Although the annual performance review has received much criticism from practitioners and researchers alike, organizations continue to use coaching and/or reviews to maximize employee effectiveness and minimize liabilities. A semester class is a great context to practice skills relating to tracking and reviewing performance. This article describes…

The anatomical theatre played a pivotal role in the evolution of medical education, allowing students to directly observe and participate in the process of dissection. Due to the increase of training programs in clinical anatomy, the Institute of Human Anatomy at the University of Padova has renovated its dissecting room. The main guidelines in…

Because MOOCs bring big data to the forefront, they confront learning science with technology challenges. We describe an agenda for developing technology that enables MOOC analytics. Such an agenda needs to efficiently address the detailed, low level, high volume nature of MOOC data. It also needs to help exploit the data's capacity to reveal, in…

Information technology can be a game changer in higher education, as it has been in other sectors. Information technology has brought about much of the economic growth of the past century, accelerating globalization and fostering democracy. This chapter explores many ways that information technology can be a game changer. Some are as simple as…

This column explores the world of Gene, a composite CIO who leads a sizable IT organization for a top 100 university somewhere in America. The author's goal is to help him navigate the tough times ahead of higher education IT. The author peeks into Gene's daily goings-on, investigates his problems, and helps him to not only survive, but prosper.

Half of servers in higher ed are virtualized. But that number's not high enough for Link Alander, interim vice chancellor and CIO at the Lone Star College System (Texas). He aspires to see 100 percent of the system's infrastructure requirements delivered as IT services from its own virtualized data centers or other cloud-based operators. Back in…

APPA's highest institutional honor, the "Award for Excellence in Facilities Management (AFE)," recognizes those educational institutions whose facilities management organizations demonstrate quality in overall operations and effectiveness. The Award for Excellence is based on a set of criteria that include: Leadership; Strategic and…

In 2013, compliance issues march, unceasingly, through every aspect of higher education. Yet the intricacies of privacy, information security, data governance, and IT policy as compliance and risk areas within the IT organization can reverberate and impact every other department within the higher education institution. The primary focus is always…

In 2011, "EDUCAUSE" appointed a research panel of IT leaders from nineteen representative member institutions to both identify and prioritize the top IT issues facing their institutions. In two focus group sessions in September and October 2011, the panel members were asked the question: "What is the single-biggest IT-related issue currently…

By virtue of its divine vocation, Catholic business education must be mission driven. In reality, however, mission drift and failure to maintain distinctiveness are widespread among Catholic business schools (CBS). Many believe that a trade-off between academic quality and Catholicity is unavoidable, and opt for accommodating the expectations of…

Higher education institutions struggle with planning for future needs, growth, and, sometimes, contraction. As student populations expand and as faculty members adopt new technologies, universities struggle to support these needs. To the casual observer, it may seem that the technology planning process is haphazard. This article details a process…

Human Resources (HR) administrators are finding that as software modules are installed to automate various processes, they have more time to focus on strategic objectives. And as compliance with affirmative action and other employment regulations comes under increasing scrutiny, HR staffers are finding that software can deliver and track data with…

Uninterrupted, high-bandwidth network connectivity is crucial for higher education. Colleges and universities increasingly adopt gigabit wireless solutions because of their fiber-equivalent performance, quick implementation, and significant return on investment. For just those reasons, Rush University Medical Center switched from free space optics…

Research and theory-building activities in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University revolve around several thematic threads: message design, instructional design/development, technology integration, systemic change in education, and change management and human performance technology. A dozen or more student-faculty research groups…

Universities in Australia, like their counterparts abroad, are making available several different kinds of electronic information services for their student communities. University students need different types of information for the frequently entwined purposes of learning and living, and such information may be available from a variety of…