Higher education CIOs share their insights on digital transformation
Lingk announces the formation of a Higher Ed IT Council on Integrations
As we enter into 2021, we find ourselves thinking deeply about what we can do to help education evolve to meet it’s promise of the future.
The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most challenging years for all of humanity. Education was one of the industries most impacted by Covid-19, causing widespread disruption globally and leaving no administrator, instructor, teacher or student unaffected. We have learned a lot about transformation this past year, but more importantly that we have much more work ahead of us as we understand education is in a “digital evolution” rather than just “digital transformation”.
Domestically and globally we are still challenged with meeting the interrelated promises of providing universal student access, student affordability and student success. Scott Galloway, Clinical Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business had summed up these challenges last year during his widely viewed CNN Global Town Hall interview: “How the Pandemic Could Disrupt Higher Education”
Our mission at Lingk is to help education evolve by accelerating the areas of:
Accessibility — to democratize access to learning through hyflex, hybrid and fully online programs.
Affordability — to enable new flipped online program models and automation of existing operations.
Student Success — to improve the student experience online and the adoption of innovative apps with better use of education analytics.
As we worked with CIOs and IT leaders on digital transformation projects in 2020, we consistently heard a common set of digital integration challenges that were slowing down or blocking their organizations from meeting critical objectives. These challenges were also confirmed by EDUCAUSE in their 2020 Top IT Trends and in their Top Trends Top IT Issues 2021 Emerging From The Pandemic article, emphasizing how all institutions, and departments within institutions, are facing the same three scenarios; to Restore, to Evolve, or to Transform. Looking deeper into this, we found that there are consistent blockers related to digital integrations preventing institutions from moving toward evolving and transforming.
Credit: EDUCAUSE Top IT Issues, 2021: Emerging from the Pandemic
Lack of Systems, Cloud and API Integration Skills In-House
Complexity of Adopting Cloud Infrastructure and Technology
Competing Prioritizations of In-House IT Resources
Accelerated Project Delivery Timelines
Limited IT Budgets and Spending
There is good news. The upshot is that with 1,000’s of universities and schools solving similar integration problems there are answers and ideas that can be discovered and shared amongst a community of thought leaders. To help facilitate this community of thought leaders to have deeper conversations around these challenges, we have established a Higher Education IT Council on Integrations to a) share best practices, learnings and experiences, and b) discuss innovative ideas and approaches.
We’d love to have your voice included
Together we can help guide other institutions through the “restore, evolve, transform” cycle. The following industry thought leaders have already accepted our invitation:
Vice President / Chief Information Officer, Arcadia University
Director of Development & Integrations, Southern New Hampshire University
Chief Information Officer, Ferris State University
Chief Technology Officer & Chief Innovation Officer, Millersville University