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A Turning Point for Prison Education

Three colleges that The Chronicle spoke with are in varying stages of adding technology to their prison-ed programs. The University of Central Florida ended its partnership last year with a controversial prison communications provider owned by Aventiv Technologies and plans to incorporate synchronous Zoom classes to reach more students. Washington University in St. Louis is about to pilot a learning-management system, or LMS, that two formerly incarcerated students helped develop. Another, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is tapping an existing open-source LMS that mimics Canvas, though its partner, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, intends to enter into contract with the ed-tech vendor Blackboard.