Posts
Susan Grajek, Vice President, Communities and Research at EDUCAUSE and Christopher Brooks, Director of Research for the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research argues, "'We're in a fix and no mistake,' said Sam Gamgee.
He stood despondently with hunched shoulders beside Frodo, and peered out with puckered eyes into the gloom."1 Sam and Frodo Baggins, two hobbits from the pastoral Shire, found themselves alone, ill-equipped, in a hostile and unfamiliar landscape, knowing that the best path to completing their quest lay ahead through that very gloom. The stakes were high: the very future of Middle Earth.
Sound familiar? You've almost certainly heard or expressed this sentiment recently, as those working in colleges and universities peer out into the gloom ahead, trying to find the best path forward yet knowing that all the territory ahead is new and uncertain and that they are surrounded by obstacles they've never encountered before. Just like Frodo and Sam, higher education leaders can't be certain whether a new situation constitutes an opportunity (a possible supplier/partner) or a threat (a possible competitor). Just as for Frodo and Sam, the stakes are extraordinarily high: the continued existence of individual institutions and the very future of higher education.
Today's challenges, unprecedented in scope and number, demand a new plan. We propose a different approach, a way for higher education leaders to reframe the work ahead and to judiciously consider how technology can be most helpful. First, leaders should think about their institutional strategic priorities as a set of Grand Challenges: challenges that are as important as they are difficult and that pertain specifically to the institution as well as more broadly to the higher education ecosystem. Next, leaders should adopt a Grand Strategy, which can provide a cohesive principle and vision to help them consider their resources holistically and focus on their most consequential priorities. Finally, leaders should take into account digital transformation (Dx), which can advance this Grand Strategy by reinventing institutional culture, modernizing workforce practices, and applying new technologies to the missions and management of higher education...
Digital Transformation
EDUCAUSE defines digital transformation as the process of optimizing and transforming the institutional operations, strategic directions, and value proposition through deep and coordinated shifts in culture, workforce, and technology.10 Those Dx-driven culture, workforce, and technology shifts are also the major changes that institutions need to make today to address the Grand Challenges in higher education...
Conclusion
Higher education's Grand Challenges are pervasive and likely to remain with us, even as the pandemic upends everything. Although the pandemic has certainly changed life as we know it and has disrupted all industries, its long-term impact may be characterized less by what it has destroyed and more by what it has accelerated—namely, trends that were already underway. The business models of higher education have become even more precarious, online teaching and learning are suddenly a core competency for all institutions, and remote working has become a widely viable workforce option.
Read more...
Source: EDUCAUSE Review
