Leveraging Technology in the LRC

As part of one of Concorde's pillars in its strategic vision - Student Centered - each of our 16 campuses in eight states has a Learning Resource Center (LRC). It's a place where students can come and find all the resources - both in print and electronically - and health care technology they need to be successful in their classes and chosen careers.

As the world and health care technology rapidly change, it's vitally important that we at Concorde change with it, including the resources and technology in our LRCs. We thought we'd take a look at some of the latest technologies readily available to all students at Concorde.

An office in the cloud

"Every student email is a Microsoft Office 365 account and as such has a free version of Microsoft Office," said Ben Robinson, Learning Resource Center Coordinator at Concorde's campus in Jacksonville, Fla. "Also included is their One Drive, a cloud computing, web-based virtual office suite in case the students are on a computer somewhere that doesn't have Office. This way, they can still work on their papers and other projects."

Robinson said there's even an app for this email account for both Apple and Android users.

"They simply have to search for Outlook," he said. "Also, configuring is a cinch."

New database portal

Each campus has access to health care technology within the research and curriculum resources at the Gale/Cengage Learning portal.

"There are 10 databases available to students on- or off-campus and include access to up-to-date scholarly research as well as a range of research topics from health and wellness to reference to program-specific databases for Physical Therapy and Nursing," said Barry Parks, M.A., Learning Resources Coordinator at Concorde's Memphis, Tenn. campus. "There is also a career database."

Robinson added, "Our new database portal from Gale is a wonderful addition to the LRC resource offerings. They also provide students with APA citations and many other helpful items for research papers."

Some of the databases inside the portal include Career Transitions, a virtual reference library, Health, and Wellness Resource Center and Alternative Health Module, Science in Context and Nursing and Allied Health Collection.

"The student portal is where students can find their grades, check attendance, make payments and view class schedules," Robinson said. "They can also change their passwords here, but there's another way to do that."

Recently, a Student Self-Service Password Reset Portal was added, making it easier for students to change their passwords just once for all Concorde websites.

Health care technology on Canvas

Canvas is the Learning Management System used for all of Concorde's online classes and programs. Students can receive help in navigating that portal at any and all of our Learning Resource Centers.