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As colleges and universities pursue their digital transformation journeys, budget restrictions, lack of buy-in and other roadblocks often stand in the way of strategic goals. Here, we take the pulse of institutions' Dx efforts, where resources are being spent, top challenges and more.
Digital transformation is critical to the future of higher education, yet every institution must find its own way in defining goals, developing a roadmap, implementing strategic plans and measuring results. To better understand the Dx challenges institutions are grappling with, Campus Technology polled stakeholders in our 2022 Digital Transformation Survey. The survey data, based on 218 responses from a range of higher education roles and institution types and sizes across the United States, served as a jumping off point for a panel discussion at our recent Campus Technology Leadership Summit. Dr. Thomas Hoover, chief information officer at Louisiana Tech University, Michael Mathews, VP of technology and innovation at Oral Roberts University, and Joseph Moreau, independent higher ed consultant and former vice chancellor of technology for Foothill-De Anza Community College District, all contributed their insights on the survey as well as their own experiences leading IT in higher ed.
Here, we present the survey results in the context of their conversation. (The following has been edited for length and clarity.)
Campus Technology: Educause defines digital transformation (Dx) as “a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce and technology shifts to enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution’ business model, strategic directions, and value proposition.” For our first survey question, we wanted to gauge our respondents’ familiarity with the term, so we asked, “How well do you understand the concept of digital transformation?”
Not surprisingly, the Campus Technology audience tends to be confident in their understanding of Dx. But if you combine the segments of people who said digital transformation is not on their radar with those who have heard of the term but don’t know what it means, that makes up about 25% of respondents — a significant chunk. What do you think IT leaders need to do in order to increase the level of awareness or understanding of Dx at their institutions?
Thomas Hoover: One of the biggest things is communication — really communicating the value of IT. It’s communicating what the digital transformation is, and how we’re being more productive, how we’re being more efficient through the use of technology. Sometimes it’s “I used to print this out and sign it, and now I do it electronically.” What does that mean? That means a tremendous amount of cost savings, of time freed up to work on something else, which then allows you to be able to truly transform a campus as opposed to wasting time filling out paper sheets.
Joseph Moreau: Years prior to the pandemic, we had implemented Adobe Sign for digital signatures and workflow. And getting widespread adoption was really difficult. People would say, “I understand why I should do it, but oh, God, I’m really busy. I don’t have time to learn that thing. And I’m just gonna keep signing the paper thing.” Of course, when the pandemic hit, that signing-the-paper option evaporated instantaneously, and people were forced to move into a digital signature, digital workflow environment. We had a town hall meeting on one of our campuses in December to talk about all the things that we needed to consider in coming back to campus-based operations, and one of the questions was, “What was one of the biggest gains that we made during the pandemic?” I was flabbergasted that people unilaterally said, “Adobe Sign. I never want to go back to signing paper again, as long as I live.” That was a great move forward. It was truly unfortunate that it took a catastrophe to facilitate that cultural shift.
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