Sasha Thackaberry's List: 1Door1Student1Record

• One possibility, for example, is the creation of a college consortium with a shared curriculum so students can draw from the programs, courses, and delivery modes of every college in the network. A large regional network, or ultimately a national network, could have a universal catalog of defined competencies.
• Thus, there is a growing need for expertise in helping students figure out how their individual learning adds up to credentials with value in the labor market.
• And, with competency-based learning the value of credentials is clearly defined in terms of what students know and are able to do.
• Incorporate ingenious uses of technology in instruction and student services. Technology companies and local institutions are developing useful tools to support individualized advising, academic planning, monitoring of student progress, learning assessment, early academic alert and intervention, and so on. Flipped classrooms and other technology-enriched approaches make the most of technological innovation while preserving the human connections that are critical to community college student success. Social media, texting, and creative uses of QR codes can promote students’ connections to one another, to college faculty and staff, and to information about their studies and the support services available to them.

2 more annotations...

• One of the paradigm shifts occurring in higher education is the realization of the student as a true customer, one with a number of choices and instant access to information regarding those potential choices. This—along with the increased emphasis on the value of education (from parents to governments) and the effects of the international financial atmosphere—is driving higher education systems changes to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, competitiveness, flexibility, and agility. Additional functionality is being developed or customized for higher education; such systems as customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) /predictive analytics (PA), and mobile device management (MDM) systems are being implemented to better recruit, analyze, and engage students.
• From the end of this period to the current time, some of the very large research universities that had built and operated their own solutions over the past several decades started to move to a BoB approach. They began to go to the market seeking the best components they could find to match their requirements in various areas, fully intending to integrate those components themselves. Acquiring and integrating components such as the student information system (SIS) from one vendor, a financial and/or human resources and payroll system from another, a research administration system from yet another, and so forth is becoming much more prevalent among the larger and IT-experienced higher education institutions. Although this approach tends to cost more, the benefits that accrue to the institution can also be increased. These institutions are tailoring their administrative infrastructure systems to maximize the utility to them and to their operational philosophy. In addition, some institutions that have been operating ERPs for many years are selectively moving to this model by turning off components they may have installed decades ago and substituting the BoB solutions that best match how they want to operate. These institutions understand the concepts of total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI), and they are maximizing the positive impact of their institutional IT spending.
• One of the drivers of this trend, as noted above, is the recognition of the student as a customer. In addition, these institutions understand that flexibility and agility not only will suit them well now but also will allow them to more readily adapt to the next wave of consumer devices, trends, and desires in the future.
• Beginning in this century, technology for the student experience and not just for the management of the institution has become a major differentiator. It involves more than the pedagogical uses of technology and includes what services students can partake of using their own technologies. Mobile devices and mobility applications are allowing students to check their grades, update their local address or phone number, confirm that the tuition check is reflected in their account, and see if the professor adjusted the due date of the next assignment. Any institution not keeping up, or at least not keeping close, may lose its competitive edge.
• The philosophy of and approaches to education are being shared internationally, with institutions becoming "multinationals" in effect if not in name. We are all familiar with the University of (fill in the U.S. state) in (fill in South American country). A pedagogical system can be developed in Australia by a professor and in a few short years become a leading learning management system around the world. The Bologna Process in Europe is seeking to establish standards that cross national boundaries. Additionally, remote and hybrid courses, distance learning initiatives, and the sharing of digital objects and full classes are all leading to the blurring of national lines regarding education.

• So, where does that leave IT leaders in U.S. higher education?

  First, it leaves them with a series of options and choices to serve their institutions. As vendors "mash up" their solutions and as leading institutions show that this is a distinct and practical strategy, it behooves IT leaders to continue to watch the market for opportunities and products that will benefit their institutions.

  Second, it leaves IT leaders with the potential to increase their institution's and their IT organization's relevance, agility, and productivity. By periodically evaluating options and closely watching the developing markets, agile institutions can take and hold the lead.

  Finally, by carefully picking and choosing the components most relevant to the institution's goals and philosophy and using traditional business analytical methods of ROI and TCO, IT leaders will be better able to show value and contribute to the institution's success, even in a time of financial retrenchment.

4 more annotations...