Campus Computing Project

IMS Interview with Kenneth C. Green (March 2010)

Casey Green — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:41:11 -0500

Ahead of the May 2010 Learning Impact Conference in Long Beach, the IMS interviewed Kenneth C. Green from The Campus Computing Project about the state of technology in higher education.

The Current and Future Climate for IT in Higher Education (November, 2009)

Casey Green — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:37:25 -0500

November 2009 EDUCAUSE Podcast Series interview with Kenneth C, Green on the current and future climate affecting information technology in US colleges and universities.

MANAGING ONLINE EDUCATION: The 2009 WCET-Campus Computing Project Survey of Online Education (22 Oct 2009)

Casey Green — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:56:37 -0500

2009 WCET conference video of the first public presentation of the data from the 2009 MANAGING ONLINE EDUCATION survey. Download presentation handouts below.

Campus Computing 2009: EDUCAUSE Conference Video (4 Nov 2009)

Casey Green — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:52:52 -0500

Webcast from the 2009 Campus Computing Project: the first pubic presentation of the results of the 2009 Campus Computing Survey. Download presentation handouts below.

The 2009 Campus Computing Survey (4 Nov 2009)

Casey Green — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:24:27 -0500

2009 EDUCAUSE CONFERENCE VIDEO

CAMPUS COMPUTING 2009

IT Budgets Are Down - Again!

For the second time in the current decade, campus IT officers are struggling to deal with the rising demand for IT resources and services even as their budgets have experienced significant cuts, often followed by mid-year budget recissions. Almost half (48 percent) of the institutions participating in the 2009 Campus Computing Survey report budget cuts for the current academic year, compared to less than a third (30.6 percent) in 2008 and just 13.1 percent in 2007. Concurrently, the proportion of campuses reporting increased funding for central IT services fell from 49 percent in 2008 to 21.4 percent in 2009. Public institutions have been hardest hit by the current cuts: fully two-thirds (67.1 percent) of public universities reported budget cuts for central IT services for 2009, as did almost two-thirds (62.8 percent) of public four-year colleges. In contrast, just over a third (36.9 percent) of community colleges experienced central IT budget cuts this year. Among independent institutions, more than half (56.9 percent) of private research universities and two-fifths (41.9 percent) of private four-year colleges also reported reduced resources for central IT services for the current academic year.

“These budget cuts play havoc with efforts to respond to the rising demand for IT resources and services,” says Kenneth C. Green, founding director of The Campus Computing Project, the nation’s largest continuing study of computing, eLearning, and information technology. “College and university IT units were just beginning to recover from the budget cuts that came early in the decade. No question that the current round of IT budget reductions has consequences for infrastructure, instruction, and support services for students and faculty.”

The budget challenges confronting campus IT officers are reflected in the annual polling about the “single most important IT issue confronting my campus over the next two-three years.” In past years the polling provided a clear “leader” - an issue that might garner the votes of a clear plurality of the respondents. In the early part of the decade, survey respondents identified the instructional integration of information technology as the single most important issue confronting their institution over the next two-three years. More recently, IT security concerns emerged as the leading issue among survey respondents. However, in 2009, two issues – financing IT and the replacement/upgrade of the campus network each received about 15 percent of the votes of the survey respondents. And five other issues – supporting online/distance education, upgrading ERP systems, IT staffing, instructional integration, and user support – each polled about 10 percent of the votes.

“The absence of a clear ‘single most important issue’ in the 2009 survey suggests that institutional IT officers are fighting lots of 'digital fires' on their campuses,” says Green.

Budget cuts may also be a catalyst for reorganizing IT units. Almost two-fifths (38.8 percent) of the survey respondents report that their campus has reorganized academic computing in the past two years. Another fourth (25.2 percent) anticipate the reorganization of academic computing in the next 24 months. Moreover, fully a sixth (15.8 percent) of the survey respondents indicate that their campuses did reorganize academic computing in the pasty two years and expects to do it again in the next two years! The numbers are similar for administrative computing units: 34.4 percent have reorganized, 23.6 percent expect to reorganize, and 14.8 percent have done it once and expect to do it again.

Some campuses have found a little relief from budget cuts in the federal stimulus funds. Approximately a third of the survey respondents from public universities, public four-year colleges, and community colleges report that “federal stimulus funds will help sustain IT resources at my campus.” However, their counterparts in the private sector are less sanguine about the benefits of stimulus money: less than a fifth (18 percent) of CIOs in private universities and just 5 percent of IT officers in private four-year colleges report any benefit from stimulus funds. “While the relief is welcomed at many institutions, the short-lived federal stimulus money is not a long-term solution to the need to maintain IT budgets and to retain IT personnel,” says Green.

The survey indicates that campuses continue to invest in notification systems. A new item on the 2009 questionnaire reveals that more than four-fifths (83.6 percent) of campuses participating in the survey contract with commercial firms for campus notification services, often software and services that integrate and facilitate concurrent voice, text, and email messages to students, faculty, and staff. Yet as noted in last year’s Campus Computing Report, the effectiveness of these systems is probably limited by the fact that most campuses (73.5 percent) have an “opt-in” registration policy for the notification service, i.e., students, faculty, and staff must register for the service.

The 2009 survey data point to small gains in the number of campuses that are in compliance with the broad terms of the P2P provisions of the Higher Education Act of 2008. For example, 84.2 percent of public universities report that as of fall 2009, they “have developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material,” up from 80.0 percent in 2008. But beyond the mandate for plans, campuses may have opted to wait for the recently announced HEA regulations on P2P ahead of developing institutional policies or committing funds in response to actual or inferred federal mandates. In this instance, just a third of private research universities (32.6 percent, up from 23.8 percent in 2008) report that “current campus plans [to stem P2P] include the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents,” as mandated by the HEA legislation. More challenging for most campuses will be the mandate from the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) to “offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property” given the demise over the past year of many of the commercial music services that were targeting the campus market and offering institutional licenses. Moreover, as noted in the 2008 Campus Computing Report, compliance with the P2P mandates cost real dollars: for 2009, public universities estimate that they will spend, on average, more than $62,000 to address P2P compliance, compared to more than $78,000 in private universities, $28,000 in public four-year colleges, and approximately $13,000 in private four-year colleges and community colleges.

Campus IT officers seem somewhat bullish on the future of eBooks, according to the 2009 survey. Fully three-fourths (76.3 percent) agree or strongly agree that “eBook content will be an important source for instructional resources in five years.” Moreover, the survey numbers are fairly consistent across all sectors from community colleges to research universities. However, the survey respondents appear slightly less confident about the role of eBook platforms: just two-thirds (66.0 percent) agree that dedicated “eBook readers will be important platforms for instructional content in five years.”

The 2009 Campus Computing Survey is based on survey data provided by senior campus IT officials, typically, the CIO, CTO, or other senior campus IT officer, representing 500 two- and four-year public and private/non-profit colleges and universities across the United States. Survey respondents completed the questionnaire in October, 2009. Copies of the 2009 Campus Computing Survey will be available on December 10 from the Campus Computing Project in Encino, CA (campuscomputing.net). Price: $37, plus $2 shipping.

LMS 3.0 (Inside Higher Education 4 Nov 2009)

Casey Green — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:12:53 -0500

Inside Higher Education commentary about the future of Learning Management Systems. "The LMS is higher ed’s version of the supermarket scanner."

Sakai and the Four Cs of Open Source (March 2004)

Casey Green — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:53:10 -0400

Digital Tweed column, Syllabus Magazine, March, 2004. "In the language of business school profs, Course Management Systems look like a mature market with immature products."

MANAGING ONLINE EDUCATION: The 2009 WCET-Campus Computing Project Survey of Online Education (22 Oct 2009)

Casey Green — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:43:45 -0400

Online Education Programs Marked by Rising Enrollments,

Unsure Profits, Organizational Transitions,

Higher Fees, and Tech Training for Faculty

Enrollments are up and rising, profits are often uncertain, and organizational arrangements are in transition according to a new national survey of senior campus officials responsible for managing online and distance education programs conducted by WCET and The Campus Computing Project. Additionally, the new survey data suggest that students enrolled in online programs may pay higher fees than their on-campus counterparts, that many campuses have mandatory training on their faculty before sending them “into the web” to teach online courses, and that quality still looms as a large question for online education programs.

Three questions about enrollments indicate that campuses participating in the survey have experienced healthy gains in good economic times and bad – and that campus officials expect enrollments in their online programs to continue to rise in the coming years. Fully 94 percent of the survey respondents – typically the senior campus officer responsible for online or distance education programs – report enrollment gains in their online programs between 2006 and 2009; almost half (48 percent) report online enrollments rose by 15 percent or more during this period. Similarly, asked about past year numbers (fall 2008 vs. fall 2009), 95 percent report rising enrollment in their online programs; almost two-fifths (38 percent) report a one-year gain in online enrollments of 15 percent or better. Finally, when asked to project enrollments in their online programs over the next three years (2009-2011), 98 percent of the institutions participating in the survey affirm enrollment gains: almost half (47 percent) expect online enrollments grow by 15 percent or more over the next three years.

For more information, please download the accompanying PDF copy of the executive summary and the handout from the WCET Conference presentation on October 22nd. Also available below is the video webcast of the WCET conference presentation.

HEOA Comes to the College Bookstore (1 May 09)

Casey Green — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:04:23 -0400

Among the hundreds of new regulations in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) passed by Congress in August 2008 are new mandates that require colleges – and more specifically college owned or operated bookstores – to publish the ISBN numbers and retail prices for textbooks, other trade titles, and related course materials that faculty recommend and students buy for classes. The new HEOA mandates reflect, in part, Congressional concern, echoed in many state legislatures in recent years, about the rising cost of textbooks.   The ISBN mandate becomes operational in July 2010.

No question that the ISBN mandate will fuel changes already underway that affect how and where college students buy textbooks. Student Monitor’s fall 2008 survey of full-time undergraduates reveals that 16 percent of undergraduates “bought most of their textbooks online,” up from 12 percent in fall 2007. Additionally, Student Monitor reports that “the share of students who purchase most of their textbooks from their on-campus bookstore continues to trend down: fewer than six in ten students (57 percent) purchased most of their textbooks at their on campus book store,” compared to 64 percent in fall 2006 and down from 72 percent in fall 2005.

College bookstores are (for-profit) service organizations: prior to the emergence of Internet book sellers a just over a decade ago, college students were largely a captive market for the (often one) campus book store, usually owned and operated by the college or university (or operated under contract on behalf of the college by an agent such as Barnes & Noble or the Follett Higher Education Group). The money saving options were not where to buy (which store) but what to buy (new or used).   Until recently, for most students at most institutions, the primary source for new or used books and related course materials was the “college” store.

Enter the Internet. As with other products and services, Internet merchants provide price and service competition for local providers, in this case college bookstores. The emergence of Internet book merchants – initially Amazon, followed by web-based resellers specifically targeting college students such as BigWords, CampusBooks, TextBooks, and others – offered students new options: the Internet brought a new transparency to the prices of both new and used textbooks. Case in point: in fall 2008 my daughter, a UCLA student, purchased a new accounting book from Amazon for $135 that the ASUCLA store was selling for $176.

There’s little argument that the HEOA mandate to publish ISBNs and retail prices brings a new transparency to the textbook market. It facilitates the efforts of students to shop for books based on price.   Concurrently, the ISBN mandate poses new challenges for colleges, college stores, and the firms that operate college stores (and the store web sites) under contract.

Ahead of the regulations due later this year from ED, campus administrators, college store directors, and, yes, even campus attorneys are parsing the HEOA legislation (Section 133) and also reviewing bookstore operations, web sites, and current contracts to assess compliance issues. For example, as reported by Theresa Rose, the CIO at Oakland University in Michigan in an recent EDUCAUSE CIO ListServe post, the campus counsel at Oakland recently rejected an ISBN–link-system solution incorporated into the campus portal provided by Barnes and Noble (B&N), the contract operator of the campus store for Oakland. Campus counsel at Oakland ruled that the B&N link-solution "is not legally acceptable [under HEOA] given that [the university’s] contract with Barnes and Noble does not obligate [B&N to provide the ISBN linking service]; hence, if [B&N] fail[s] to comply with the statute Oakland would have no one to point the proverbial finger at . . . if we did, [simply] saying that B&N screwed up is not a good defense to a claim that [the university] failed to comply with federal law."

No doubt campus counsel at other institutions may have different perspectives on the linking solutions provided by store operators. Still, it is a safe bet that these contracts will be carefully reviewed – and many will be revised – following the release of the regulations governing the ISBN mandate later this year.

While the new transparency that accompanies the publication of ISBNs may be good for Internet book sellers, it will also be a catalyst for new services that target college students and also colleges and universities.

For example, Apple’s student-oriented iPhone ad broadcast during the NCAA Championship game on April 6, highlighted SnapTell, an iPhone app that supports “photo commerce:” take a picture of a book (including college textbooks) and the SnapTell app will link you to multiple web sites that sell the book.

On the institutional side, Verba Software, a Cambridge, MA firm launched by some recent Harvard grads, offers a simple application that links course reading lists, including ISBN and pricing information, within existing online course schedules. Verba has also developed a more expansive, integrated application that helps campuses compile the online course catalog, provides degree audit and course registration functions, collects the ISBNs mandated by HEOA, and offers students a price comparison service for course materials.

Internet book resellers that target college students and the textbook market proclaim that they save students money.   (Hey, Amazon saved me and my daughter $40 last fall!) So we can expect the ISBN mandate to foster more competition between bricks and clicks - the campus store on (or near the quad) vs. the on-screen Internet reseller. The ISBN mandate will accelerate the demise of a once captive market - college students buying books and course materials at the local college bookstore.

Many will applaud the increased competition because students will save bucks on books. Still others who lament the decline of “community bookstores” to chain stores, big box stores, and Internet booksellers will also lament what may be the demise of campus stores, as they continue to lose the annuity-like revenue stream from textbooks and course materials that has been essential to their operations.

But let’s also acknowledge that the HEOA mandate to publish ISBNs will not resolve of the recurring complaints about (and some might add structural problems affecting) the suggested retail price of textbooks and course materials – and by extension the wholesale price of course materials.   Here other factors are at play that include accelerated updates to stem the used book market, the costs of developing ancillary materials for faculty and maintaining web sites for students and professors, routine and appropriate development and production costs, modest author royalties and, yes even a little profit.   Regardless of what I paid for my daughter’s accounting textbook last fall, these factors and others all affected the wholesale price that both Amazon and ASUCLA paid for the book assigned for my daughter’s accounting class.

Disclosure:   Amazon, Apple, Follett Higher Education Group, and Verba Software are corporate sponsors of The Campus Computing Project.

NEW: Community Colleges and the Economy (17 March 2009)

Casey Green — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:59:23 -0400

Summary report for the winter 2009 League for Innovation/Campus Computing Project survey of 120 community college presidents about the impact of the economic downturn on enrollments, hiring, budgets, and program development. (Three PDF documents: survey report, executive summary, and presentation graphics.)

The New Computing - Revisited (October 2002)

Casey Green — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:27:02 -0500

Webcast from the 2002 EDUCAUSE Conference.

Campus Technology Magazine: P2P Compliance in the Wake of HEA (Jan, 2009)

Casey Green — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:54:06 -0500

Campus Technology Magazine contacted The Campus Computing Project about the new mandates for P2P compliance in the wake of the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA).

The 2008 Campus Computing Survey (29 Oct 2008)

Casey Green — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:55:03 -0500

The 2008 National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education

Colleges Invest in Emergency Notification

29 October 2008: Colleges and universities across the United States have made significant efforts to expand and enhance emergency notification capacity over the past year. Data from the 2008 Campus Computing Survey reveal that the proportion of institutions reporting that they do not have an “operational emergency notification system” as of fall 2008 fell to 5.5 percent, down from 25.0 percent in fall 2007.

While the numbers show major gains in notification planning and capacity, the survey data document some important variations across sectors. For example, 13.1 percent of community colleges report that they do not have an operational notification system, compared to 5.1 percent for private four-year colleges, 2.8 percent for public four-year colleges, and 2.3 percent private universities. In contrast, all the public universities participating in this year’s survey report operational notification systems as of fall 2008.

Additionally, the operational elements of campus notification plans showed major gains between fall 2007 and 2008. For example, the proportion of campuses reporting sirens as part of their plans jumped from 23.4 percent last year to 34.8 percent in fall 2008. Similarly, the proportion of campuses reporting notification capacity utilizing email grew by almost a third, from 66.4 percent in 2007 to 86.6 percent in 2008, while voice mail to campus phones increased almost by half to 65.5 percent, up from 44.6 in 2007; text messaging rose by three-fourths, from 43.3 percent in 2007 to 75.6 percent in fall 2008. The percentage of campuses reporting voice mail notification to off-campus phones and cell phones more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, from 18.0 to 41.1 percent for “wired” phones and from 22.5 to 48.5 percent for mobile phones.

“These dramatic gains reflect significant institutional concern about notification capacity,” says Kenneth C. Green, founding director of The Campus Computing Project. “Given recent campus tragedies and natural disasters, campus officials have come to recognize that technology is an essential component of a comprehensive institutional crisis management strategy.”

Yet Green cautions that “technology is the easy part” of campus notification efforts,” noting that careful planning, campus promotion, and system testing, plus thoughtful assessment, are essential. He cites the “opt-in” issue as one example: “if only a third of students register for the system, the benefits and effectiveness are clearly limited.” (Data from the 2008 survey indicate that three-fourths - 76.6 percent - of campuses have an “opt-in” policy.)

The campus investment in notification resources comes as colleges and universities report the beginning of what appears to be a new wave of IT budget cuts. The 2008 survey data confirm that the downturn affecting financial markets and state budgets has begun to hit college and university budgets. More than two-fifths of public universities (45.4 percent) report cuts in the central IT budget for fall 2008, up from just 16.3 percent in 2007. Similarly, 44.4 percent of public four-year colleges report central IT budget cuts this fall, compared to 16.7 percent last year. Other sectors also report reduced IT funding from last year to this, but the numbers are smaller: 22.8 percent for private universities, 23.5 percent for private four-year colleges, and 24.6 for community colleges.

“These new IT budget reductions come just as many institutions are beginning to recover from the budget cuts that marked the economic downturn during the first years of the current decade,” says Green. “The demand for technology resources and services continues to rise, even as the dollars supporting these resources, services, and IT staff are cut from institutional budgets.”

The 2008 data document continuing challenges involving IT security. The survey reveals increases in the proportion of institutions reporting the theft of campus computers with sensitive data (22.2 percent in fall 2008, compared to 17.1 percent last year), network attacks (up slightly from 45.6 percent to 46.2 percent), and identity management issues (25.6 percent, compared to 20.2 percent in 2007). The proportion of campuses reporting employee misconduct affecting IT security rose to 8.9 percent in 2008 compared to 6.5 percent in 2007.

Although security issues pose continuing challenges for campus IT officials, the proportion who identify IT security as the “single most important IT issue confronting my institution over the next two-three years” declined in 2008 to 20.5 percent, down from 25.5 percent in 2007 and 30 percent in both 2005 and 2006. Ranked second in 2008 is “hiring/retaining IT staff” at 16.7 percent, up from 12.3 percent last year. Tied for third in 2008 are “assisting faculty with the instructional integration of IT” (11.9 percent, compared to 11.2 percent in 2007 and 40.5 percent in 2000), and “financing the replacement of aging hardware and software” (11.2 percent, compared to 10.3 percent in 2007). Upgrading/replacing administrative IT/ERP systems, which was second in 2007 (13.0 percent) is ranked fifth in 2008 (10.0 percent).

“These data reflect the clustering of major IT priorities over the past few years,” says Green. “Rather than the one clear IT priority we saw in 2000 -instructional integration at 40 percent - the 2008 data reflect competing, yet critical priorities: IT security, retaining IT staff, and financing IT - all competing for limited budget resources.”

A new item on the 2008 survey asked respondents about the likelihood that their institutions will migrate to Software as a Service (SaaS) or Open Source administrative applications within five years, by 2013. About a fourth (24.4 percent) of the survey respondents report a high likelihood that their institution would migrate to an Open Source Learning Management System (LMS) by 2013. About one on six (15.3 percent) report likely migration to an Open Source content system and about an eighth (12.9 percent) anticipate migration to an Open Source ePortfolio application. Far fewer respondents - less than five percent - predict migration to Open Source ERP applications such as student information, financial, HR, or research/ grant management systems by 2013.

Similarly, about a fifth (18.0 percent) of the 2008 survey respondents predict that their campuses might migrate to a SaaS-based LMS, and an eighth anticipate moving to a SaaS-based content management (12.2 percent) or ePortfolio (11.1 percent) in the next five years.

Yet even as respondents seem wary of migrating to Open Source, the survey data document the rising deployment of Open Source LMS applications. For example, Blackboard remains the dominant LMS provider in higher education: 56.8 percent of the campuses in the 2008 survey identified Blackboard as the single product campus LMS standard, down from 66.3 percent in 2007. But one campus in seven (13.8 percent) that participated in the 2008 survey identified an Open Source LMS - either Moodle or Sakai – as the campus standard LMS, up from 10.3 percent in 2007 and 7.2 percent in 2006. As of fall 2008, almost a fourth (23.7 percent) of private four-year colleges identified Moodle as the campus standard LMS, compared to 17.2 percent in 2007.

Across all sectors the percentage of college classrooms that have access to wireless networks continues to rise. Overall, about two-thirds (67.6 percent) of classrooms have access to wireless, up from 60.1 percent in 2007 and 31.0 percent in 2004). Classroom wireless access is highest in private universities (76.0 percent, up from 68.9 percent in 2007) and lowest in community colleges (56.1 percent, up from 44.1 percent in 2007. The survey data reveal that many colleges and universities are carefully assessing options to outsource student email and other IT services.

Fully two-fifths (42.4 percent) of institutions participating in this year’s survey report that they have migrated or are about to migrate to an outsourced student email service; three in ten (28.3 percent) are reviewing institutional options for outsourcing student email during the current academic year. In contrast, just 14.8 percent of institutions have migrated to outsourced email services for faculty. The majority of campuses outsourcing student email have opted for Google (56.5 percent), while two-fifths (38.4 percent) are using Microsoft and 4.8 percent are using Zimbra.

A new item on the 2008 survey reveals the wide deployment of antiplagiarism software. More than half (54.7 percent) of institutions report a site license for an antiplagiarism product. Licensing agreements are highest in public four-year colleges (66.7 percent), followed by private universities (64.3 percent), public universities (62.2 percent), private four-year colleges (43.2 percent), and community colleges (54.1 percent).

“The wide deployment of antiplagiarism software reflects the growing concern about both intentional and ‘accidental’ plagiarism among undergraduates,” says Green. “Some students simply don’t know or don’t attend to the established rules for citing sources in their papers, while others intentionally clip and copy material from the Internet and other sources. Unfortunately, campus licenses for anti-plagiarism products are an additional institutional expense in times of stressed campus budgets.”

The survey data document the rising use of classroom clickers across all sectors. Although the overall numbers are generally low – about seven percent in public and private universities and public four-year colleges, five percent in private four-year colleges, and four percent in community colleges - the proportion of classes using clickers has almost doubled since the 2005 survey. Moreover, because clickers are almost exclusively found in (often large) lower-division undergraduate classes, the gains reflected in the survey data may actually understate the significance of the rising deployment of clickers and classroom response systems as a technology resource to support instruction.

The 2008 Campus Computing Survey is based on data provided by senior campus IT officials, typically the CIO, CTO, or other ranking campus IT officer, representing 531 two-and four-year public and private colleges and universities across the United States. Survey respondents completed the online questionnaire during September and October, 2008.

Copies of the 2008 Campus Computing Survey will be available on December 10th, as either print documents ($37.00 plus $2.00 shipping and handling) or as PDF site license files. Order from Campus Computing - www.campuscomputing.net.

The 2008 Campus Computing Survey

samo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:06:57 -0400

Colleges Invest in Emergency Notification

Colleges and universities across the United States have made significant efforts to expand and enhance emergency notification capacity over the past year. Data from the 2008 Campus Computing Survey reveal that the proportion of institutions reporting that they do not have an “operational emergency notification system” as of fall 2008 fell to 5.5 percent, down from 25.0 percent in fall 2007.

While the numbers show major gains in notification planning and capacity, the survey data document some important variations across sectors. For example, 13.1 percent of community colleges report that they do not have an operational notification system, compared to 5.1 percent for private four-year colleges, 2.8 percent for public four-year colleges, and 2.3 percent private universities. In contrast, all the public universities participating in this year’s survey report operational notification systems as of fall 2008.

Additionally, the operational elements of campus notification plans showed major gains between fall 2007 and 2008. For example, the proportion of campuses reporting sirens as part of their plans jumped from 23.4 percent last year to 34.8 percent in fall 2008. Similarly, the proportion of campuses reporting notification capacity utilizing email grew by almost a third, from 66.4 percent in 2007 to 86.6 percent in 2008, while voice mail to campus phones increased almost by half to 65.5 percent, up from 44.6 in 2007; text messaging rose by three-fourths, from 43.3 percent in 2007 to 75.6 percent in fall 2008. The percentage of campuses reporting voice mail notification to off-campus phones and cell phones more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, from 18.0 to 41.1 percent for “wired” phones and from 22.5 to 48.5 percent for mobile phones.

“These dramatic gains reflect significant institutional concern about notification capacity,” says Kenneth C. Green, founding director of The Campus Computing Project. “Given recent campus tragedies and natural disasters, campus officials have come to recognize that technology is an essential component of a comprehensive institutional crisis management strategy.”

Yet Green cautions that “technology is the easy part” of campus notification efforts,” noting that careful planning, campus promotion, and system testing, plus thoughtful assessment, are essential. He cites the “opt-in” issue as one example: “if only a third of students register for the system, the benefits and effectiveness are clearly limited.” (Data from the 2008 survey indicate that three-fourths - 76.6 percent - of campuses have an “opt-in” policy.)

The campus investment in notification resources comes as colleges and universities report the beginning of what appears to be a new wave of IT budget cuts. The 2008 survey data confirm that the downturn affecting financial markets and state budgets has begun to hit college and university budgets. More than two-fifths of public universities (45.4 percent) report cuts in the central IT budget for fall 2008, up from just 16.3 percent in 2007. Similarly, 44.4 percent of public four-year colleges report central IT budget cuts this fall, compared to 16.7 percent last year. Other sectors also report reduced IT funding from last year to this, but the numbers are smaller: 22.8 percent for private universities, 23.5 percent for private four-year colleges, and 24.6 for community colleges.

“These new IT budget reductions come just as many institutions are beginning to recover from the budget cuts that marked the economic downturn during the first years of the current decade,” says Green. “The demand for technology resources and services continues to rise, even as the dollars supporting these resources, services, and IT staff are cut from institutional budgets.”

The 2008 data document continuing challenges involving IT security. The survey reveals increases in the proportion of institutions reporting the theft of campus computers with sensitive data (22.2 percent in fall 2008, compared to 17.1 percent last year), network attacks (up slightly from 45.6 percent to 46.2 percent), and identity management issues (25.6 percent, compared to 20.2 percent in 2007). The proportion of campuses reporting employee misconduct affecting IT security rose to 8.9 percent in 2008 compared to 6.5 percent in 2007.

Although security issues pose continuing challenges for campus IT officials, the proportion who identify IT security as the “single most important IT issue confronting my institution over the next two-three years” declined in 2008 to 20.5 percent, down from 25.5 percent in 2007 and 30 percent in both 2005 and 2006. Ranked second in 2008 is “hiring/retaining IT staff” at 16.7 percent, up from 12.3 percent last year. Tied for third in 2008 are “assisting faculty with the instructional integration of IT” (11.9 percent, compared to 11.2 percent in 2007 and 40.5 percent in 2000), and “financing the replacement of aging hardware and software” (11.2 percent, compared to 10.3 percent in 2007). Upgrading/replacing administrative IT/ERP systems, which was second in 2007 (13.0 percent) is ranked fifth in 2008 (10.0 percent).

“These data reflect the clustering of major IT priorities over the past few years,” says Green. “Rather than the one clear IT priority we saw in 2000 -instructional integration at 40 percent - the 2008 data reflect competing, yet critical priorities: IT security, retaining IT staff, and financing IT - all competing for limited budget resources.”

A new item on the 2008 survey asked respondents about the likelihood that their institutions will migrate to Software as a Service (SaaS) or Open Source administrative applications within five years, by 2013. About a fourth (24.4 percent) of the survey respondents report a high likelihood that their institution would migrate to an Open Source Learning Management System (LMS) by 2013. About one on six (15.3 percent) report likely migration to an Open Source content system and about an eighth (12.9 percent) anticipate migration to an Open Source ePortfolio application. Far fewer respondents - less than five percent - predict migration to Open Source ERP applications such as student information, financial, HR, or research/ grant management systems by 2013.

Similarly, about a fifth (18.0 percent) of the 2008 survey respondents predict that their campuses might migrate to a SaaS-based LMS, and an eighth anticipate moving to a SaaS-based content management (12.2 percent) or ePortfolio (11.1 percent) in the next five years.

Yet even as respondents seem wary of migrating to Open Source, the survey data document the rising deployment of Open Source LMS applications. For example, Blackboard remains the dominant LMS provider in higher education: 56.8 percent of the campuses in the 2008 survey identified Blackboard as the single product campus LMS standard, down from 66.3 percent in 2007. But one campus in seven (13.8 percent) that participated in the 2008 survey identified an Open Source LMS - either Moodle or Sakai – as the campus standard LMS, up from 10.3 percent in 2007 and 7.2 percent in 2006. As of fall 2008, almost a fourth (23.7 percent) of private four-year colleges identified Moodle as the campus standard LMS, compared to 17.2 percent in 2007.

Across all sectors the percentage of college classrooms that have access to wireless networks continues to rise. Overall, about two-thirds (67.6 percent) of classrooms have access to wireless, up from 60.1 percent in 2007 and 31.0 percent in 2004). Classroom wireless access is highest in private universities (76.0 percent, up from 68.9 percent in 2007) and lowest in community colleges (56.1 percent, up from 44.1 percent in 2007. The survey data reveal that many colleges and universities are carefully assessing options to outsource student email and other IT services.

Fully two-fifths (42.4 percent) of institutions participating in this year’s survey report that they have migrated or are about to migrate to an outsourced student email service; three in ten (28.3 percent) are reviewing institutional options for outsourcing student email during the current academic year. In contrast, just 14.8 percent of institutions have migrated to outsourced email services for faculty. The majority of campuses outsourcing student email have opted for Google (56.5 percent), while two-fifths (38.4 percent) are using Microsoft and 4.8 percent are using Zimbra.

A new item on the 2008 survey reveals the wide deployment of antiplagiarism software. More than half (54.7 percent) of institutions report a site license for an antiplagiarism product. Licensing agreements are highest in public four-year colleges (66.7 percent), followed by private universities (64.3 percent), public universities (62.2 percent), private four-year colleges (43.2 percent), and community colleges (54.1 percent).

“The wide deployment of antiplagiarism software reflects the growing concern about both intentional and ‘accidental’ plagiarism among undergraduates,” says Green. “Some students simply don’t know or don’t attend to the established rules for citing sources in their papers, while others intentionally clip and copy material from the Internet and other sources. Unfortunately, campus licenses for anti-plagiarism products are an additional institutional expense in times of stressed campus budgets.”

The survey data document the rising use of classroom clickers across all sectors. Although the overall numbers are generally low – about seven percent in public and private universities and public four-year colleges, five percent in private four-year colleges, and four percent in community colleges - the proportion of classes using clickers has almost doubled since the 2005 survey. Moreover, because clickers are almost exclusively found in (often large) lower-division undergraduate classes, the gains reflected in the survey data may actually understate the significance of the rising deployment of clickers and classroom response systems as a technology resource to support instruction.

The Campus Costs of P2P Compliance (Oct 2008)

Casey Green — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:40:32 -0400

This paper reports the results of a summer 2008 survey designed to address the campus costs of compliance with the new P2P filesharing mandates in reauthorized Higher Education Act (HEA) signed into law on August 14, 2008. The report is based data from 321 colleges and universities and focuses on P2P compliance costs as reflected in expenditures (e.g., content and software licenses) and also the time that campus officials spend on P2P filesharing issues.

The Campus Costs of P2P Compliance (Oct. 2008)

Casey Green — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:37:46 -0400

This paper reports the results of a summer 2008 survey designed to address the campus costs of compliance with the new P2P filesharing mandates in reauthorized Higher Education Act (HEA) that was signed into law on August 14, 2008. The report is based data from 321 colleges and universities and focuses on P2P compliance costs as reflected in expenditures (e.g., content and software licenses) and also the time that campus personnel spend on P2P filesharing issues.

The IT "Revolution" in Higher Education (October 2008)

Casey Green — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:56:13 -0400

Campus presentation at Fresno State University (1 Oct 2008). The presentation focuses on six issues that will define the future of IT for higher education.

The IT "Revolution" in Higher Education (October 2008)

Casey Green — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:53:14 -0400

A campus presentation at Fresno State University on 1 Oct 2008. The presentation focuses on six issues that will define the future of IT for higher education.

Technology and the Six C's of Professional Education

Casey Green — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:58:59 -0400

Plenary session presentation prepared for the May 2008 SENAC/MG Conference in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Technology and the Six C's of Professional Education

Casey Green — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:56:37 -0400

Plenary presentation prepared for the May 2008 SENAC/MG Conference in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.