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Today’s guest post is from Lisa Verdi of MindfulBIZ.  Lisa is sharing some strategies for tweaking your website to line up with the goals of your business.  Be sure to read to the end of the post for a chance to win a website critique from Lisa!

Some designers and makers get caught up in the hoopla of starting a creative business and focus on the how-to details while avoiding the difficult big questions. I’m referring to the who, what, and why behind your creative venture.

But that’s not you! You’ve been devouring the wisdom at Crafting an MBA and have a business plan that describes the unique approach that sets you apart, the people who will want what you create and how you’ll attract those people to you.

Great! But have you put your business plan into action on your website?

Your website is your primary tool for promoting and selling your products and services. If there’s a disconnect between your business plan and your website, you’re missing out on a lot of sales.

Most people…

Crafting an MBA

The lecture-capture system Tegrity Campus has long been integrated into the Blackboard course-management system. But it used to take hands-on work from the college IT staff to get the two programs talking, and sometimes students who wanted to watch professors’ talks would be delayed for a day.

Now Blackboard and Tegrity have figured out a better way to shake hands, with a module that makes lecture-viewing a one-stop shop for students, and saves time and hassle for college technology staff. “I used to have to tweak things from time to time,” says Steve Clark, coordinator of learning systems at Athens State University. “Now it’s completely hands-off.”

For the technologists, the fix is an interface called a Blackboard Building Block designed to let Tegrity Campus users plug right in.

From the students’ perspective, they log into their Blackboard account, click on the Tegrity button, and get instant lecture access. That wasn’t always the case, says Mr. Clark. He used to run an…

Wired Campus

Long Beach, Calif.—The leaders of the annual TED conference, known for featuring short, carefully prepared talks on big ideas about technology and society, hope to apply their approach to education.

This week they announced TED-Ed, which will provide a hand-picked set of free online educational talks (expected to be even shorter than the conference talks), many submitted by educators themselves but enhanced by TED officials. An online forum, the Ted-Ed Brain Trust, will encourage discussion of how to reform teaching using the videos and other technology.

The system is not up yet, but the online forum is scheduled to open as early as next week, says Logan Smalley, whose title is TED-Ed catalyst. The videos will be added in the coming months, he says.

The project will also create an updated listing of the more than 900 existing TED talks, arranging them by categories that align more neatly to academic disciplines. Typical categories now feature generic headings, like “mind blowing,”…

Wired Campus

Chegg.com, an online textbook-rental company, announced an agreement on Wednesday with the nation’s largest college-bookstore association that could lead many bookstores on campuses to offer textbook rentals for the first time.

The agreement with the Independent College Bookstore Association, which represents more than 200 college bookstores, may allow Chegg to expand how it reaches students, which has largely been online. Bookstores that offer rentals will receive a portion of the revenue, said Nathan Schultz, Chegg.com’s vice president of content management.

Colleges in the association have the option to offer textbooks through Chegg.com, or not. Four colleges already offer the textbook-rental service, Mr. Schultz said.

Wired Campus

While I wrap things up at the New York Gift Fair today, I’m excited to share this guest post from Regina Morrison of Acute Designs.

A little over a year ago, I was stuck in a mind numbing job and needed a creative outlet so I started a small handmade accessories business.  I initially thought my business would be a fun side project but quickly knew that I needed more than a typical 9-5 job.

I was bitten by the bug – the be your own boss and run your own business bug and I was determined to turn my passion into a full time job.

In order to get to the place I am now, which is full time business owner and blogger, I had to do many different things.  Four of these things stick out as the most important and they are simple things that you can do if you are contemplating making the leap into full time business owner.

1. Create a Plan – This is boring to some, but a solid plan will keep you on the right path.  Figure out exactly how you will make money.  It is fun to day dream about your…

Crafting an MBA

The news has been filled recently with two “orthogonal” continuing stories about higher education.  The first story involves a seemingly never-ending list of egregious activities that touches almost all of the well known (and less well known) names of for-profit higher education, and the congressional indignation that has followed. It seems increasingly likely that the congress will enact laws that will restrict significantly the conditions under which the for-profit higher ed world can access government student financial aid.  Should this happen, it could greatly constrain the growth of the for-profit sector, and, in fact, put the survival of some of its players at risk. The second story involves the increasingly aggressive growth of on-line degree programs of traditional, bricks and mortar non-profit universities and colleges. This aggressive growth has been driven by an increasing understanding that current funding models of the non-profit sector are broken, and it is imperative…

Changing Higher Education