of community service.
UK's Bletchley Park to host cybersecurity boarding school
Bletchley Park will once again serve as a cryptographic hub in the UK. Plans are afoot to create a new "National College of Cyber Security" in G-Block, a building which is currently in a state of disrepair. It's scheduled to open in 2018 and will serve as a specialised six-form college, teaching teenagers the fundamentals of encryption and computer science. As the Guardian reports, the center will take up to 500 students at any one time and offer free tuition, funding its efforts through venture capital, corporate sponsorship and possibly state funding instead. It's envisioned as a boarding school, however a day tuition option will also be available.
Rutgers professor forced to take psych evaluation over tweets
What you say online has consequences. An adjunct professor from Rutgers learned that this week after he was detained by police and forced to take a psych evaluation after asking his class a few hyperbolic questions and later posting versions of them to Twitter. According to the New York Daily News, last Wednesday Kevin Allred asked his class if conservatives would care as much about the Second Amendment if guns killed more white people. "In class, we talked about flag burning generally as a form of protest, and what does the flag mean to different people," Allred told the publication.
US renews five-year gaming education grant for Becker College
To maintain its interest in gaming education, the US Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration renewed a five-year grant this week with Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Becker College is the home of MassDigi, an academic program that focuses on the entrepreneurial side of game development, including a 12-week summer program where attendees take a concept to a market ready title. The Economic Development Administration's grant is for the amount of $583,000.
Google search cards help you choose a college
Search for a college or university with Google and you'll soon see a new results card. These small, mobile-friendly summaries include graduation and acceptance rates, the average post-grad salary and the normal fees for undergraduate tuition. All of the stats are being pulled from the US Department of Education's "College Scorecard" site, meaning they're reliable and easy to compare. Of course, you've always been able to find this information yourself -- it just took a little longer rooting around the web. Now, it's easier to retrieve some quick, top-level information. So whatever you value the most -- be it projected earnings, or cheaper fees -- you can surface this information almost immediately. Which sounds pretty useful, whether you're just starting to think about your options, or narrowing down some colleges you've been deliberating for months.
'League of Legends' fuels college rivalries with live broadcasts
You no longer have to head to a basketball or football game to see your favorite college sports rivalry play out. Yahoo eSports and Riot Games' uLoL are partnering on a series of five League of Legends live broadcasts that will pit players from major North American schools against each other once a week, starting November 4th at 6PM Eastern. You vote for your favorite rivalries among 12, ranging from Cal/Stanford to Harvard/Yale -- the top 5 go on to in-person competitions that Yahoo will stream online. There will even be viewing parties at each school if you'd rather watch with fellow students. While there's no certainty that these college MOBA match-ups will be as intense as the conventional kind, it's safe to say that there's a lot of pride on the line.
UC Irvine debuts the first public college esports arena in the US
The University of California, Irvine, is serious about esports. This fall it will officially launch a competitive-gaming initiative, complete with scholarships and an already-decorated League of Legends team, and it's just finished construction on a 3,500-square-foot esports arena that's set to open Friday, Sept. 23rd. The arena is packed with 80 gaming PCs loaded with top eSports titles, a webcasting studio and viewing screens. The arena will serve as a home base for the university's gaming community and a place for its competitive players to train. It also represents another step forward for collegiate esports across the country. "Esports is the future of competition. Period," UCI's Acting Director of Esports Mark Deppe says. "It transcends language, geography, race, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability and many other identities. In five years many more schools will official programs and more structure will be in place to regulate and provide guidance to schools. Esports also has a huge opportunity to learn from the successes and shortcomings of traditional sports and provide a model for collegiate competition in the 21st century."
Twitter adds more college sports to its video streaming lineup
Twitter is adding new video streaming deals almost daily, and today it announced an agreement that pads its college sports lineup. Following last week's Pac-12 deal, the social network is teaming up with Campus Insiders to stream over 300 "live college events" from Mountain West Conference, Patriot League and West Coast Conference. Yes, that includes live games and competitions spanning football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, volleyball, field hockey, water polo and swimming. If you're not familiar, Campus Insiders is like an all digital version of ESPN for college sports, offering news and live coverage for 3,000 live events thanks to partnerships with five conferences.
Twitter's latest sports streaming deal is for Pac-12 college games
Twitter already has a deal in place with the NFL to stream Thursday Night Football games this fall, and reports indicate that the social network has its eye on even more sports live action. Adding to the slate of streaming agreements, Pac-12 Network announced today that Twitter will host over 150 events during the upcoming 2016-2017 academic year. More specifically, the deal is for content from Pac-12 Plus: "a broadband network" of live coverage produced by the 12 universities that make up the conference.
Apple Music's new student plan cuts subscriptions in half
Although it may soon give it a welcome revamp, Apple is finding new ways to lure new listeners to its Music streaming service. The company confirmed today that it has launched a new student membership in seven countries, which offers the same features as regular plans with at least a 50 percent discount. Users simply need to prove they're studying at an eligible college or university to take advantage of the new tier.
Arizona State University wins 2016's 'Heroes of the Dorm'
Arizona State University's "Real Dream Team" won't have to pay for tuition for the rest of the time they're enrolled. How's that? Over the weekend these runners up from last year's premiere Heroes of the Dorm competition beat out rivals from UConn and the University of Texas at Arlington in Heroes of the Storm, where top prize is gratis education. Before you start wondering if they can repeat this, maybe give the guys a break and let 'em bask in the victory of not only free college, but of their eSports exploits being broadcast in primetime on ESPN 2.
White House helps you find the right college through open data
It's more than a little late to choose which college to attend this fall, but the White House might have the tools you need to make an informed decision next year. It just launched a redesigned College Scorecard website that relies on open data (a big deal in government these days) to help you evaluate schools, whether you're a future student or a researcher. You can not only find out which colleges produce the most successful graduates, but also the typical debt loads, average SAT scores for newcomers and other factors that aren't always easy to track down. You can even drill down to very specific criteria, such as students who received Pell grants.
Researchers use an app to predict GPA based on smartphone use
What a person does on their phone call tell you a lot about them -- including their GPA. Researchers from Dartmouth College and the University of Texas at Austin have developed an app that tracks smartphone activity to compute a grade point average that's within 0.17 of a point. The software is called smartGPA and using it alongside "periodic self reports" keeps tabs on how hard a student is studying and partying -- on top of physical activity, sleep, attendance and social interactions. Members of the research team were also responsible for the StudentLife app that kept up with mental health and its effect on grades, and this goes a step further by taking into account a broader picture of daily life. "We show that there are a number of important behavioral factors automatically inferred from smartphones that significantly correlate with term and cumulative GPA," the study explains. Installing the app, which is built with cloud and machine learning algorithms, monitored a group of undergrads 24 hours a day for 10 weeks.
President Obama uses Facebook and Vine to preview his free college plan
President Barack Obama is previewing parts of his State of the Union address in a bid to drum up support ahead of the big speech, and his latest effort is breaking some ground -- both in the policy and how he's presenting it. The head of state took to Facebook, Twitter and Vine to unveil a proposal that would give Americans two free years of community college so long as they maintain good grades and graduate. It's a rare move for discussing politics online. While the president regularly makes announcements on social networks, it's not often that you get a peek at the State of the Union while you're catching up on friends' status updates and looping cat videos.
Second US university extends League of Legends scholarships
A second school, Kentucky's University of Pikeville, has decided to join Illinois' Robert Morris University in offering scholarships to talented League of Legends players. This fall, the University of Pikeville will offer "at least 20 scholarships" to League of Legends players who will be treated much like other student athletes. "They'll have to have a certain GPA," said University of Pikeville new media director Bruce Parsons. "We'll look at them like student athletes. There will be practice time and video time when they have to study other teams for upcoming competitions." According to Parsons, the University of Pikeville League of Legends team will begin official tournament competition shortly after the start of the fall term. Despite NPR's flippancy, this makes a lot of sense, both for the students and the schools. While nowhere near as popular as the NFL or NBA, eSports has been growing exponentially of late - the Dota 2 International 2014 tournament was recently televised on one of the lesser ESPNs - which both affords gamers a scholarship opportunity and offers a new potential revenue stream for the increasingly large number of universities in danger of losing control over their other revenue-generating sports programs. [Image: Riot Games]