Category: Education

There’s a version of the DNP that gets discussed almost entirely in clinical terms: the terminal practice degree, the credential for advanced practice nurses, the next step after an MSN. That framing is accurate but incomplete.

For nurses with their sights on executive leadership as Chief Nursing Officer, Vice President of Patient Care, Director of Clinical Operations, or healthcare system administrator, the DNP is increasingly the degree that builds the specific competencies those roles require.  The online DNP programs have made that preparation accessible to working nurses without requiring them to step away from the careers they’re trying to advance.

The question worth asking isn’t whether a DNP prepares nurses for leadership. It’s how, and whether the program you’re evaluating actually delivers on that preparation in a meaningful way.

Systems Thinking and Organizational Strategy

The foundational shift that DNP programs are designed to produce is a move from unit-level thinking to systems-level thinking. Bedside nurses and even experienced nurse managers tend to solve problems within defined boundaries. The unit, the shift, and the immediate patient population. Executive leaders need to hold a much larger frame.

These include how decisions in one part of a system affect outcomes in another, how resource allocation ripples through patient care quality, and how regulatory changes translate into operational responses across an entire institution.  DNP curricula build this capacity deliberately through coursework in organizational theory, healthcare systems analysis, and strategic planning.

Students learn to read a healthcare organization the way a clinician reads a patient.  It identifies underlying dysfunction, anticipating downstream effects of interventions, and designing solutions that address root causes rather than surface symptoms. This kind of thinking doesn’t develop automatically from clinical experience, even extensive clinical experience. It requires structured education and the opportunity to apply it to real organizational problems.

Healthcare Finance and the Language of the C-Suite

One of the most consistent gaps between clinically excellent nurses and executive-ready leaders is financial literacy. DNP programs in healthcare executive leadership tracks build genuine competency in healthcare economics, budget management, reimbursement structures, and value-based care financial models.

Students learn how clinical decisions connect to revenue cycles, how to make evidence-based cases for resource investment, and how to interpret the financial reporting that hospital boards and executives use to evaluate institutional performance.

A DNP-prepared nurse who can walk into a budget discussion and engage substantively with the financial arguments, not just advocate from clinical instinct, carries different weight in that room than one who cannot. This isn’t about turning nurses into accountants. It’s about giving clinical leaders the financial fluency to represent patient care priorities credibly in conversations where resources get allocated.

Quality Improvement and Evidence-Based Leadership Practice

DNP programs are built around the doctoral project, which requires students to design, implement, and evaluate a practice improvement initiative within a real healthcare setting. This isn’t a theoretical exercise. It’s a sustained engagement with the organizational complexity of actually changing how care is delivered. Students navigate institutional approval processes, build stakeholder coalitions, manage implementation challenges, and measure outcomes against defined benchmarks.

The competencies developed through that process, such as project management, change leadership, data analysis, stakeholder communication, map directly onto what executive nurses do when they lead system-wide quality initiatives, accreditation preparation, or care delivery redesign efforts. The doctoral project also builds something harder to quantify: the confidence that comes from having successfully moved a complex initiative through a real organization against real resistance.

Leadership Identity and Professional Influence

Executive nursing leadership requires more than technical competency. It requires the ability to influence across disciplines, build coalitions with physicians and administrators who may have competing priorities, and represent nursing’s perspective in institutional decisions that affect patient care.

DNP programs develop this capacity through coursework in interprofessional collaboration, healthcare policy, and leadership communication, as well as through the relationships students build with faculty mentors and cohort peers who are navigating similar transitions.

Nurses who complete DNP programs consistently report that the degree changed not just what they knew but how they saw themselves professionally. It’s a shift that matters enormously in executive contexts where self-presentation and confidence in one’s expertise are visible to everyone in the room. The credential signals external credibility. The education builds the internal foundation that makes that credibility warranted.

Keeping students engaged can feel like a constant challenge, especially when teachers are already managing full schedules. Between lesson planning, grading and classroom responsibilities, adding new engagement techniques may seem unrealistic, but strong student engagement does not always come from complex activities or extra preparation.

For teachers, parents and childcare providers supporting learning at home, simple strategies can have a meaningful impact. In many cases, engagement comes from small, consistent practices that fit naturally into the school day. The following student engagement strategies are designed to be practical, easy to implement and effective without requiring additional prep time.

1.   Start With a Consistent Morning Routine

A predictable start to the day is vital to students’ engagement. When children know what to expect each morning, they are more likely to settle in quickly and focus on learning. A simple routine, such as quiet reading or a daily question, creates a calm transition into the school day. This consistency reduces distractions and helps students mentally prepare for learning. Over time, these routines become automatic, freeing up attention for learning rather than transitions.

Daily routines also work as small, steady points of structure that help students feel safe and grounded as they move through new tasks and skills. Teachers can reinforce this by encouraging parents and caregivers to maintain consistent morning habits at home, so students arrive ready to learn.

2.   Use Quick Peer Discussions

Student engagement increases when learners actively process information. One simple way to do this is by incorporating short peer discussions into lessons. After presenting a question or concept, teachers can ask students to discuss their thoughts with a partner briefly.

This strategy gives every student a chance to participate, not just those who volunteer to speak in front of the class. It also allows children time to organize their thinking and learn from one another. Because it requires no materials or planning, this approach can be used at any point in a lesson to maintain attention and encourage participation.

3.   Add Movement Without Disrupting the Lesson

Students often lose focus when they sit for long periods. Adding small moments of movement can help reset their attention and improve overall engagement. This doesn’t need to interrupt instruction or require extra planning. Simple ways to incorporate activity include:

• Asking students to stand while answering a question
• Having them stretch between activities
• Letting them move to a different spot for partner or group work

4.   Ask Open-Ended Questions

The type of questions teachers ask can strongly influence engagement. Open-ended queries invite more students to participate because they allow for multiple answers and perspectives. Instead of focusing only on correct responses, teachers can ask questions that encourage thinking and explanation. This approach helps students feel more comfortable sharing ideas and builds a classroom environment where participation is valued.

Also, this reflects a broader principle of student support where small daily actions from educators help students feel included and heard. Regular opportunities to share thinking foster a sense of belonging in the classroom, naturally encouraging more consistent participation and engagement.

5.   Keep Lesson Structures Predictable

Consistency within lessons helps students stay focused. Students who understand the flow of a lesson spend less time figuring out what to do and more time engaging with the content. A familiar structure might include a short introduction, followed by instruction, practice and a brief review. This does not require new planning. It simply organizes existing lessons in a consistent way.

Predictability creates a sense of stability, which helps students feel more comfortable participating and staying on task. It also reduces anxiety by removing uncertainty about what comes next. As a result, children can focus more on learning rather than adjusting to constant changes.

6.   Offer Small Choices to Build Ownership

Giving students small choices can increase motivation without adding extra work for teachers. Even simple decisions can help students feel more in control of their learning. This sense of autonomy often leads to greater participation and effort. Over time, it can also build confidence as children take more ownership of their progress.

For example, students might choose which question to answer, whether to work independently or with a partner, or the order in which they complete tasks. These choices can be built into existing activities with little effort. Children who feel a sense of ownership are more likely to stay engaged and put effort into their work.

7.   Use Simple Checks for Understanding

Frequent, informal check-ins help keep students engaged while providing teachers with useful feedback to align with learning goals and outcomes. These checks can be done quickly and without preparation. Some easy options include:

• Thumbs up or thumbs down to show understanding.
• Holding up fingers to rate confidence.
• Writing a short response on paper or a board.
• Giving a quick one-word or phrase answer aloud.
• Using exit slips with a single question before moving on.

8.   End Lessons With a Quick Reflection

A short reflection at the end of a lesson helps students stay engaged until the final minutes. It also reinforces learning and provides teachers with insight into their understanding. This can be done with a simple question or prompt that encourages children to think about what they learned or what they found interesting. Responses can be shared aloud or written briefly.

This quick step strengthens retention and encourages students to stay mentally present throughout the lesson. It also provides a natural way to close the lesson with purpose rather than rushing to the end. Lastly, it helps children recognize what they have learned and leaves them with a clear takeaway from the lesson.

Small Shifts Lead to Stronger Engagement

Student engagement strategies do not need to be time-consuming or complicated to be effective. By focusing on consistent routines, simple interactions and predictable structures, teachers can create an environment where students are more focused and involved. When these efforts are supported by communication with parents about home routines, engagement becomes easier to sustain throughout the school day.

Tessa Dodson is the Senior Writer at Classrooms.com and a former career coach dedicated to supporting teachers and students with practical and accessible educational resources.

When she’s not writing, you can find her diving into research or catching up with her latest read.

Walk into almost any modern classroom and you’ll see something that didn’t exist a generation ago: a tablet, Chromebook, or laptop on nearly every desk. Schools have embraced digital learning in a big way, and for good reason. Devices open doors to interactive lessons, instant research, and tools that meet kids where they learn best.

But every device a school hands a student is also a doorway to the wider internet. Without the right safeguards, that doorway can swing open to distractions, inappropriate content, security risks, and apps no parent or teacher signed off on. This is exactly the gap that Mobile Device Management (MDM) software is designed to close.

For families wondering what their school is doing behind the scenes to keep devices safe, or for IT teams researching the best fit for their district, here is an objective look at five of the leading MDM platforms used in education today, with notes on what each one does well and where it has limits.

What Is MDM for Schools, in Plain English?

Before we get into the list, here’s the quick version. MDM software lets a school’s IT team enroll, configure, secure, and monitor every device used by students and staff from a single dashboard. That includes laptops, tablets, phones, and shared devices in computer labs.

A good MDM platform for schools typically does several things at once:

• Sets up new devices automatically, so a student gets the right apps and settings the moment they sign in

• Filters out harmful or inappropriate websites and content (an important piece of CIPA compliance)

• Locks devices into “kiosk mode” during exams or specific lessons so students stay focused

• Pushes approved educational apps and updates without IT having to physically touch each device

• Lets IT remotely lock or wipe a device if it’s lost or stolen, protecting student data

• Helps the school stay compliant with privacy laws like FERPA

For more on classroom safety basics, see our guide on Safe Internet for Schools.

With that foundation in place, here are five of the most talked-about MDM solutions for education in 2026.

1. Swif MDM for Schools: Modern Unified Platform Built for Mixed-Device Schools

Best for: K-12 districts and universities that run a mix of operating systems and want one platform instead of five.

Swif.ai is a newer entrant in the education MDM space, but it has quickly stood out by doing something most legacy platforms still struggle with. It manages macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Windows, Linux, and Android devices from one unified console. For a typical school district, where you might find iPads in elementary classrooms, MacBooks in the art department, Windows desktops in the lab, Linux machines in computer science, and Android tablets for fieldwork, this is a meaningful difference.

What Swif.ai Does Particularly Well

A truly unified dashboard. Most schools end up running two or three different MDM tools because no single vendor covers every operating system well. Swif.ai is built from the ground up to handle all of them with consistent policies, which simplifies life for stretched IT teams.

An approved App Store for the institution. Swif.ai’s Self-Service Software Portal works like a curated app store. IT admins decide which educational apps, e-textbooks, and learning tools are available, and teachers and students can install them on demand without filing a help-desk ticket. This cuts ticket volume and keeps unapproved software off school devices.

Shadow IT monitoring. This is one of the platform’s most distinctive features. Students and staff routinely use unauthorized apps, AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini), and browser extensions that can quietly put student data at risk or help them cheat on homework. Swif detects these unsanctioned tools across devices and browsers, lets IT block what shouldn’t be there, and guides users toward approved alternatives. Few competitors offer this level of visibility, and for schools worried about student data privacy in the modern classroom, it’s a real benefit.

Built-in compliance automation. Swif.ai maps device security controls to FERPA, CIPA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and HIPAA frameworks, with real-time dashboards and one-click audit-ready evidence exports for compliance providers. For schools that have historically tracked compliance in spreadsheets, this is a noticeable upgrade.

Granular Smart Groups. Different students need different rules. Swif.ai lets administrators create groups by grade, department, campus, or role, so elementary students can get strict content filtering while high schoolers and faculty operate under more flexible policies, all from the same console.

Remote support without extra tools. A built-in remote desktop, live terminal, and remote lock/wipe features mean IT teams don’t need to bolt on a third-party support tool. There’s also an organization-wide kill switch to disable remote terminal access when student privacy is the priority.

Where Swif.ai Has Limits

As a newer platform, Swif.ai doesn’t yet have the decades-long brand recognition some legacy vendors enjoy, and it’s not built specifically around Apple Classroom the way some Apple-only MDMs are. Pricing is custom for education, so institutions need to request a quote rather than seeing it on a public page.

The Bottom Line

For a school or district that runs more than one operating system and wants compliance, Shadow IT detection, an approved App Store, and remote support all in one platform without paying for separate vendors, Swif.ai is one of the most complete options on the market today. They offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, which makes it easy to evaluate.

Pricing
Swif has by far the lowest pricing out of all MDM’s for schools, at $5 per user per year. With options for any OS, this is by far the best available right now.

2. IBM MaaS360: Enterprise-Grade Power with AI-Driven Insights

Best for: Larger universities, district central offices, and institutions that already trust IBM for other infrastructure.

IBM MaaS360 is one of the most established names in mobile device management, and it brings the kind of enterprise polish you’d expect from Big Blue. It supports iOS, iPadOS, Android, Windows (including Windows 10 Education and Enterprise editions), Chrome OS, IoT, and rugged devices from a single console.

What IBM MaaS360 Does Well

Watson AI integration. MaaS360 stands out by layering IBM’s Watson AI on top of standard device management, generating real-time security alerts, risk insights, and recommendations. For a large university IT team monitoring thousands of endpoints, that kind of intelligent triage can save serious time.

Strong containerization for BYOD. MaaS360 has long offered some of the most refined “secure container” technology in the industry, which keeps school-managed apps and data cleanly separated from a student’s or staff member’s personal content on bring-your-own devices.

Mature security ecosystem. Native malware detection, mobile threat defense, and integration with IBM’s broader security portfolio make MaaS360 a comfortable fit for institutions that already have IBM in their stack, particularly research universities with sensitive data.

Support for Windows 10 Education enrollment. MaaS360 has well-documented enrollment paths specifically for Windows 10 Education, Enterprise, and Pro editions.

Where IBM MaaS360 Has Limits

MaaS360 was built for large enterprises first and education second, and it shows. The interface and configuration can feel heavy for a small school district or a K-8 with one IT person. There is no purpose-built Self-Service App Store specifically for schools, and Shadow IT monitoring isn’t its primary focus the way it is for some newer platforms. Pricing tends to land on the higher end of the market, and many schools find they need consulting hours to deploy MaaS360 at full capability.

The Bottom Line

If your institution is large, security-conscious, and already invested in the IBM ecosystem, MaaS360 is a robust choice. Smaller schools may find it more powerful than they need.

3. SureMDM by 42Gears: Strong Classroom and Kiosk Controls

Best for: Schools that lean heavily on shared tablets, interactive flat-panel displays, and classroom-focused controls.

SureMDM has built a strong reputation among schools that need granular, hands-on control of student devices in the classroom. It supports Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, ChromeOS, Wear OS, VR, and IoT (a notably wide range), and includes some education-specific tools that teachers genuinely appreciate.

What SureMDM Does Well

App Kiosk Mode and SureLock. SureMDM’s bundled SureLock tool is one of the strongest kiosk modes in the industry. Teachers can lock student tablets to a single approved app, such as a math program, a digital textbook, or an exam, and trust that students can’t wander off into games or social media during the lesson.

SureFox secure browser. This adds another layer for safer browsing, letting administrators allowlist approved websites, blocklist distractions, and even block sites by keyword. For schools concerned about students drifting toward inappropriate content, it’s a useful classroom-level safeguard.

Apple Classroom and Apple School Manager integration. SureMDM works smoothly with Apple’s classroom-focused tools, supporting zero-touch iPad enrollment and giving teachers per-class iPad monitoring through the Apple Classroom app.

Interactive Flat Panel Display (IFPD) management. SureMDM is one of the few platforms that handles IFPDs (like ViewSonic ViewBoard displays) well, with features like remote alerts, group configuration, and time-fenced power schedules across an entire campus.

Geofencing and Mobile Threat Defense. If a managed device leaves a designated zone, SureMDM can trigger automatic compliance actions like locking the device, restricting access, or performing a selective wipe.

Where SureMDM Has Limits

SureMDM’s interface, while powerful, is often described in user reviews as having a steeper learning curve than competitors. Profile and policy management can require duplication when small changes are needed. There is no native “approved App Store” for institutions in the same way newer platforms offer, and Shadow IT detection is more limited than some specialty tools. Some advanced features require purchasing add-ons (SureLock, SureFox, SureAccess) rather than coming bundled.

The Bottom Line

For schools that prioritize tightly controlled classroom devices, kiosk locking, and interactive panel management, SureMDM is a strong, mature choice with deep education roots.

4. Miradore (LogMeIn / GoTo): A Budget Option with Big Trade-Offs

Best for: Very small schools that need a free starting point and not much else.

Now part of the GoTo (LogMeIn) family, Miradore is best known for one thing: a free tier. Beyond that, it’s a fairly basic platform that supports Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Windows.

Where Miradore Falls Short

Miradore skips Linux entirely, which immediately disqualifies it for any school with a computer science lab or STEM program. Compliance automation is minimal, so FERPA and CIPA tracking still falls back on manual work. There’s no Shadow IT monitoring and no approved App Store, leaving schools blind to unauthorized apps and AI tools that students install. Reviewers consistently complain that even basic restrictions require building multiple separate profiles, which gets messy fast as a school grows. Free-tier features are thin enough that most schools end up paying to access anything genuinely useful.

The Bottom Line

Miradore works for a single small campus running a handful of iPads. For anything larger, schools quickly hit walls and end up shopping for a replacement.

5. Scalefusion: Broad Coverage, Shallow Depth

Best for: Schools that want a generalist tool and don’t need serious compliance or security features.

Scalefusion (made by ProMobi Technologies) covers a wide range of operating systems, including Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows, ChromeOS, and Linux. The platform is positioned as an all-rounder, but in practice it spreads itself thin across too many use cases.

Where Scalefusion Falls Short

Scalefusion’s compliance automation is noticeably weaker than purpose-built platforms, leaving schools to handle FERPA, CIPA, and HIPAA evidence largely on their own. There’s no native Self-Service App Store, and Shadow IT detection is essentially absent, meaning unauthorized AI tools and risky browser extensions can slip past unnoticed. The interface tries to do everything and ends up feeling cluttered, with newer features like its OneIdP identity layer still rough around the edges. Schools have also reported inconsistent performance between Android and iOS management depending on which features they need.

The Bottom Line

Scalefusion works as a general-purpose MDM if expectations are modest. Schools that take security, compliance, or student data privacy seriously will find it lacking compared to the platforms higher on this list.

How to Choose the Right MDM for Your School

There’s no single “best” MDM for every school. The right choice depends on a handful of practical questions:

1. What devices do you actually have? A school running only iPads has very different needs from a district with a mix of Macs, PCs, and Chromebooks. Match the platform to your fleet, and to what you might add in the next three years.

2. How important is compliance? If you’re under FERPA, CIPA, and possibly HIPAA scrutiny, look for platforms with built-in compliance dashboards and automated evidence generation rather than ones where compliance is a manual exercise.

3. Do you worry about Shadow IT and unauthorized AI tools? This is a fast-rising concern. Students using ChatGPT, unauthorized cloud storage, or sketchy browser extensions can quietly create privacy and academic-integrity problems. Not every MDM addresses this directly.

4. How big is your IT team? A district with two IT staff has different needs from a university with a dedicated security team. Lean teams benefit most from platforms with strong automation, self-service portals, and intuitive dashboards.

5. What’s your budget? A free tier (like Miradore’s) can get a tiny school started, but expect to outgrow it quickly. Most schools eventually need paid features. Compare what’s included in the base price versus what costs extra. This is often where the real cost difference shows up.

A Final Word for Parents and Educators

Behind every MDM platform on this list is the same goal: helping schools deliver the benefits of digital learning while protecting students from the parts of the internet that aren’t built with kids in mind. As parents, knowing that your child’s school has a thoughtful device management strategy is one of those quiet reassurances that makes modern classrooms feel a little safer.

If you’re a parent curious about what your school is doing for digital safety, ask. Most school IT teams are happy to walk through their content filtering, device security, and acceptable-use policies. And whether you’re at home or in the classroom, layering multiple safeguards like parental controls, safe search filtering, and good device management is always going to do more than relying on any one tool alone.

Technology in education is here to stay. The schools that make it work best are the ones that pair great devices with great management behind the scenes.

Studying smarter does not mean studying more. Research has shown that the way you study can significantly impact how well you retain information and how effectively you can apply it in new situations. For students who are looking to study for their end of year exams, we should be using techniques that help us maximise our learning.

Let’s explore some new research that debunks so old theories and explores scientifically-backed study techniques can make a world of difference.

1. Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition is one of the most effective ways to enhance memory retention. The technique involves spacing out study sessions over time, rather than cramming information all at once. This method takes advantage of the psychological spacing effect, where information is more likely to be transferred to long-term memory if it is reviewed periodically over increasing intervals. This is because, after an initial learning session, the brain begins to forget some of the information. Revisiting it just before it is forgotten strengthens the neural pathways, making it easier to recall later.

Studies have shown that spaced repetition significantly improves retention rates compared to massed practice (cramming). For example, research by Cepeda et al. (2006) found that students who used spaced repetition to study foreign vocabulary retained the words significantly better over longer periods than those who did not use spaced intervals.

For students, incorporating spaced repetition into their study schedules can not only prevent burnout but also ensure better long-term retention of key concepts across subjects.

2. Active Recall and the Generation Effect

Active recall is a method where learners actively test themselves on the material they are studying rather than passively reviewing notes or textbooks. The generation effect is  a psychological phenomenon that suggests that the act of trying to recall something, even if you get it wrong, is better than just passive highlighting notes. This is because active recall forces the brain to engage in deeper cognitive processing, making the information more memorable.

Research supports this approach: a study by Karpicke and Roediger (2008) demonstrated that students who used active recall (i.e., testing themselves) while studying retained 80% of the information over a week, compared to only 36% for students who relied on passive review methods. This “testing effect” has been shown to be particularly beneficial for complex, higher-order thinking tasks, such as those found in exams, where understanding and application are more critical than rote memorisation.

There is also a “hypercorrection effect” at play here as well, where students are more likely to remember correct answers after being wrong. This occurs because making errors during self-testing creates a cognitive surprise, which enhances the encoding of the correct information when reviewed.

3. Interleaved Practise for Deeper Learning

Interleaved practice is another scientifically backed method where students study different types of problems in a single study session. This might feel more challenging and slower than blocked practice, but it has been proven to improve retention and the ability to transfer learning to new contexts.

There has been some research on interleaved practice in middle school math classrooms, where students who used this method outperformed their peers who used blocked practice. The study found that while students in the interleaved practice group reported feeling less confident and made slower progress initially, they performed significantly better on subsequent tests involving new problems. This is because interleaved practice requires learners to identify which strategies apply to different types of problems, thereby building a more generalizable and flexible understanding of the material.

4. Repetition and Familiarity

Repetition and familiarity are foundational elements in effective learning. When students first encounter new information, a significant amount of cognitive effort is spent on grasping basic terms and concepts, which uses up a considerable portion of their working memory. This is particularly prevalent in school environments, where effectively every day (maybe ever hour), students are learning new pieces of information for the first time.

In order to convert this new knowledge into your long-term memory, it is imperative that the information is revisited. The first time we learn something, we remember only a fraction of it. But with each review, the rate of forgetting slows down, and the information moves from short-term to long-term memory.

For students, taking your own summary notes can be a great way to help solidify new information into your long-term memory. The key here is that students actually write their own notes and explain the new information in their own words.

When learning something new, it can be challenging to retain the information, especially if it is disconnected from what you already know. To make learning more effective, one powerful strategy is to create a “semantic network.” This involves linking new information to existing knowledge, which helps integrate it into your long-term memory. The semantic network acts like a web of interconnected ideas in your brain.

‍The more connections a piece of information has, the easier it is to recall because related concepts can trigger each other.

---

At Apex Tuition Australia, you’ll find that they encourage all of their tutors to weave these strategies into their sessions. Students are dealing with so much at school, Apex is focused on helping them study smarter, not harder.