The pendulum of technology control in higher education has swung away from central IT toward the users. It has become easier for individuals and departments to find their own computing solutions via mobile apps, the cloud, BYOD, web services, and other means. As a result, IT can often find itself out of the loop in certain technology decisions.…

This article discusses a survey tool, known as TechQual+, which gives IT leaders a quick and easy way to gauge their departments' performance on campus and learn what matters to their constituents, including faculty, students, and staff. The idea of an IT survey tool that can be used across higher education has its skeptics, who feel that colleges…

With the exception of a plague of locusts, it seems as if the past five years have thrown every imaginable challenge at IT--from the incredible shrinking budget to BYOD and now the MOOC monster. For those of a superstitious bent, these were probably just appetizers to the crises that will inevitably accompany a year featuring the number 13 (cue…

Stanford University (CA) is MOOC Central. While the school may not have launched the first massive open online course (MOOC), its efforts have propelled the concept to the forefront of higher education in a matter of months. Starting with Sebastian Thrun's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course, which enrolled 160,000 students, Stanford…

When it comes to project management, the IT department is typically its own worst enemy. When project requests are pushed through the budgeting process by different departments, it's up to IT to make them all work. The staff is required to be "heroic" to get the project load done. People get to work over weekends and postpone their vacations. The…

Vendors sometimes get the chilly on-campus reception. While they believe in building long-term relationships to make universities more competitive, some CIOs simply aren't interested. On the flip side of the coin, many administrators feel such coolness is warranted. Indeed, anyone who has attended a higher education IT conference can detect a…

Many institutions implement a distributed antenna system (DAS) as part of a holistic approach to providing better wireless coverage and capacity on campus. A DAS provides wireless service within a particular area or structure via a network of separate antenna nodes that are connected to a common source through fiber or coaxial cable. Because DAS…

Why would schools consider partnering with a vendor to operate a pilot? Why not just wait until the final product is released? For starters, pilots provide schools with a golden opportunity to get an early look at the software, take it for a test flight, and ask for changes tailored to their operating environment and business needs. In some cases,…

As virtualization becomes commonplace in higher education, it is clear that the traditional licensing options for software are woefully inadequate. The definitions of who is licensed to use what--and where--are blurring, as users move from physical to virtual spaces and can access software from a variety of devices. In discussing the need for new…

With the US economy continuing its weak recovery, it's tempting to think that IT budgets in higher education might begin to rebound especially in light of the increased focus on online learning. Nice thought, but no. Education costs are rising even faster than those for healthcare, and the public outcry over the cost of higher education…

Colleges and universities are running out of closet space. With the amount of data predicted to grow 800 percent by 2016, higher education faces a desperate race to develop strategies to store and manage the tidal wave of information. Unfortunately, many IT departments, particularly those in the public sector, have flatlining budgets--and no money…

Being a college CIO these days must feel a bit like juggling chain saws with one hand while holding a donation cup in the other. It's unlikely to end well, yet it represents the new normal in IT. While campus clients--from administrators to faculty and students--expect the usual raft of tech services, the IT budget simply can't deliver. In this…

As colleges push for increased efficiencies, facilities departments nationwide are turning more and more to high-tech approaches. Nowhere has this trend been more visible than in the realm of energy consumption, where managers hope to extract significant cost savings. Technology is helping facilities managers achieve significant efficiencies,…

Understanding the importance of a solid relationship with the head of finance is critical to success, both for the IT department and the institution as a whole. Never has this been truer than in today's bleak economy, as CFOs become increasingly cautious about initiatives that involve significant expense, yet information technology can help…

Helping students land tech jobs after graduation may be one of the most gratifying benefits of involving students in campus IT--but it's not the only one. Student workers can reduce IT costs and, equally important, they bring to the table a useful perspective: They are, after all, the IT department's constituents and can often provide insights…