Under President Obama’s administration, education is an urgent priority driven by the following goals by 2020:
(1) America will increase the proportion of college graduates from 39% to 60% so that our population will hold a 2-year or 4-year degree; and
(2) America will close the achievement gap so that all students – regardless of race, income, or class – graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers.

Reaching these goals requires a revolutionary overhaul of our educational system in which the use of various digital technologies in the classroom is one element of this transformation (NETP, 2010).

Higher education needs to respond to today’s economic and educational challenges, which include declining financial performance, increasing competition, and rapidly changing information technologies. These challenges are besieging higher education and forcing it to adapt to unprecedented and extraordinary changes (EDUCAUSE, 2010).

Colleges and universities need to implement strategies for improving learning and graduation rates while maintaining or reducing costs associated with education (Altback, Gumport & Berdahl, 2012). Today, higher education faculty members are considering new and challenging approaches to enhancing the teaching and learning experience in classrooms. Among these new approaches is the use of various digital technologies to make the lecture materials available outside of the in-class instructional period, while enhancing traditional in-class instruction with hands-on learning and group projects (Schwartz, 2011).