Elise Italiano at Public Discourse, in her article Community, Contemplation, and Computers: the Role of Technology in Education:

Though it is becoming clear that technology is changing the way we learn, it is not yet clear that it is improving it.

Though concerned with recent developments in K-12 education (especially in light of the White House's ConnectED Initiative), there's plenty here for higher-ed folks to contemplate regarding the relationship between pedagogy and technology.

Those who embrace the White House’s view of education share three main presumptions:

1. Education should be highly individualized;
2. Digital interaction with concepts and ideas is an effective and desirable means of learning;
3. Education should be primarily geared toward helping produce students with skills for the workplace.

We, obviously, are in the education technology business. We really think Populi can help small colleges. But as we've written before, there's a lot of hot air about online learning that has nothing to do with actually getting students a meaningful education.

The best presumption anyone can make about online learning is that it's an amplifier: both in the sense that amplifiers get your voice out to more people, and in that small pedagogical problems are more likely to become big ones.

We just released an improved version of online references. References were introduced with the new Admissions release from last December, and after receiving feedback from customers, we found lots of ways to improve them.

New Admissions setting

You'll notice a new tab in Admissions > Settings for Online Reference Forms. This is where you'll create and edit your reference forms (you can have as many as you need).

Default form for schools already using online references

If you've already included a reference form in your application, you'll see a form called "Default". That one is presently included in your application. It collects the same information as the one you're already using: name, number, and an essay field. If that form is handling your needs, you don't need to do anything: it's already set up.

Design a custom form

Many schools need a more complex form than the basic essay. You can now design that custom reference form right inside Populi (or update the Default form). It works just like building an application, and you have almost as many options in the reference form as you do in the application designer.

How it works

Include it in an application when adding new fields.

On the applicant's side, it works just as before: he just enters an email address, and when he submits, Populi sends the reference a link to your online reference form.

Keep an eye on the Admissions Dashboard for newly-submitted reference forms, and then process them just like you would any other application field (you can also edit the answers on submitted references).

If you have any questions about how to use the new online reference forms, check out the Populi Knowledge Base or contact Populi Support.

We've been improving the new Admissions features we released just before Christmas. Here's a quick look at what we've done:

Insert new elements

We updated the application designer. Previously, you had to add new elements at the end of the application and then drag them where you needed them. Now you just click the + and add another heading, text block, or field and insert the new element wherever you need it.

Also, now you can see what's Required without having to look in the Preview tab.

Application fees

Previously, you had one option with application fees: collect them when the Lead started the application. Now you have the option to collect the fee at the start, or to let the Lead wait until he submits the application to pay the fee.

Importing field info to the profile

The new application fields make it simple to collect information from the applicant that you can import directly to the Profile. We've improved that entire process:

• We re-worked the interface: first you select whether to link to an existing field; then you pick the field you want on the application. This lets you collect the exact information you need from the applicant to import to the Profile.
• To import a field—say, a mailing address—just set it to accepted.
• When you accept the application, you can import course of study information (program, degree, specialization).
• Now you can collect gender information using an application field.

Early in the morning of December 17, 2013, we released the all-new Populi Admissions. No corner of Admissions went untouched—we refreshed everything from the functionality to the workflows to the technical framework that makes it all go. Additionally, we released a number of new features in Academics and—as you likely noticed—updated lots of visual elements throughout Populi.

Here's what's new since December 17...

Admissions

Applications are better in every way. The new design tool lets you build applications field-by-field and preview how it will look to applicants. Leads no longer need a user role or login to fill it out—they just go to their application's unique URL. Application Questions let you communicate with your Leads about any questions they have along the way. If you have multiple applications, you can charge a unique fee for each one, and tie each one to a different academic program. And that's just some of the big stuff with applications. Read all about them in our Knowledge Base.

We replaced the Prospects role with Leads. Leads are people for whom you can track Admissions-related information. You might find out about Leads any number of ways—including when they fill out the new Inquiry form or submit one of your new applications. The Lead Routing setting lets you set up a rotation among your Admissions staff to receive new Inquiries and Applications.

Admissions reporting is much improved: the standard reports come with a new filter that lets you get at your Admissions data from almost any angle. We also added a Funnel Report to help you analyze the factors that propel or dissuade your Leads in the admissions process.

Lead Sources give you specific insight into how your Leads learn about your school. You can include a bit of Lead Source data in the embed code for your Inquiry or Application form—so if you send out an email newsletter with an Apply Now link, you can get hard data on how effective that newsletter form proved to be.

A few other things:

• The Admissions Dashboard shows all admissions-related activity (Leads, Inquiries, application activity, etc.) and lets you jump right to what you need to work on next.
• The new Admissions Admin role creates an Admissions "super-user" with access to settings, application forms, and so on.
• The Scheduled Events tab in Communications lets you see every upcoming communication plan event (to-do, letter, email), complete with tools to change due dates, cancel events, and even cancel plans.

Academics

The new Transfer Credits report in Academics > Reporting lets you look over all the transfer courses at your school. Run reports on what you've rejected or approved, or find all the pending transfer credits and change their status to approved.

Term Student Fields let you track term-based custom information fields for your students. Say you have periodic "benchmarking" exams that your students take once a term—you now have an easy way to track that information over time.

You can now add greater detail to your P/F marks with the Pass/Fail grade scale in Academics > Settings.

Students can now see a detailed list of their attendance record for any of their courses.

Customizations

The new Customizations tab lets Account Admins control a wide range of Populi settings. Check out this blog post for more details.

New Look

Maybe you noticed? From the login screen to various buttons and icons, Adam Sentz has refreshed Populi's look in ways obvious and subtle.

Behind-the-scenes

We're always working to improve Populi's speed, reliability, and resilience. A little before the big Admissions update, we upgrades Populi's infrastructure with some amazing new servers and other back end improvements. Consequently, Populi is routinely handling twice as many logged-in users as this time last year—without even breaking a sweat.

Many thanks to all of our customers, new and old, for making 2013 a great year to work at Populi. Here's to an even better 2014!

Website usability researchers The Nielsen-Norman Group have something to say to business-to-business websites: publish your pricing.

Business customers report pricing as the top most needed piece of information online, yet many business-to-business (B2B) sites don’t show it… In our studies, we watch participants go to competitors’ sites when websites do not show prices. If pricing information can be found elsewhere, that’s where users will be.

We're aware of one other company in the higher-ed software industry that has up-front pricing information—Pathwright—and they're after a different slice of pie than we are. Otherwise, we're not aware of any services comparable to Populi that publish what they cost.

Companies rationalize reasons for not revealing prices online: we don’t want our competitors to know, price varies for different customers, price constantly fluctuates, customized services have unique prices, and so on. These excuses are legitimate reasons in almost all cases, but they’re still excuses. Not showing pricing works against customer needs and thus creates a hostile shopping experience. Remember the Halo Effect: people’s impression of one aspect of your brand (“they’re hiding the information I want”) transfers to their feelings about everything else (“they’re difficult to deal with; I don’t like them.”)

We don't call it the "Halo Effect", but the description of it resonates with us. We want you to know everything you deserve to know about us: What do we provide you? How will we do business with you? What are our priorities as a company? What does it cost?

This may be a murky, obscurantist industry, but hiding basic stuff like that never made any sense to us.