The 2019 Campus Computing Survey
/Hiring and Retaining Campus IT Talent Are Challenges;
Many Campus Leaders Are Not Well-Informed About nor Engaged with Digital Issues
Hiring and Retaining Campus IT Talent Are Challenges;
Many Campus Leaders Are Not Well-Informed About nor Engaged with Digital Issues
In past years the review process for the annual questionnaire has involved my sending a draft directly to a large number of people on campus and also to the corporate sponsors. This year, for the 30th annual survey, I would like to try crowdsourcing the review process.
Read MoreWhat is the role of provosts/CAOs in campus efforts to bring digital resources into gateway courses? What do provosts/CAOs learn when they are involved in new initiatives to do so?
Read MoreThe Compounding Consequences of IT Budget Cuts;
Few Campuses Evaluate the Impact of Their IT Initiatives
Key campus IT issues in the 2016 Campus Computing Survey were Personnel, Instruction, Budgets, Security, and Analytics
Read MoreQuality and the cost of course materials for students emerge as the key factors that drive the decisions of college faculty about textbooks and other course materials. And although the movement to digital course content seems inevitable and a majority of the surveyed faculty express interest in adaptive technologies for their courses, it is also clear that college and university faculty have real concerns about some of the proclaimed instructional benefits of going digital.
These are the key findings from a fall 2015/winter 2016 survey of 2,902 college and university faculty at 29 two- and four-year colleges and universities sponsored by the Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA) and conducted for Kenneth C. Green of Campus Computing for the ICBA.
Not surprisingly, faculty identified their own assessment of the quality of course materials as the top issue in their selection of course materials (97 percent rating as important/very important). Ranked second was the cost of course materials for students (86 percent), followed by the comments of students or teaching assistants and also comments from colleagues (tied at 71 percent). In contrast, just over two-fifths of the survey participants indicated student or instructor supplements were important/very important in their decisions about course materials, and only a fifth said comments and reviews on public web sites had a major impact on their decisions about course materials.
The survey data also reveal that “being digital,” in and of itself, was not a key factor in the faculty decision about course materials. Less than two-fifths of the survey participants indicated that digital formats were important or very important for core texts or other required course materials.
Four-fifths of the survey participants acknowledged that “digital course materials generally cost less” for their students. Yet perhaps more important for digital advocates, college publishers, and other digital content providers was that less than half of the surveyed faculty agreed/strongly agreed that:
Although the movement in course materials in colleges and universities is clearly from print towards digital, the survey data suggest it will be a slow process. Asked when they thought the majority of their course materials would be primarily digital, fully a fourth of the surveyed faculty indicated “never,” while another 9 percent said by fall 2022, and 17 percent indicated by fall 2020. In contrast, fully a sixth (16 percent) reported that majority of their current course materials were digital as of fall 2015, and a third (34 percent) anticipated primarily digital course materials by fall 2018.
However, despite what appears to be faculty resistance to going digital for course materials, just over two-thirds (69 percent) of the survey participants agreed/strongly agreed that they have used or would like to use “curricular materials that make use of adaptive learning technologies.”
While the transition from print to digital course materials may be inevitable, these new survey data make two things clear. First is that the pace of this change is much slower than anticipated by publishers, administrators, and campus IT professionals. And, second, most faculty are not convinced that digital products have a positive impact on student learning outcomes.”
The survey also provides new data that reveal faculty perspectives on the emerging Open Educational Resource (OER) movement for free or low-cost curricular materials. Two-fifths (39 percent) of the survey participants indicated that they had never heard of OER, while just over a third (36 percent) indicated that they knew a little about OER but had not used or reviewed OER materials. A tenth (10 percent) had reviewed but decided not to use OER materials for their classes, while another tenth (11 percent) were using OER materials and 4 percent were currently using OER in their classes and also making their own course materials available as OER.
Asked what might prompt them to adopt OER for their courses, quality (74 percent reporting important/very important) and cost (71 percent) were the top issues, just as they were for more traditional or conventional course materials. Yet the option to remix OER without worrying about copyright issues or other restrictions was also attractive to many faculty (65 percent citing important/very important).
And perhaps because most have had little exposure to or experience with OER, faculty expect the movement to primarily OER materials in their courses to be slower than the overall movement to digital. Fully two-fifths (41 percent) of the survey participants said their course materials would “never” be primarily OER compared to 24 percent responding “never” for the migration to primarily digital course materials.
The survey data reveal also reveal a core conundrum regarding cost and access to digital course materials especially OER materials. Faculty overwhelmingly report that a major benefit of going digital is the lower cost of course materials. Yet many faculty, especially in community colleges, also report that their students don't own the tech platforms required access digital content. Consequently, the students who might benefit most from lower-cost digital and OER course materials are not able to do so.
Finally, the survey data affirm the role of college bookstores as a trusted resource and distribution channel for course materials. Almost a three-fourths (72 percent) of the survey participants agree/strongly agree that “my campus bookstore is a trustworthy and objective source for information about course materials.” Concurrently, three-fifths (59 percent) report that their “campus bookstore can play an important role helping faculty select and effectively use digital curricular course materials.”
Keynote presentation at Saylor Foundation's 2013 DigEdCon event focused on the essential role of infrastructure for fostering innovaton in education (video and slides).
Read MoreIn this Janury 2016 webinar, Sean Brown, vice president at Sonic Foundry, interviews Casey Green of The Campus Computing Project about campus IT priorities, based on data from the 2015 Campus Computing Project.
Three issues loom large for OER advocates: quality, ecosystems and infrastructure.
Read MoreGreat faith in the instructional benefits of digital technologies; great expectations for the rising use of OER
Read MoreCampus clients want (and expect!) concierge relationships; stated more directly, they want “one throat to choke.”
Read MoreA key responsibility of and challenge for IT leaders is to manage expectations and to communicate the effectiveness of IT investments.
Read MoreCampuses struggle to provide effective user support and IT training, and also digital access for disabled students
Read MoreCampus IT officers affirm the instructional integration of IT as their top priority, and offer mixed reviews on IT effectiveness and outsourcing for online education
Read MoreLunch keynote session at the AAUP conference in Washington on 14 June 2013. The presentation focuses on five key IT issues that affect faculty and institutions:
Rather than rushing to MOOCs, colleges and universities, and their boards, should engage in thoughtful discussions about the current or future role of online education in the context of their institutional missions.
Read MoreA mixed assessment on the effectiveness of campus IT investments
Read MoreHigher education came of age at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The January 11th HigherEdTECH summit drew a standing room-only crowd of campus officials, policy-makers, and technology innovators. Below are links to two of the plenary sessions and two podcasts.
Is 2012 the year that e-books and digital content take hold in academe? Or will the textbook continue to reign? Casey Green leads a lively, provocative discussion of the promise, potential, and market realities of moving from Dewey to digital in higher education.
From iconic high-tech pioneer to education visionary, Scott McNealy, co-founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems and now founder of Curriki.org and chairman of Wayin, continues to offer blunt assessments about the status quo and as well as original thinking about the potential of technology to shape the future. A passionate voice for improving the quality of education, McNealy shares his thoughts about doing business with higher ed, how the current wave of tech expansion differs from the dot.com experience, how leaders can stay current with new technologies, and injecting innovation into our current system.
Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling, talked with Casey Green of Campus Computing about the challenges of moving textbooks to tablets for the higher education market.
Vineet Madan, senior vice president at McGraw Hill Higher Education, and Casey Green of Campus Computing discuss the role of adaptive learning technologies as part of the movement of college curricula from print to digial formats.
Big gains in going mobile; slow movement towards cloud computing
Read MoreThe 2011 Community Colleges and the Economy Survey reveals continuing enrollment gains coupled with continuing budget reductions. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of the 448 campus presidents and district chancellors participating in the 2011 survey report increased headcount enrollment in winter 2011 compared to over 90 percent in winter 2010; concurrently, three-fifths of the presidents participating in the survey report a reduction in the overall operating budget at their institution; two-fifths (41 percent) report that the budget cut was 5 percent or more.
Read MoreCampus Computing | Email: cgreen@campuscomputing.net | Voice: (818) 694-8900 | Copyright © 2023 Kenneth C. Green