EDUCAUSE 2023
David K Moldoff
CEO and Founder | Building the Digital Freeway Supporting 21st-century Learners
It's been fifteen years since Thomas Friedman published his bestseller "The World is Flat." Postsecondary education providers are under significant pressure to address market demands while reconstructing curriculum, methods of instructional delivery infused with technology, and changing roles of faculty to augmenting cloud infrastructure. It is not just the shift to outcomes and value.
The complexity of supporting IT challenges even for the most well-resourced institution can’t be understated.
The Annual EDUCAUSE Conference gives me a snapshot of the Higher Education Edtech sector. I love seeing colleagues and friends I have met over the years. It also gives me time to review and reflect on the industry landscape. This year is no exception. Security, privacy, cloud, virtual reality, AI, WIFI, Email management, and trends across the education sector share a common backdrop –competing for attention, priority, and resources.
How are institutions addressing transformative pressures? Can I make inferences based upon reviewing the Vendor Show? First, I want to acknowledge my bother @bobmoldoff for offering me great feedback on my notes.
For centuries, civilization has evolved with physical boundaries rationalized and protected by governments. Institutions are like small cities. They are governed to sustain and survive. We also build affinity with where we live, work, and go to school.
EDUCAUSE reflects an industry focused on the institutions serving the experiences of their students, faculties, and administrators. The majority of the Show was focused on operating and supporting IT from inside out - aligning resources to serve the present needs. There was no coverage on pending shifts rooted in demographics or globalization themes.
BigTech and the Internet span physical boundaries. We can say they are horizontal and vertical application platforms. Each is like another evolving society and culture we choose to favor or avoid. Like I use X over TruthSocial. Or I use LinkedIN over Facebook.
The aftermath of COVID has influenced many of us and the institutions we work with. Virtual interactions have supplanted many in-person connections. This in turn has influenced institutions to support connected learning experiences through new tools like Zoom and Teams. Virtualization is mainstream and embedded in other platforms like D2L, Canvas or Class.com .
Are we preparing learners to compete globally? Given world events, how will study abroad be impacted I wonder? Is the learning timely or relevant? How can learning outcomes in the EU, India, China, or other highly populated regions be compared for validity and comparability? How can businesses be certain that ‘Learner X’ who has educational attainments or certifications from non-traditional sources is as capable as ‘Learner Y’ who graduated from a college program in the same field? I did not see any EDUCAUSE Vendors presenting solutions in these areas. I may have missed them.
Tuition-dependent institutions are dealing with disintegrating markets, changing business models, and rising demand for more relevant offerings. Reconfiguration, cost cutting, outsourcing, delaying initiatives, consolidation, and increased joint efforts or partnerships are on the rise. EDUCAUSE had payment processors, online 529 processors, and tuition management vendors. But I did not see consortium initiatives standout - where institutions could share IT resources.
Globally, education and talent development strategies are orchestrated by governance, legislation, and shared initiatives. Yet, the technology infrastructure does not exist to share data storage, practices, and notifications to allow for integrated advising services, workflows, and analytics to trace productive use of resources related to targeted outcomes. The vendors I talked with who are moving to the cloud seem to me to be missing a key requirement which is - I am just one person with a single identity and one account that interfaces with the various tools they offer such as registration or scheduling. I do not want my data duplicated across subsystems which are prone to hacking and other risks.
What does the rise in mobility worldwide mean to institutions? How do they consider competencies claimed, prior learning experiences, and what pathways are available to guide learners to completion whether online, hybrid, or in-person? Most of the vendors I talked with are not focused on the mobility of learners across institutions. Their products assume the instance of the enrollment is central to their design, services, and support.
Scarcity of resources only further complicates how governments, industries, and institutions address rising alternatives such as AI and virtual reality threatening their workforces while supplementing their labor needs. EDUCAUSE rolled out new vendors like META with virtual reality classrooms, goggles, and systems independent of the Learning Management, Student Systems, and tools facilitating online meetings through platforms like ZOOM.
Representatives across Industries are more vocal as ever as they attempt to address gaps bridging the relevancy of a degree to potential long-term employment.[iv] Workforce, talent development, and products allowing unification of our life experiences beyond formal instruction were topics for discussion. But I did not see any Vendor address the perceived market need conveyed in other meetings I have attended.
For the last three decades, non-traditional programs and certifications are on the rise. Given the perception of value, learners are pulling back from long term enrollment commitments, costs, and strategies. Microcredentials are filling a recognition need. A number of vendors presented solutions that could capture achievements. But I found no one talking about OpenBadges or protocols to serve the validation, lookup, storage- the list goes on- of the records.
领英推荐
How do we help correlate, authenticate, and validate historical educational attainment so people can be productive when they are ready to work? Institutions are like notaries – they have the ability to verify assertions and pass on the value of their validation to those who seek it. I may be ahead of the curve on this one. No vendors spoke to this need.
Comparability of learning offerings and experiences bring greater transparency. The rising friction between standalone data systems, incompatibility, and inconsistent semantics and description fuels confusion, loss of confidence, and industry noise. I was expecting to see Credential Engine and vendors promoting what they are doing with CTDL. Nope. Nothing about CEDS either.
In a world layered by evolving technology, competition, alternative paths, and businesses everywhere, governments and stakeholders of education are screaming for ways to find, employ, develop, and retain productive employees. LinkedIN was present for the first year and was addressing manpower, searching and their tools.
Duplication, batch processing, and reinventing the wheel are patterns addressing work. Rather than adopting open sharing or addressing fears, mistrust, and unfamiliarity, institutions and providers are choosing work methods that are not scalable or sustainable long term. So much of the emphasis is on policing access to keep bad actors out. The linkages to support trusted or private networks between institutions like Internet2 with EDUROAM and Incommon were not present.
Are funding, budgets, and priorities shifting to address market conditions, opportunities, and threats? US State funding rose 5% allocating over 50% to 4-year schools, 22% to community colleges, 13% to financial aid, and 12% for R/D.[v] One of the things I tasked myself with was asking everyone I met what they considered to be the industry's biggest challenge. It was not surprising to hear most weighed in with budget/resource limitations as the key issue for them. The pace of change is skyrocketing - and the capacity of institutions to address change is served by many of these vendors.
On the surface, it appears states are reinforcing 4-yearr degrees over allocating funds to promote micro credentialing across community colleges. EDUCAUSE is a higher education conference for IT. Postsecondary education including other types of institutions such as 2-year schools or online alternative schools are not well represented. The majority of emphasis is on traditional education.
Horizontal technology at EDUCAUSE like Amazon, Google, HP, META, Dell, Salesforce, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Boomi, LinkedIN, Cisco, Intel, RedHat, EAB, Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and many others reveal further needs to integrate and cover the costs of employing innovations to support teaching, learning, research, and community affairs. There were at least ten vendors from Boomi to Snaplogic to EAB focused on integration platforms.
Disruptive technologies such as AI, Virtual Reality, On Premise Security, Identify Management, Workflow Enablement, Enterprise Data Management, Cloud Migration, Change Management, Streaming Video, Virtual Assistants, and Big Data Analytics took center stage. I would say the focus of many vendors was to highlight technology and thought leadership aligned with the current hype.
What was missing at EDUCAUSE this year? I saw nobody promoting Blockchain or Digital Wallets or OpenBadges. That was a total surprise. No Parchment, NSC, Strada, or Credential Engine. No EdX or Coursera. And why isn’t EDUCAUSE drawing other groups and associations who are working across the stovepipes like Internet2, InCommon, 1EdTech, PESC, HROpen, EdFi, A4L?
Well, that sums up my trip and experience. Hope you got something out of my notes. #EDUCAUSE #HIGEREDUCATION #EDTECH #ERP #SIS #LMS
VP Sales Tr3Dent
1 年David… Thank you for your thoughtful perspectives. I noted that you had no commentary on the topic of student success or what we call at QuadC “Adaptive Learning” Would love to have a discussion with you!
Mission & Project Specialist
1 年David K Moldoff , thank you for your remarkable perspective and insightful thoughts on the conference! It seems that the many challenges are preventing full innovation and that increased funding alone is not the solution. As a result systems, solutions, platforms - we - become somewhat tribal. Is this the new paradigm for the foreseeable future?