The NJEDge Difference

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent but the one most adaptable to change.

—Leon C. Megginson, Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge

“Rich media learning objects, most often delivered via high definition video and real time collaboration via video conferencing suites is now de rigueur for every institution.”

Ed Chapel, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, NJEDge.Net

Megginson’s redefining “change” of Darwin’s classic The Origin of the Species resonates with me when I reflect upon the NJEDge organization and the value we bring to our membership. The NJEDge team, over the years, has coined the term “purpose built” when describing the products and services we offer to our members and the notion of responsive adaptation to the environment and surrounding conditions outlined in the Darwinian framework is at the heart of this concept.

Consider the many disruptive developments and challenges that we have met head on and handled together through our consortium over the past decade and a half. Foremost among these was the emergence of broadband connectivity as an essential tool for teaching, learning and research, and the prohibitive cost of these resources as a barrier to entry and full participation in the digital education movement. With broadband capability came the proliferation of content and the seemingly limitless capacity to information; adding to this mix are intellectual property concerns and learning modules, both synchronous and asynchronous, all seeking individual response. Meanwhile, synchronous and asynchronous learning models flourished, degrees granted through distance education programs grew in leaps and bounds. Teaching and learning suddenly required learning management systems. Instructional designers emerged as the recognized experts regarding method and pedagogical efficacy rarifying the content and wisdom provided by resident faculty. Rich media learning objects, most often delivered via high definition video and real time collaboration via video conferencing suites is now de rigueur for every institution. And finally, with all of this content and learning capacity, the reality is that learning can be highly customized and personalized. The digital bread crumbs that all of the participants leave behind have opened the door to big data-based analytics for monitoring and predicting student success. And one more thing: All that we have built with all of our precious and private information is under unrelenting attack on the security front.

Amid this litany of changes and challenges, our consortium ethos has served us well. The triad of the ever-changing higher education landscape create a series of daunting challenges to our members. NJEDge will respond to these realities through an iterative process of responsive adaptation and find solutions for you, our members. This process is fully realized in our network, which has been redesigned in response to your needs for bandwidth, high definition video, highly available and recoverable services and, most recently, with a completely refurbished core optical infrastructure that can scale to accommodate high performance computing requirements and, at the same time, respond to the unrelenting security attacks that challenge us all.

In November, we will formally unveil Illumira, the core component of NJEDge’s comprehensive digital content repository management and presentation suite.

While our other portfolio of products and services has evolved in similar fashion, I wanted to highlight one among them. The NJVID application originated as a video management and repository solution focused primarily on the needs of higher education libraries to store, classify and deliver video content via Internet streaming protocols and to do so in a manner that protected the commercial interests and the intellectual property rights of the content creator. Today, the NJVID product has become an invaluable tool for the entire college and university enterprise and it has been widely adopted by members of the New Jersey higher education community as well as colleague institutions throughout the country. Running on all manner of computing and mobile devices, it interoperates seamlessly with all of the industry leading learning management systems and browsers while providing digital rights management compliant access to both commercial and locally developed audio, video and document content that is curated and discoverable with the most current tagging protocols. It is responsive to the universal accessibility standard with feature rich and affordable closed-caption and transcript creation tools, and it allows for the integration of adaptive learning strategies by inserting testing and quizzing protocols into the content stream.

So compelling is the evolution of the NJVID platform that I daresay Charles Darwin would declare it an entirely new species—the product of the iterative, member-driven process of responsive adaptation to the wholly redefined higher education landscape. Accordingly, I am pleased to announce that the NJVID name will be retired this year as it no longer conveys the breadth and richness of the features and functionality of its highly evolved successor. Its capabilities have eclipsed its original design and the appeal and adoption of the application as a proven and valued educational technology solution has reached well beyond the borders of New Jersey. Beginning with our upcoming annual NJEDge member conference in November, we will formally unveil Illumira, the core component of NJEDge’s comprehensive digital content repository management and presentation suite.

Thanks to all of our members and colleague institutions throughout the country who have shepherded this product along to its current state. Please join us at the annual conference for the unveiling of the renamed and rebranded application.

Ed Chapel, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, NJEDge.Net