eLearning introduces new tools for college that aid students and staff alike

McCormick Administration Building, Northwest Mississippi Community College. (Photo by Carly Fox)

By Sarah Smith, Northwest Mississippi Community College

Northwest Mississippi Community College’s eLearning team has been hard at work implementing new tools to help students and staff alike as they work on building a better system for learning and life at Northwest.

One of the latest additions has been a plugin called Brainfuse. Brainfuse works by allowing live tutoring at any time in any subject for students. Instructors can also utilize this tool to help students by assigning them tools to help them better learn the material.

eLearning has come a long way in the past few years. Before COVID-19, eLearning was designated as its own sort of campus, however, due to the demand and necessity of digital learning, everyone on campus began to utilize these tools including the Adult Education program, which continues to use eLearning components to help students get their high school equivalency.

“That allowed us to shift our focus,” said Angel Nickens, Northwest dean of eLearning.

When COVID forced colleges and universities to pivot to entirely online learning and services, Northwest’s on campus departments and instructors would learn to utilize the online platform used by eLearning, Canvas. Now that this shift has happened, Nickens said that their main role on campus is to serve as support.

“eLearning isn’t just about online classes,” Nickens said.

For students and instructors, eLearning serves as a resource always there to lend a helping hand and some encouragement. Tools such as “Drop Out Detective” works by monitoring students grades and assignments.

If you’d like to learn more about Northwest eLearning, please visit, the eLearning website.