The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) announced it is integrating HP LIFE e-Learning, a free, cloud-based, e-learning program that offers IT and business training for entrepreneurs, into selected community colleges.
As part of this collaboration, NACCE and HP, one of the world’s largest technology companies, will further strengthen the critical conversation on the power of e-learning in community colleges, and how technology can be used to launch student startups and grow local small businesses. They will also publish the results of a survey on how community colleges currently use e-learning to foster entrepreneurship, how faculty perceive e-learning in the classroom as well as students’ expectations for using e-learning as a teaching tool.
We know technology can transform education as well as increase the growth of small businesses via increases in productivity,” says Heather Van Sickle, president & CEO of NACCE. “Community colleges sit at the heart of their local entrepreneurial ecosystems. It is important that we baseline how community colleges are using technology and online learning to foster entrepreneurship and in turn help grow the local economy.
NACCE includes nearly 300 colleges in the U.S. and abroad, representing over 1,800 professionals who expose approximately 465,000 students to the possibility of putting their newly acquired skills and knowledge to work in their own business, if not immediately then at some point in the future.
By using HP’s innovative cloud-based technology, HP LIFE e-Learning offers entrepreneurs anywhere a unique e-learning program that gives them free access to the essential IT and business skills they need to establish and grow their own businesses. Together with NACCE we will empower community college student entrepreneurs to build successful businesses,” says Gabi Zedlmayer, VP sustainability and social innovation at HP.
One Key Component – Classroom Integration
To shed light on best practices around the ways in which technology and online learning can foster entrepreneurship in the classroom, HP LIFE e-Learning and NACCE have selected six HP LIFE Faculty Ambassadors to use HP LIFE e-Learning in their classes. Ambassadors will provide options and best practices for e-learning classroom integration. The Ambassadors include:
Bryan Christensen, Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota James Dottin, Middlesex Community College, Lowell, Massachusetts Barbara Millard, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas Kim Simons, Madisonville Community College, Madisonville, Kentucky
Darcie Tumey, Catawba Valley Community College, Hickory, North Carolina Otis White, Rio Salado College, Tempe, Arizona
Rio Salado College knows the importance of tailoring quality online education to meet the needs of our students. Interactive training is key to entrepreneurship education, and we are looking forward to piloting HP LIFE e-Learning into our courses and being a catalyst for student entrepreneurs,” says Dr. Chris Bustamante, president of Rio Salado College.
As part of the collaboration, a market survey will be conducted. This survey will document how technology and online learning is used in community colleges to foster entrepreneurship for students. It will also consolidate the perceptions of administration, faculty and students about using technology and online learning in learning and entrepreneurship as a likely career path. Based on these findings, HP LIFE e-Learning and NACCE will present recommendations to colleges on how to optimize e-learning programs for student entrepreneurs and local small businesses.
