Why IT Matters to Higher Education
EDUCAUSMAY/JUNE 2016 E
Credentials Reform: Technology and the Changing Thinking Needs of the Workforce about the Jamie Merisotis Appreciating a Future of Multigenerational Higher Education Work IT Workforce Marina Gorbis Eden Dahlstrom
001 C1 May-June Cover16.indd 1 4/19/16 11:23 AM Personalized software and services for your unique institution. jenzabar.com/educause
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EDUCAUSr e vıeEw MAY/JUNE 2016 VOLUME 51, NUMBER 3
FEATURES 12 Thinking about the Future of Work to Make Better Decisions about Learning Today
Marina Gorbis
By looking at historical patterns and identifying signals of change around us today, we can better prepare for the transformations occurring in both work and learning. 12 26 Credentials Reform: How 26 Technology and the Changing Needs of the Workforce Will Create the Higher Education System of the Future
Jamie Merisotis
The shift in postsecondary credentialing and the needs of the 21st-century workforce will revolutionize higher education. Colleges and universities have vast potential to be positive agents of this change.
36 EDUCAUSE Research Snapshot: Current Faces of the Higher Ed IT Workforce
Striving for a representative workforce through diversity, inclusion, and equity contributes to creativity, productivity, and innovation. 36 Personalized software and services 38 Appreciating a Multigenerational for your unique institution. Higher Education IT Workforce jenzabar.com/educause Eden Dahlstrom
Appreciating and welcoming various generations into higher education IT organizations enables us to both mentor and learn from one another while looking to the workforce of the future. 38 ©2016 Jenzabar, Inc. All rights reserved. Jenzabar® is a registered trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. The Jenzabar logo is a trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. er.educause.edu MAY/JUNE 2016 EDUCAUSEreview 1
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EDUCAUSr e vıewE MAY/JUNE 2016 VOLUME 51, NUMBER 3 PUBLISHER/EDITOR COLUMNS D. Teddy Diggs Power your campus ADVERTISING 04 Homepage Bridget Oakes, Manager, Corporate Relations [From the President] with the next generation of Higher Education Brave New Work World DESIGN AND PRODUCTION MANIFEST LLC John O’Brien Jeff Kibler, Art Director enterprise technology – ERP, SIS, Adriana Guevara, Project Manager Brenda Waugh, Production Artist 10 Leadership COLUMN EDITORS [Views from the Top] Research Management E-Content: Robert H. McDonald, Associate Dean for Library Tower Records Was Doomed: Technologies and Deputy Director of the Data to The Music Industry Was Not 10 Insight Center, Pervasive Technology Institute in one place. Indiana University José Antonio Bowen New Horizons: Shelli B. Fowler, Associate Dean and Director of 48 Interdisciplinary Studies, University College Connections Virginia Commonwealth University 48 [Community College Insights] Viewpoints: Growing an IR and IT Garden John Suess, Vice President of Information Technology and CIO Elizabeth Clune-Kneuer University of Maryland Baltimore County
EDUCAUSE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS John O’Brien, President and CEO 50 E-Content Joanne Dehoney, Chief of Staff [All Things Digital] Susan Grajek, Vice President, Data, Research, and Analytics The HathiTrust Research Center: • Boost student success by delivering on Julie K. Little, Vice President, Teaching, Learning, Exploring the Full-Text Frontier and Professional Development student expectations and needs. Thad Lurie, Chief Operating Officer J. Stephen Downie, Mike Furlough, Stacy Ruwe, Chief Financial Officer Robert H. McDonald, Beth Namachchivaya, Beth A. Plale, • Improve institutional effectiveness with and John Unsworth reduced IT costs and intuitive reporting. EDUCAUSE Review is the general-interest, bimonthly magazine published by EDUCAUSE. With a print publication base of 22,000, EDUCAUSE Review is sent to EDUCAUSE member representatives as 52 New Horizons well as to presidents/chancellors, senior academic and administrative Accelerate institutional growth with leaders, non-IT staff, faculty in all disciplines, librarians, and [The Technologies Ahead] • corporations. It takes a broad look at current developments and trends in information technology, what these mean for higher Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: 50 powerful tools to increase productivity. education, and how they may affect the college/university as a whole. A Call to Action EDUCAUSE and EDUCAUSE Review are registered trademarks. Copyright © 2016 by EDUCAUSE. Materials may be photocopied for noncommercial use without written permission provided appropriate Melissa Woo and Keith W. McIntosh credit is given to both EDUCAUSE Review and the author(s). Permission to republish must be sought in writing (contact editor@ Call or visit us today educause.edu). Statements of fact or opinion are made on the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, staff, or 54 Viewpoints members. For more information about copyright, see
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have experienced a few dramatic moments, epiphanies even, w hen it became clear that the w orld I thought I was inhabiting was changing in remarkable ways. As a faculty member, I once cancelled class because I was giving a paper at a national conference. I assumed I would be a hero. In my experience at that time, students loved nothing more than a day to skip class and catch up on all the work I was assign- ing. Instead, one of m y working adult students called me up t o read me the riot act . The conversation Istarted with “I paid good money for this class” and went downhill from there. In this single moment, I real- ized the academy was heading into some decidedly uncharted waters. When it comes to the brave new work world, I’ll borrow the epiphany of Carolyn O’Hara, managing edi- tor of The Week.1 She explains that she was working with a friend’s personal assistant, Amy, and exchanged several e-mails to handle the logistics for a meeting . O’Hara was impressed with Amy: “She was efficient Multi-Use and gracious, considerate of my schedule constraints, and so polite in her responses that, with the meeting Starting at $795 arranged, I began typing up a brief thank-you.” It was then that O’Hara noticed Amy’s e-mail signature and realized that she had been working with a digital assistant powered by artificial intelligence. As O’Hara wrote: “Amy wasn’t actually human. She was an algorithm. I’d been corresponding with a machine all along and hadn’t even realized it.” O’Hara predicts that if this h asn’t happened to you by now, it’s going to soon. This issue is This issue of EDUCAUSE Review is, in man y ways, a collection of epip hanies, insights, predictions, and educa ted prognostications not onl y about the futur e of a collection work but also a bout the int erconnected relationship between the academ y and of epiphanies, careers. Whether you consider that relationship to be symbiotic, reciprocal, mutual- insights, istic, or something less interdependent, the articles that follow offer important com- mentary on a topic that is in the news and on our minds regularly. predictions, In “Thinking about the Future of Work to Make Better Decisions about Learn- and educated ing Today,” the futurist and social scientist Marina Gorbis explores, with the benefit prognostications of decades of pr evious forecasting work, what she calls “ deeper transformations.” Focusing on four clusters of technology—smart machines, coordination economies, about the future immersive collaboration, and the mak er mindset—she takes the pr ovocative posi- For 27 years, Computer Comforts has been of work. tion that Marshall McLuhan got it right: “ We shape our t ools and afterwards our tools shape us.” Gorbis offers concrete examples of change fully under way, whether manufacturing innovative solutions for Japanese robots building other robots or Internet-connected dinosaur toys designed your computer labs. We are now your Collaborative to grow with the children for whom they are purchased (adaptive playing?). Jobs are being redefined, trans- one-stop shop for ALL of your classroom formed, and sometimes “eaten” by new technologies or moved to the cloud. For example, when it comes to coordination economies like Uber, Gorbis points out that employees are changing along with the jobs, furniture needs (Active Learning, moving from “stable 9-to-5 jobs” to “a stitching together of various tasks performed in flexible niches of General Purpose, Collaborative, etc.). time.” Jobs are becoming less about large tasks and more about micro-tasks or micro-contributions. Gorbis hints at the future promise of bitcoin to track knowledge acquisition and points to several ways that new technologies offer alternatives to traditional degrees, from badging to GitHub to emerging startups such as Degreed, whose mission is to “jailbreak the degree.” Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the L umina Foundation, continues this convers ation in “Cre- dentials Reform: How Technology and the Ch anging Needs of the W orkforce Will Cr eate the Hig her Education System of the Future.” Merisotis takes a deep dive into what he calls “the powerful shift” that has taken place in the last few decades in the field of postsecondary credentialing. Whereas too often we see product development/hype in the driver’s seat, Merisotis refreshingly suggests that the needs of s tudents and employees are “unleashing the power of technology.” His exploration of transformation examines the (281) 535-2288 growth in credentials serving as alternatives to degrees, specifically suggesting that campus IT leaders have (continued on page 6) computercomforts.com Starting at $850
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04-09 Front Dept.indd 5 4/19/16 11:26 AM HOMEPAGE [From the President]
(continued from page 4)
“a unique opp ortunity to influence this tr ansformation.” Acknowledging that the transformation of the credentialing ecosystem will take years to accomplish, he observes that key changes are already evident. The system he envisions is most clearly expressed in the Connecting Credentials platform. Co-sponsored by the Lumina Foundation and over 90 others, including EDUCAUSE, this effort aspires to develop a uni versal taxonomy that will connect all kinds of cr edentials. These better-connected credentials, along with com- mon definitions and a shared language for understanding, extend Merisotis’s vision and suggest “a digital passport to showcase learning and accomplishments throughout a lifetime.” Who is earning the nontraditional credentials discussed by Merisotis, and who is working in the nontra- ditional jobs outlined by Gorbis? Very likely, they span the generations, just as they do in the higher educa- tion IT workforce. Eden Dahlstrom, chief research officer for the Data, Research, and Analytics (DRA) unit at EDUCAUSE, uses information from the latest EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) work- force study as a lens for viewing the changes ahead. In “Appreciating a Multigenerational Higher Education IT workforce,” Dahlstrom explores the generational differences as the youngest professionals begin to enter higher education IT professions in force. She acknowledges that the “oversimplified generalization of traits” has limits, but she s ays such generalizations also offer insights that allow us t o “categorize an otherwise complex world.” As Dahlstrom explains, an understanding by Gen Xers and Boomers of the next genera- tion—and vice versa—“will help colleges and universities maintain business continuity during the genera- tional transition.” (Indeed, to ensure that EDUCAUSE members will benefit from the unique perspective of emerging leaders, we recently created our own Young Professionals Advisory Council: http://www.educause .edu/educause-young-professionals-advisory-council.) (continued on page 8) NOW YOUR STUDENTS CAN REACH FOR THE STARS. Interactive videos EDUCATION ACTIONTEC CDW• G As classrooms evolve, so do the possibilities for you and your they’ll want students. Our solutions and services teams can upgrade your learning environment with the latest technology to bring new to watch... opportunities for learning and collaboration. Together we can help your students stay connected and ready for the future. WITH THE DATA TO SHOW Learn more at CDWG.com/k12deviceguide WHAT THEY LEARNED.
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(continued from page 6) what if a
By the time you finish reading Dahlstrom’s article, you will no doubt h ave realized that in this issue of EDUCAUSE Review, every single keyword in this conversation means something a little different from what it meant a few years ago. Student demographics, the nature of employment, how we measure learning, the chair could workforce—so much has changed. And more change is coming. One of my favorite futurist insights is the prediction that “the illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and r elearn.”2 Another epiphany! With all the jar ring, tectonic transformations in higher education and the workplace, the crucial competency that students will need in order to succeed in the brave new work world is not new at all: it is the age-old ability to change with change. improve
Notes 1. Carolyn O’Hara, “Editor’s Letter,” The Week (November 13, 2015), 3. 2. This quote is often incorrectly attributed to Alvin Toffler. In fact, Toffler quoted Professor Herbert Gerjuoy, who stated: “Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.” Future Shock (1970) student success?
John O’Brien ([email protected]) is President and CEO of EDUCAUSE. We believe it can. So we designed © 2016 John O’Brien. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives the Node® chair with that goal in mind. 4.0 International License. To learn more about Node visit, Steelcase.com/node
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04-09 Front Dept.indd 9 4/19/16 11:26 AM LEADERSHIP [Views from the Top]
Tower Records Was Doomed: The Music Industry Was Not
echnology is a tool, not a strategy. It is clear that to save Tower Records rather than come up with an alternative most campus CIOs understand this, as demon - to the current music-delivery system. strated by their top concern noted in surveys: In higher education, for-profit colleges may be playing the getting faculty to integrate technology into class- role of the Napster pirates. Yes, there were and are many bad rooms. I suspect CIOs’ deeper concern is getting players, but some h ave also tried man y of the new and pr evi- Tfaculty to rethink the entirety of teaching to take advantage of ously unthinkable things th at technology has made p ossible. some of the incr edible things technology can do. Why is that True to form, the rest of the sector has fought back by trying to so hard? regulate away this new competition. Technology is disruptive. So people naturally look for a way Just as those in the music industry discovered their product to keep doing what they were already doing. For example, in my was actually music and not all the packaging, we in higher edu- new car with keyless ignition, I was still taking the key out of cation are about to face the same choice. Are we selling athlet- my pocket for the first few months. Old habits die hard. I would ics, libraries, dorms, and campus life, or are we selling branded get in the car and then w onder where to put the k ey while I credentials and alumni networks? Perhaps we are selling learn- was driving so that I wouldn’t forget it when I left. Eventually, ing. If that is the case, then the size and shape of the packaging I started leaving the key in my pocket—but that required real- might easily change with new technology. Do we need semes - izing that the new technology is no longer a key. It is a personal ters, grades, credits, classrooms, office hours, and departments? identity tag that tells the car w ho I am. Once Can we keep learning constant and the time I changed my assumptions, I could dri ve the involved variable? Maybe, like Lasik doctors, car just by g etting in. T he real potential of we could even pri ce higher education based new technology comes only when we totally The real on learning out comes (like 20/20 vision p er rethink our systems around it. potential of new eye) instead of on the time sp ent sitting in Think about how r esistant the musi c technology classrooms? industry was to technology. Initially, digital Residential campuses and esp ecially resi- technology was used to make new recordings comes only when dential liberal arts colleges can and do off er that could then be sold as analog records (mar- we totally rethink a type of learning th at cannot b e duplicated keted as 4D technology!). It should have been our systems online. But as learning online g ets better, we obvious that the real product was sound (not will have to get better too, and we will have albums) and th at digital technology would around it. to be clear a bout the e xtra learning th at is allow music to be bundled into different units received for all that extra expense. The Inter- and distributed in new ways. Even when CDs net and its amazing content are disaggregated were first introduced (just another hard-copy bundle), people and decontextualized. The successful individuals, businesses, moaned that the cover ar t was an essential part of the product and institutions of the futur e will be either integrators or spe- and that CD cases were too small for cover art. Our clue should cialists. In higher education, we probably need to do both. have been that we called this the “r ecord” industry rather than When there was less competition, we could all be the same, the music business. just regionally different. Today, however, we don’t need more Of course, the pirates were the first to figure this out. Once virtually identical curricular and learning envir onments. A you have a digital file of musi c, you can share it without any diversity of approaches to learning will create more chances for hard copy. Call them what you like, but pirates are practical. success and survival. It will also incr ease the chances of find- As Napster was showing how this could b e done, the r ecord ing a colle ge or uni versity that will w ork for eac h individual companies continued to resist. Twenty years ago, the sugges- student. tion that the real solution to Napster was simply to offer a better A few big research institutions will be able to claim the best music service was inconceivable. At the time, I pitched the idea and most specialized physics or philosophy departments, but that if consumers could rent all the music they wanted for a most of us need to become really good aggregators. Having monthly fee, they would not need t o buy any hard copies. We local versions of the same content that students can get (for free) had new technology, but we also h ad a bricks-and-mortar dis- online does not create value for a college or university. Most of tribution, and the “r ecord” industry wanted to figure out how what students will need to learn for the jobs of the future is still
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04-09 Front Dept.indd 10 4/19/16 11:26 AM By JOSÉ ANTONIO BOWEN Steve McCracken © 2016
waiting to be discovered, so the mission of hig her education the pieces fit together. We need new systems and structures, not institutions should be to create self-regulated learners. We talk just new technology. a lot about critical thinking, but if it is so important, why don’t Meanwhile, the t echnology will g et better, and someone we put more effort into measuring critical thinking and dem - (probably pirates and hackers) will be busy becoming even onstrating that our method for teaching it really works? more disruptive. Like those in the musi c industry, we have a The future of higher education institutions resides in our choice: we can hire more lobbyists, or we can reimagine our real ability to integrate all of the learning on a campus. If we can product. n connect the learning in the classr oom with what happens in athletics, residential life, and s tudent government, if we can meet and support students where they are (socially, emotion- José Antonio Bowen ([email protected]) is president of Goucher ally and technologically), if we can moni tor students’ progress College. He is the author of Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of and well-being over their years on campus, and if we can design Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning (2012), winner of the 2014 comfortable environments that encourage risk, then we will Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). be doing something online courses can’t do. We will be adding
value. Technology has a huge role to play here, but the process © 2016 José Antonio Bowen. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative will require a complete rethinking of everything we do and how Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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ILLUSTRATION BY C.J. BURTON, © 2016
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Futureto Make Better of Decisions Work Learning about Today
By Marina Gorbis f you’ve participated in r ecent discussions about the future of higher education, inevi- tably you have heard people argue about the purpose of educa tion. “It should b e about preparing students to be good, educated, and engaged citizens,” some ar gue. “We shouldn’t bend education to suit today’s needs of acquiring sp ecific work skills. T hese may quickly change, leaving graduates with little to fall Iback on as demand for their particular skills wanes. Instead, we should equip p eople with basic critical thinking skills and a desire to learn. A curious mind is a much greater asset than specific content knowledge.”
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Others respond: “That is all ni ce and transformative shifts. R ather, a clus ter of erful new smart machines—yields a much good, but in an era of rising tuitions and interrelated technologies, often acting in more nuanced view. high student debt, it is mor e important concert with demographic and cul tural Over the coming decade, smart than ever for gr aduates to be able to earn changes, is r esponsible for dr amatic machines will indeed b egin to enter vir- good incomes, not onl y to repay their changes and disruptions. T echnolo- tually every domain of our li ves in small debts but also t o lead sustainable lives. To gies coevolve with society and cul tural and big w ays, including assis ting doctors ensure this, we need t o more tightly con- norms—or as M arshall McLuhan is oft en during surgery, fighting on ba ttlefields, nect education and work preparation.” quoted as having said: “We shape our building things in factories, and helping in Such debates are not new; they’ve been tools and aft erwards our t ools shape us.” classrooms. In particular, smart machines around for decades if not long er. What Nowhere does this apply more critically are poised to take on tasks that are repeti- is new are the ways that both the nature today than in the world of work and labor. tive, dangerous, data-intensive, or too large of work and the t ools and pr ocesses for Here, I fo cus on four clus ters of t ech- or too small for humans to perform effec- learning are changing. These fundamental nologies that are particularly important in tively. These are, in fact, the types of tasks transformations are making dis tinctions shaping the changes in the w orld of work that humans are not particularly good at. between work, learning, and living ever and learning: smar t machines; coordina- Naturally, the pr omise of smar t more artificial. The Institute for the Future tion economies; immersive collaboration; machines spurs anxiety over the loss (IFTF), in par tnership with ACT Founda- and the maker mindset. of jobs. However, it is w orth noting that tion, recently published Learning Is Earning no technology has yet resulted in our in the National Learning Economy—a visual Smart Machines: A New Era working any less. D espite generations synthesis of futur e forces that are shap- of Human-Machine Symbiosis of new t echnologies, we ar e currently ing this tr ansformation. The work shows We’re on the cusp of a ma jor transforma- working more than ever b efore. Adult how the pr oliferation of online learning tion in our r elationship with our t ools, male peasants in the thir teenth century resources (free and for pay), the rise of analogous to the transformation humanity in the United Kingdom w orked an a ver- alternative learning and making spaces underwent during the agr arian revolu- age of 1,600 hours a year; manufacturing (from TechShop to General Assembly and tion. As agri cultural production became workers in 1900 in the U nited Kingdom makerspaces), and the mechanized, farm labor worked an average of 1,850 hours; and a diffusion of mobile tech- A new generation shrank, with many rural full-time employee in the U nited States nologies and p eer-to- of smart software families moving int o cit- today works an a verage of over 2,0 00 peer communities allow ies and new g enerations hours.2 Machines don’t just replace what every moment of the and machines finding employment in we do. They change the na ture of w hat day to become a learning is emerging to factories and cons truc- we do: by extending our capabilities, they moment. At the s ame once again tion. Over time , the con - set new e xpectations for w hat’s possible time, the w ay we h ave redefine our solidation of urban la bor and create new p erformance standards come to think a bout produced a manag e- and new needs. Yes, smart machines will work—that is, 9 -to-5 pre- relationship rial class, and the la test replace some human labor, but they will dictable jobs in formal to work. phases of development also augment humans in new w ays and organizations—is less have built out this layer of change how we get things done. and less a r eality for the gr owing number labor in cities around the world. of working-age adults. So in thinking Now, a new g eneration of smar t soft- Replacing Routine, Repetitive Work about the futur e, we need t o understand ware and machines is emerging to once We will continue to outsource to machines the forces that are reshaping both work again redefine our r elationship to work. any task that can be routinized, decoded, and learning, and we need t o make link- Smart machines have the ability to com- and programmed. We have been doing ages between the two. Instead of debating municate with each other, adapt t o and this in manufacturing and are increasingly whether learning is for learning ’s sake or learn from changing conditions in r eal doing so in servi ces. David Autor, an MIT as a means for earning a li ving, we need to time, and do all of this a utonomously economist who studies U.S. labor trends, think about the forces and signals of trans- without human supervision. Diffusion concluded in a 20 10 study that there has formation and what they mean for hig her of such smart machines may bring an y been a dramatic decline in mid-skill white- education today and tomorrow. number of dystopian scenarios to mind: collar clerical, administrative, and s ales So let’s explore these deep er transfor- robots taking over the w orld, software occupations and mid-skill blue-collar pro- mations.1 From our e xperience of doing “eating” our jobs, and machines running duction, craft, and operative occupations. forecasting work for nearly fifty years, we amok and r eproducing themselves. B ut The shift is not sud den but, rather, has at the IFTF b elieve that it is usuall y not a look at what is under development been occurring over several decades. The one technology or one tr end that drives today—and at the potential of these p ow- result is what Autor calls “polarization” of
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unbounded resources digital-physical blends
learning commons
continuous learning flows
LEARNING dynamic reputations IS EARNING in the national personalized learning economy experiences
decoded collaborative brain tools
solutions networks
actionable feedback
human- machine symbiosis coordination platforms
algorithmic matching
actfdn.org iftf.org © 2015 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. All brands and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent. SR-1804
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jobs, with job opportunities concentrated center, see what the ROV is seeing (along And thanks to advances in neur osci- in relatively high-skill, high-wage jobs and with data from other sensors) and control ence and b ehavioral economics, we’ve low-skill, low-wage jobs.3 In other w ords, the ROV with a jo ystick.6 Similarly, we’re come to realize that humans generally tasks that are predictable, routine, and now using dr ones for w arfare, a pr actice aren’t very good at thinking through prob- easily codifiable are increasingly being that raises questions about the ethi cs abilities and risks and making rational automated. This impacts not only physical of remote warfare. But as we sub stitute economic choices based on those pr ob- work in manuf acturing but also r outine humans with machines in direct combat, abilities. Whereas we likely don’t want to knowledge and service work. we’re also pr ototyping systems to help use pure rationality when making mor al We see this shift even in t oday’s class- care for humans in the battlefield. Trauma or ethical decisions, mor e rationality rooms. Already, thousands of r obots Pod, a system developed by a consor tium would be helpful in si tuations such as are assisting with repetitive language of organizations led by SRI International, when making financial decisions. We’re instruction (correcting pronunciation) in makes it possible to retrieve wounded sol- already relying on softw are to help us Korean schools,4 and new pr ototypes of diers from the ba ttlefield, diagnose them make many complex decisions—includ- automated food preparation are begin- remotely, and even p erform lifesaving ing modeling climate change scenarios, ning to enter fast food restaurant chains procedures en r oute to a hospi tal. Inside impacts of financial market interventions, and supermarkets. For example, Momen- the prototype theater is a t eam of robots, and optimal oil-drilling lo cations—but tum Machines created led by a r obotic surgeon what happens when every decision, lar ge the world’s first fully remotely controlled by a or small, incorporates decision support automatic hamburger human surgeon. from our machine helpers? This is begin- machine. This ham- Similarly, in the ning to happen: we routinely check Ama- burger machine can recent Ebola outbreak, zon ratings before buying a pr oduct or prepare, cook, and serve robotics emerged as a scan Yelp reviews before deciding w here freshly ground, custom- possible solution to care- to eat. Imagine a futur e in w hich every made burgers—at a r ate giving in hospi tals and decision we mak e incorporates rational of 400 per hour—with- infected areas. Robotic analysis of risks and pr obabilities. We’ll out a single human hand tasks include everything outsource some decisions complet ely to being involved. The from managing contami- machines, while also assimilating compu- makers claim th at their invention “ does nated waste to “zapping” contaminated tational rationality into our own decision everything employees can do e xcept bet- environments with ultraviolet pulses t o processes. ter” in w hat they call “ the most labour providing care for inf ected and quar an- intensive industry in the country.” In addi- tined babies. This deployment of r obots Human-Machine Symbiosis tion, the mac hine can ad d the r equested builds on the field of t elemedicine and While smart machines will replace human toppings (e.g., slicing tomatoes directly telepresence robots, one of the earl y test- labor in some ar eas and ena ble humans onto the bur ger) and p op the bur ger out ing grounds for colla borative robotics. to do new things in other ar eas, the most to a nea tly wrapped sandwich ready for Robotic manufacturing can t ake place profound impact of smart machines is the human consumption.5 in conditions that are inhospitable to new level of symbiosis or interconnected- humans. Already, the J apanese robotics ness we will establish between ourselves Augmenting Human Abilities company FANUC is op erating a f actory and such machines. What this means is Since time immemorial, our tools have in which robots are building other r obots that most of our int eractions—whether extended our abilities to manipulate our at a rate of about 50 per 24-hour shift and at work, in learning , or in heal th—will environment and to do things that indi- can run unsupervised for 30 days at a involve some level of combined mac hine viduals can’t do alone (e.g., lift large stones). time—with no lig hts, air condi tioning, or and human effort. In f act, a r ecent Mc- A new generation of smar t machines will heat required. Kinsey & Compan y study claims th at extend our r each even fur ther beyond Humans are also not suited to manipu- fewer than 5 percent of occupations can be human abilities, enabling us t o go into late things on a very small scale. H ere entirely automated using current technol- places that are too dangerous or simply too again, machines will b e recruited to do ogy. However, about 60 percent of o ccu- hard to reach. For example, robots have things that previously couldn’t be done. pations could have 30 percent or more of played a key role in helping to contain Today, nanorobots in pill form can di ag- their constituent activities automated.7 In the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP nose cancer or deli ver highly targeted other words, automation is likely to change used remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) chemotherapy. Machines will ena ble us the vast majority of o ccupations—at least to conduct underw ater observations and to reach hidden places in the body and to some de gree—which will necessi tate repair work. ROVs are operated by human assemble objects molecule by molecule in significant job r edefinition and a tr ans- controllers who, sitting in a command new manufacturing facilities. formation of business pr ocesses. BMW
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12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 16 4/19/16 11:26 AM is testing “collaborative robots” that can convert data into stories—taking sports est generation of toys shows all the impor- glue together parts held in place by (mor e scores or financi al data and deli vering tant features of symbiotic learning: highly precise) human fingers. The da Vinci Sur- written narratives that are often hard to dis- personalized learning, constant feedback gical System from Intuitive Surgical can tinguish from those produced by human loops, integration of learning and pla y, perform laparoscopy, prostate, and other journalists. Increasingly, journalists are flexibility and adapt ation. What will the surgeries with a level of accur acy that’s using such writings as drafts to which they generation of kids w ho are growing up difficult for h uman surgeons to achieve add personalized flourishes and p oints with such learning and pla y companions alone. Rethink Robotics has introduced of view. expect from their work and educational an industrial robot, “Baxter,” designed t o The machine-human symbiosis is also settings? As artificial intelligence and con- safely interact with humans, who can eas- transforming the learning pr ocess. Just nectivity become embedded in p hysical ily program it for simple t asks. Baxter is look at the new g eneration of smar t toys objects and spaces around us, we will have intended for sale to small businesses and from CogniToys: toy dinosaurs with Inter- to fundamentally rethink the na ture and is being promoted as the r obotic analog net connectivity, backed by IBM’s Watson structures of our educational institutions. of the p ersonal computer. IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence platform, and wi th supercomputer is b eing used t o evaluate speech-processing capabilities. Children Coordination Economies: evidence-based cancer tr eatment options can ask their Dino m yriads of ques tions Socialstructured Value Creation for physicians, driving the decision- and have various language-based inter- The automation and the diffusion of making process down t o a ma tter of actions with the t oy. As a c hild begins to smart machines are accompanied by seconds. play, CogniToys Dino will slowly adjust another development—the emer gence Lawyers are using t ext-mining tech- its content and experience based on how of coordination platforms such as Uber, niques to perform automated analyses the child is using the toy and on the child’s Shyp, and Airbnb. A decade ag o, workers of vast amounts of do cuments. Similarly, vocabulary levels, int erests, etc. The toy in the U nited States and E urope worried Narrative Science makes it possible to will literally “grow” with the child. This lat- about jobs being outsourced overseas.
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Today, companies suc h as Upwork and of this form of pr oduction, but the num - reshape how we think a bout work and LiveOps can assemb le and co ordinate ber of socialstructs—in fields from health labor and about the skills people will need teams “in the cloud” t o provide sales to science t o finance—is growing rapidly. in order to sustain their livelihoods. and customer support, help with edito- We are seeing this in pub lishing, music, rial work, conduct research, design and and broadcasting: bloggers, amateur From Jobs to Tasks prototype products, and perform many musicians, and YouTube stars can r each At the cor e of so cialstructing is our a bil- other tasks and or ganizational functions. audiences larger than those of many estab- ity to break down man y large tasks into New digital platforms are beginning to lished media channels. This new form of smaller pieces and assign those smaller act like real-time online staffing agencies: economic activity is very different from tasks to many different people, wherever bridging borders, orchestrating complex institutional production because it often they might be, quickly and effectively. tasks across teams of mi cro-workers, and happens on an ad hoc basis without clearly Such micro-tasks or micro-contributions integrating the g lobal workforce at levels assigned roles, hierarchies, or tr aditional may take different forms: conducting and speeds never seen b efore. As a r esult, management structures. Algorithms, basic calculations, searching for da ta, many workers in the U nited States are rather than managers, often distribute doing some editing or code development, feeling the impact of global labor arbitrage tasks and coordinate work. In addition to or delivering a packet of medications to a more keenly than ever before. It is easy to per-pay contributions t o socialstructed house-bound patient. This new form of find the b est programmers, best editors, work, many contributions ar e provided coordination not only can help solve the and best designers from anywhere in the at no pay, disrupting traditional notions thorniest problems faced by or ganiza- world. of monetary incentives tions and communities but also can create These companies ar e The growth of and enabling individuals manageable, accessible jobs for people all transforming not only these online task- or small gr oups to use around the world. Already, micro-work is what people do t o earn networks of v olunteers beginning to engage the underused talents their livelihoods but also, coordination or micro-taskers and cre- of people from a v ariety of g eographical at a muc h deeper level, platforms is ate value comparable to areas and from a variety of educational and how we organize to cre- reshaping the or greater than that pro- professional backgrounds. ate value. New types of formal organization duced by paid employees According to some es timates, almost workers are emerging: within institutions. 54 million Ameri cans—approximately 34 micro-taskers—people of labor built up Indeed, the so cial- percent of w orkers—did freelance work who are signed up on over the last structing of organiza- in 2015.8 This number is expected to grow multiple digital coordi- century. tions will fundament ally significantly in the ne xt twenty y ears as nation platforms such challenge many long- online platforms and tools make it increas- as Uber, Lyft, Gigwalk, and MobileWorks standing working relationships and struc- ingly possible to break jobs up into smaller and whose work experience doesn’t tures. As production methods increasingly tasks and to engage many people in com- involve stable 9-to-5 jobs but, rather, a shift to micro-contributions, algorithmic peting for those job t asks. Upwork is just stitching together of v arious tasks per- coordination of t asks, nonmonetary one online s taffing platform that allows formed in flexible niches of time. incentives, and r eputation metrics, many businesses to post jobs, search for fr ee- The growth of these online t ask- firms will b e forced to reexamine their lance professionals, and solicit proposals. coordination platforms is r eshaping the fundamental operating principles. T his The platform can evaluate the contractors formal organization of labor built up over adaptation process is lik ely to include applying for the job and, once a contractor the last century, with an accompan ying reevaluations of management hierarchies, is selected, serve as a c hannel for commu- decline in traditional managerial struc- rewards, physical space use, and even the nications and e xchanges of w ork deliver- tures as more flexible and adaptive struc- nature of emplo yment itself. Over time , ables between contractors and requestors. tures take advantage of new t echnologies pressure will incr ease for or ganizations Payment for jobs, which can be either to create value outside of formal organiza- to crowdsource, or cloudsour ce, many hourly-rate or pr oject-based, is made by tions. I call this typ e of value production functions and t o focus their effor ts on the client through Upwork’s system. Each socialstructing. At its core is the a bility to aggregating these functions t o add value. freelancer can p ost a pr ofile displaying divide larger tasks into smaller pieces Socialstructed organizations are likely past jobs and f eedback, a p ortfolio, and (micro-tasks), divvy them up among a large to resemble fluid sub cultures more than specific skill and educational-background network of people according to their avail- rigid pyramids. Organizing, coordinating, information. Another platform is LiveOps, ability and e xpertise, and aggr egate the participating in, and navigating these fluid an on-demand contact and call center that resulting micro-contributions using social networks will b e vital competencies for enables outsourcing of servi ces for h un- tools and technologies. making a living in the future. dreds of companies through its network of Wikipedia is probably the best example Socialstructed value creation will over 20,000 independent at-home agents.
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12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 18 4/19/16 11:26 AM LiveOps tracks the p erformance of eac h Rise of Alternative Currencies and skill wi th more fine-grained and call center representative in minute detail, and Reputation Markers personalized systems. GitHub, an op en- displaying results on a dashb oard and In his ess ay “On M oney and M agic,” the source social programming platform, has automatically matching callers with those game researcher Edward Castronova enabled many developers to use their cre- agents who have the highest performance argues that in order to give money or an y ations on the platform in lieu of résumés. ratings. One mor e recent innovator in currency its magical power, a group needs Developers’ profiles and contributions this space is Samasource, a mi cro-work to collectively agree and believe that a par- are considered their work portfolios. For platform that focuses on pr oviding ticular thing—a piece of paper, an ounce of those wanting to find a job as a pr ogram- enterprise services worldwide by tapping gold, or the U.S. dollar—has value and that mer, what they’ve created on Gi tHub is poor women and y outh in developing it can be exchanged for goods and services often a more direct pathway to a job than regions of the world. It began with a focus within the gr oup.9 It is precisely because a college degree. Mozilla Open Badges on women in r efugee camps but h as we are the ones w ho imbue money wi th allows users to track skills that they teach expanded to become a global matchmaker value, and because the creation and circu- and learn informally by issuing verifiable for tasks and people who may not have lation of money r equires a social contract digital badges that are stored and dis - access to traditional job markets. (a social agreement of i ts value), that a played in a “ digital backpack.” Degreed, group of any size can p otentially create a a recently launched start-up, argues that Algorithmic Coordination currency. The existence of par ticipatory how someone g ot expertise—whether A key piece of eff ective socialstructing technologies makes it relatively easy to through informal means or via formal is the use of softw are to route or manage create social currencies educational institu- crowd contributions. In some cases, this and alternative repu- tions—doesn’t matter. is simply a matter of matching a task to the tation systems within Degreed measures and most qualified person available. However, online groups, whether validates all types of the approach can also b e used t o tightly as in-game currencies educational inputs, coordinate a comple x series of t asks so (in-gaming communi- whether they are from that they come together in an on-demand ties), reputational badges formal institutions or fashion. This mechanism will be a founda- (alternatives to degrees from more informal tion for co ordinating any activity in the and grades), or lo cal cur- learning platforms such coming years and will be a potent force for rencies (valid for lo cal as Khan Academy or amplifying and disrupting existing institu- trades). Thus, the pr olif- Udacity, and then works tions, since the co ordination of t asks has eration of online par ticipation platforms with employers to use these scores in hir- been the primary r ole of manag ement. will inevitably lead to the proliferation of ing and promotion processes. ReThinkery Labs, a r ecently announced new types of r eputation and r eward cur- Technology creates new w ays to track venture by D evin Fidler, one of m y col- rencies. This trend will impact b oth the and acknowledge learning th at happens leagues at the IFTF, makes it possible to world of work and the world of learning. anywhere—in school, on the job , and in automate a v ariety of or ganizational pro- In the business and technology circles, informal settings. R eputation and digi tal cesses, including the pr ocess of r esearch substantial resources are being invested performance trails will increasingly weigh report writing. In a recent project, its soft- in the cr eation of al ternative currencies more than college degrees, attendance, or ware broke down the research process into such as the bi tcoin and i ts underlining other proxies for assessing knowledge and discrete tasks, used an algorithm or a set of blockchain technologies. Although much competency levels. Indeed some emplo y- automated instructions to recruit people is still not clear a bout such technologies, ers, including G oogle, have begun to on a v ariety of e xisting digital work plat- their main impact is the disintermedia- deemphasize traditionally dominant met- forms (e.g., Upwork, TaskRabbit, Mechani- tion of traditional structures of authority rics such as Ivy L eague diplomas in f avor cal Turk), and then manag ed the work of and gatekeeping, from central financial of a more direct analysis of an appli cant’s qualified people on these pla tforms. The regulators to various types of educational unique personal style and backgr ound. final report involved the work of hundreds certification agencies. The promise of Whereas the logis tics of this kind of of human contributors, aided by machine blockchain technologies is t o enable approach would have been prohibitively intelligence and manag ed by softw are true peer-to-peer verifiable transactions, difficult in the pas t, the gr eater visibility algorithms—the ultimate example of making it easy to track contracts, levels of of one’s body of w ork today makes this human-machine symbiosis. This kind of expertise, and knowledge acquisition. an ever-easier strategy to use. Clearly, the symbiotic relationship is lik ely to trans- Even in the absence of such technolo- assessment of skills or sui tability for a form most jobs, from entry-level t o the gies, a growing number of platforms are particular task or job , particularly digital most sophisticated ones, including those aiming to replace degrees, resumes, and work, will become more varied, complex, in research and C-suites. other traditional markers of e xperience and nuanced than ever.
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To see how such reputation systems have so far largely filled a recreational networks will b e greatly prized. Virtual might evolve in the futur e, the IFTF and or contact-directory role. At the s ame collaboration requires that those involved ACT Foundation ran a for ecasting game time, social network infrastructures are leave digital trails of their w ork so th at centered on the idea of a blockchain-based permeating the work domain with team others know w here the g aps are, what platform. The Ledger tracks everything productivity and coordination tools, such needs to be done, and w here they need you’ve ever learned, every one you’ve as Google Docs and G oogle Hangouts, to contribute. Google Docs, wikis, and learned from, and every one who has Asana, and Slack . Meeting augmentation many other colla boration platforms will learned from you. The Ledger tracks not platforms such as MindM eld promise to enable the cr eation and manag ement of only what you know but also all the proj- deliver critical information flows in the such digital trails. Curating these tr ails ects, jobs, gigs, and challenges you’ve used context of online meetings. These systems may become micro-tasks for people with that knowledge to complete.10 seek to repurpose the communi cations local, on-the-ground knowledge as well tools used by Facebook and others to facil- as those dedicated to and skilled in a new Immersive Collaboration: From itate a deeper coordination of professional kind of w ork management. Asana is a Face-to Face to Blended Reality teams. The ability to deftly manage and web and mobile appli cation designed t o We are creating a new kind of r eality, one apply social networking tools—in order to enable teamwork without email. E ach in which physical and digital environ- both communicate effectively and facili- team gets a workspace that contains proj- ments, media, and interactions are woven tate the accomplishment ects and tasks. In each together throughout our dail y lives. In of practical tasks—will task, users can add notes, SECURITY CHALLENGES this world, the vir tual and the p hysical be increasingly valued. comments, attachments, are seamlessly integrated. Cyberspace is Many entrepreneurs and tags. Users can fol - not a des tination but is, r ather, a la yer of are also using online low projects and t asks, experience that is tig htly integrated into platforms to create show- and when the s tate of a the world around us. T he proliferation rooms and storefronts to project or t ask changes, ARE GROWING! of mobile and sensing devi ces, advances sell their products. followers receive updates in virtual and augmented reality, and the This world of immersive virtual collab- about the c hanges. Another e xample is explosion of v arious types of lightweight oration will drive new work patterns, will Trello—a free, online, and mobile collabo- collaboration platforms are making i t further support entrepreneurial efforts in ration tool that organizes projects into PEOPLE PROCESS TECHNOLOGY easier than ever to work, share ideas, and countries with high unemployment, and boards. At one glance, Trello users can see be a part of a global team while still being will create new dilemmas th at individuals what’s being worked on, who’s working on physically separated. In fact, being a par t and governments will need to navigate. what, and where something is in a process. of a geographically distributed workforce We offer a full range of IT management and security services to help our clients identify is quickly becoming a de facto standard in 24/7 Global Teams Quantified Work exposures, remediate vulnerabilities and reduce risks, including: today’s work environment. Putting together global teams that can With so muc h work being done thr ough Although the amount of informa tion undertake tasks continuously, using time digital technologies and wi th the pr olif- ► Interim and Shared Information Security Officer (ISO) that can b e transmitted via typical online differences as a comp etitive advantage eration of digi tal trails, it becomes easy video platforms is cur rently limited, it in the pr ovision of g oods and servi ces, to create exceedingly precise individual ► Security Policy and Education Development is poised to jump dr amatically as a new has become an effi cient and often highly and team performance and pr oductivity ► Risk Assessments generation of gigabit telecommunications desirable practice in several industries. It is metrics. Having this type of data is essen- Penetration Testing networks is deployed and even rural areas already playing out in the world of finance, tial to creating algorithms for effi ciently ► get connected with mesh wir eless com- where traders operating in global and inte- allocating tasks. Such measurement can ► Identity and Access Management munication tools. Virtual reality devices, grated teams can use minut e advantages be done a t an indi vidual level and also ► Endpoint Management and Security once the purview of science fi ction or in timing to create greater profits. Increas- aggregated across workers. When this data high-cost research labs, are entering retail ingly, this global advantage works for the is collected and used at an individual level, Our actionable solutions are tailored to meet the needs and budgets of our clients. markets with the intr oduction of Oculus worlds of programming, selling, and many however, it creates concerns about a new Rift, which consumers can pur chase for other areas as well and will drive require- kind of T aylorism, potentially increas- about $300. These devices are poised to ments for a new kind of t eam literacy in ing individual stress levels and r aising enter not onl y entertainment spaces but labor markets around the world. concerns about privacy and coercion. We also learning and w ork environments, are already beginning to see this issue enabling people to create shared “realities” Digital Work Trails emerging among packag e delivery work- independent of geographies. As virtual collaboration across borders ers, many of w hom resent continuous At the s ame time, the online so cial becomes ever easier, those w orkers with monitoring of their vehi cles. Online t ask networking industry has seen enormous the ability to orchestrate, shape, and platforms such as Upwork can see at what growth over the las t decade. T hese sites productively participate in ad ho c value time of day what type of workers are most phone 888.699.4440 20 EDUCAUSEreview MAY/JUNE 2016 www.MoranTechnology.com © 2016 Moran Technology Consulting Inc. All rights reserved
12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 20 4/19/16 11:27 AM SECURITY CHALLENGES ARE GROWING!
PEOPLE PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
We offer a full range of IT management and security services to help our clients identify exposures, remediate vulnerabilities and reduce risks, including:
► Interim and Shared Information Security Officer (ISO) ► Security Policy and Education Development ► Risk Assessments ► Penetration Testing ► Identity and Access Management ► Endpoint Management and Security Our actionable solutions are tailored to meet the needs and budgets of our clients.
phone 888.699.4440 www.MoranTechnology.com © 2016 Moran Technology Consulting Inc. All rights reserved
12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 21 4/19/16 11:27 AM Thinking about the Future of Work to Make Better Decisions about Learning Today
productive anywhere in the world or what fundamentally reshape many of our basic as something that can be taken apart and type of coding is most efficiently done in a assumptions about production itself. The reconfigured and remixed in new ways. particular country. LiveOps measures time manufacturing industry and, by e xten- spent by eac h freelance agent on a t ask: sion, the nature of many economies will be Community Labs and Maker Spaces time spent with a customer can be logged transformed in the process. To accommodate the growing DIY move- in and correlated with an outcome such as ment, the numb er of communi ty labs making a sale. Growth of Maker/DIY Movements (such as BioC urious) and manuf actur- Maker and DIY (do-i t-yourself) com- ing clubs (such as TechShop) has grown Maker Mindset: Democratizing munities are growing around the world, over the past few years. These spaces, for Production and Creation resulting in w hat some ar e calling a which members pay a monthly member- The diffusion of mobile t echnologies and hardware renaissance. In jus t the las t few ship fee, serve mul tiple purposes. They personalized tools for cr eation—from years, an entire ecosystem has developed function as r esearch communities, and cheap video cameras to music- and video- to support entrepreneurial hardware they provide places for pr ototyping new editing tools—has gone hand in h and development and h ardware start-ups. A ideas, meeting lik e-minded individu- with the rise of digi tal manufacturing support infrastructure of tools, manuals, als, taking classes, learning fr om ad ho c techniques, particularly the maturation of and instructions for mak ers is gr owing. mentors, and even s tarting companies. 3D printing t echnology. This technology, Alchematter is jus t one example. It is an Such spaces blur the boundaries between a digitally guided ad ditive approach to experimental platform that attempts to work, learning, and so cial communities. manufacturing, enables organize manufacturing BioCurious, for example, is a hacker space operators to assemble and making knowledg e for people interested in synthetic biology. products layer by la yer, into tools, materials, Participants range from academics doing allowing variations to people, and pr ocesses. advanced biology research at universities be built into individual Kind of a Wikip edia for to teenagers wanting to learn and to engi- units. Although remark- making, this pla tform neers and pr ogrammers eager to apply able uses of 3D print - for modular, sequential their engineering e xpertise to biological ing have already been developed, from procedures hopes to create a uni versal systems. A small membership fee enables replaceable machine parts to viable language for making. participants to take classes, work and learn human organs, the t echnology is s till in The maker mindset is fos tering new from others, and colla borate on v arious its infancy. It will r each its full p otential cross-border relationships and par tner- projects. A recent much-publicized proj- in the coming decades as i t is combined ships among engineers, entr epreneurs, ect coming out of BioCurious aims to cre- with emerging biotechnology and nano - designers, and op en source enthusiasts ate phosphorescent trees that can absorb technology applications. The rise of mor e who are connecting thr ough this br oad sunlight during the day and phospho- customizable materials will allow manu - movement. Small entr epreneurs operat- resce at night, thus saving on electricity. facturers to more precisely tailor the mate- ing out of T ech Shops—membership- rial properties of a product to its function. based maker spaces—are linking up wi th Crowdfunding Platforms These technologies and t ools are small flexible manufacturers in China t o With the rise of mak er spaces and mak er contributing to the rise of the g lobal produce products at various scales. F or mindsets, the domains of consumption “maker” and “ hacker” movements—not example, the creators of OpenROV, a mini and production, which we used to think of just in develop ed economies lik e North underwater robot that is used for explora- as being completely different, are becom- America and E urope but also in small tion on ocean floors, designed the proto- ing increasingly blurred. Crowdfunding thriving pockets on ever y continent. type at the TechShop in San Francisco and plays a key role, enabling maker spaces to These movements are offering new path- quickly turned t o Chinese suppliers t o serve as giant experimental labs for creat- ways to education, work, and livelihoods. produce early models. ing new kinds of r elationships between Bottom-up learning communities connect The maker mindset is r eshaping how the people who make things and the p eo- people who want to learn how t o make people approach many arenas, from ple who consume them. Crowdfunding is and build things. F ormal and informal actual design and manuf acturing to how creating new e xpectations on the par t of community workshops and co-w orking we approach social issues, including the people who back campaigns. They are and co-creating spaces give them a place to issues influencing ci ties and educa tion. discovering how much more meaningful use expensive equipment and learn skills Increasingly, people adopting the mak er it is to buy a product (or service) when their from one another. Crowdfunding plat- mindset are less lik ely to accept e xisting dollars actually matter in bringing it to life forms provide a small-scale funding boost, institutions and appr oaches as immu - and when they get a direct emotional con- a source of feedback, and viral marketing. table. Instead, they are likely to view these nection with the people who are providing This world of op en making is p oised to institutions and approaches as hackable— it. In the process, instead of simply buying
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12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 22 4/19/16 11:27 AM and consuming products, people become any formal c hannels, and t ake advantage labor flows. investors and learn man y of the det ails of of distribution and pr omotion channels At the IFTF, we firmly believe that the how the product is produced, the manu- online. purpose of s ystematically thinking a bout facturing processes behind it, the p eople There is no doubt that the new genera- the future is not to predict the future but to involved, and the materials used. The pro- tion of technologies will open up opportu- help people make better decisions t oday. cess of production is transformed into a nities to those who have the basic literacy There is no data about the future. The only highly social and educational experience. and media savvy to turn these connections data we have is about the past. Historical Betabrand is a f ashion company that into paid w ork. In this sense , continued patterns are important because they gi ve is structuring its interactions with buyers investment in a basic communications us frameworks for thinking. By looking at through a cr owdfunding model. Design- infrastructure that ensures access t o the historical patterns and identifying signals ers and fans submit ideas for products— widest possible number of people should of change around us today, we can b etter such as a “ hoozer,” which is a sui t jacket be a continued priori ty for g overnments prepare for the transformations occurring and a ho odie at the same time—and then and development or ganizations. This in both work and learning. n people vote on whether or not they’re should be coupled wi th an emp hasis on going to fund the idea for pr oduction. So developing literacy and media skills. One Notes consumption is b lending with an inves t- particularly important avenue for achiev- 1. For an exploration of what these transformations tell us about the skills that students will need in ing mentality in a new kind of impact ing this is creating online content that can order to successfully navigate the new landscape, shopping. be accessed in local languages as well as see my article “New Workers, New Skills” in the providing access to a rich ecology of con - online edition of EDUCAUSE Review. 2. Juliet B. Schor, The Overworked American: The Implications tent via global sources such as Coursera Unexpected Decline of Leisure (New York: Basic The core set of technologies outlined and edX. Books, 1991); Lydia Saad, “The ‘40-Hour’ above will r eshape work and the la bor Even though many of the emer ging Workweek Is Actually Longer—by Seven Hours,” Gallup, August 29, 2014. force over the next decades, but not neces- platforms and t ools are likely to engage 3. David Autor, “The Polarization of Job sarily in the s ame way under all cir cum- the more educated and connected people, Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market: stances in all parts of the world. When there is a gr eat opportunity to use the Implications for Employment and Earnings,” Center for American Progress and the Hamilton these technologies combine with external platforms and tools to integrate those who Project, April 2010. economic, social, and environmental fac- have traditionally been excluded from 4. Susannah Palk, “Robot Teachers Invade South tors, they ar e likely to produce different participation in formal organizational Korean Classrooms,” CNN, October 22, 2010. 5. Marco Chown Oved, “Automatic Burger Machine outcomes. structures: those wi th Could Revolutionize Fast Food,” Toronto Star, For example, these disabilities, young peo- November 29, 2012. four technology clus- ple, the elderl y. Much 6. Joel K. Bourne, “Robots of the Gulf Spill: Fishlike Subs, Smart Torpedoes,” National ters will cr eate unprec- of the online w ork can Geographic News, October 27, 2010. edented opportunities be done on a task basis, 7. Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi for integrating people opening up opp ortu- Miremadi, “Four Fundamentals of Workplace Automation,” McKinsey Quarterly, November from developing coun - nities for those who 2015. tries into global production networks and cannot commit to 9-to-5 or other rigid 8. Freelancers Union, Freelancing in America: 2015, flows of work. While automation will con- schedules (e.g., those wi th caretaking October 2015. 9. Edward Castronova, “On Money and Magic,” tinuously replace many rote and repetitive responsibilities). Engagement and allo ca- Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 2, no. 4 (2009). manufacturing and servi ce jobs, online tion of t asks is done on the basis of skill 10. Institute for the Future and ACT Foundation, platforms such as U pwork will ena ble assessment and r eputation rather than Learning Is Earning 2026 (2015). workers from anywhere in the w orld to being based on in- built social hierarchies © 2016 Marina Gorbis. The text of this article is bid on t asks and b ecome members of and biases, opening up opportunities to licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- extended teams. We are already seeing this previously disenfranchised populations. NonCommercial 4.0 International License. global labor arbitrage in action as w orkers Finally, a lot of the work can be done in Marina Gorbis (Twitter: @ from the Philippines, Indi a, and Pakistan place, thus minimizing the costs associ- mgorbis) is a futurist and are increasingly engaging in edi torial, ated with commuting t o places of w ork, social scientist who serves software development, and s ales tasks usually in ci ties, and ag ain opening up as executive director to the using online work platforms. At the same opportunities: for those in rur al areas or Institute for the Future (IFTF), time, many more people from around the the elderly. Here again, the focus on digital a Silicon Valley nonprofit world are able to access capi tal through access and inclusion, coupled with invest- research and consulting organization. She is various crowdfunding and peer-to-peer ments in education, can result in substan- the author of The Nature of the Future: Dispatches mobile online platforms as well as cr eate tial advances in int egrating previously from the Socialstructed World (2013). storefronts, attract customers outside of disadvantaged populations into global
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12-25 Feat 1-Gorbis.indd 25 4/19/16 11:27 AM Credentials
ReformHow Technology and the Changing: Needs of the Workforce Will Create the Higher Education System of the Future
By Jamie Merisotis hile the mo dern technology revolution has reshaped nearly every sect or of society, higher education has managed to retain its fundamental structure from centuries ago. The U.S. postsecondary landscape is s till largely dominated by brick-and-mortar colleges and universities where progressW is marked by time spent in a classroom and is denoted by highly simplified transcripts controlled by the institutions awarding them.
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26-37 Feat 2-Merisotis.indd 26 4/19/16 11:27 AM ILLUSTRATION BY DEREK LEA, © 2016
26-37 Feat 2-Merisotis.indd 27 4/19/16 11:27 AM Credentials Reform
That’s all starting to change. A power- Higher education leaders h ave a especially transformative for learners ful shift in p ostsecondary credentialing chance to embrace this change and make and employers using the v arious cre- has taken place over the las t few decades, their institutions thriving players in the dentials. Students today have a hard time with an e xplosion in the numb er of new landscape. And campus IT leaders, navigating the value and meaning of their pathways to an educa tion beyond high as the experts on the issues shaping the postsecondary options. Although college school. As a result, today’s job-seekers can higher education technology revolution, degrees are typically viewed as s tepping possess not just four-year college degrees have a unique opp ortunity to influence stones to good jobs, it is difficult for stu- but everything fr om associate’s degrees this transformation. dents to determine the knowledg e and and apprenticeships to occupational skills they will gain from degrees because licenses and education certificates, all the Creating a Connected System time in the classroom is the central way to digital badges and employer-based The growth in different types of cr eden- measurement of pr ogress and learning certifications. tials—from increasingly popular associ- outcomes are not fully transparent. Mean- The myriad options—and the sub se- ate’s degrees to modern IT certifications— while, the skills g ained through other quent push t o better connect them—ar e has been happening progressively over postsecondary paths, such as emplo yer- unleashing the p ower of t echnology to the last several years. What’s propelling based training or cer tification programs, fundamentally reshape the higher educa- change today is the effort to connect these are often clearer, but those options t end tion landscape. A futur e system is sh ap- credentials into one compr ehensive and to be viewed as carrying less labor-market ing up in which students are situated at navigable system. value. the center and ar e able to navigate their Even as their r anks have grown, cre- Not only is i t difficult for learners t o postsecondary options, fr om traditional dentials have continued t o operate in know what type of cr edential to pursue, institutions of higher education to a whole silos, rather than as par t of a connect ed but it’s equally challenging for them host of other learning pr oviders: employ- system. Each type of cr edential carries a to decide how to go about getting that ers, unions, online pr ograms, and even different meaning, and ther e’s no com - credential. In Beyond the Skills Gap, Mary libraries and museums. mon language to explain what each type Alice McCarthy, senior p olicy analyst Learning, rather than seat time, will means or how one compar es to another. at New America, cited a hyp othetical be the cor e measure of pr og- ress in this new s ystem, and What’s more, education beyond high school students will b e able to dem- will be viewed not as a static, one-time onstrate what they’ve learned experience but as a lifelong journey of building through dynamic online pla t- one’s knowledge and skills. forms. What’s more, education beyond high school will be viewed not as That makes it hard for emplo yers and example of a Mi chigan woman seeking a static, one-time experience but as a lif e- students alike to know what value various to upgrade her skills t o enter the medical long journey of building one’s knowledge credentials carry in the labor market. assisting profession. That woman would and skills. Recently, though, leaders in the busi- be confronted with some 2,0 00 institu- The transformation of this ecos ystem ness, government, philanthropic, and tions offering medical assisting certificate will take years to complete, but c hanges education sectors have begun a r obust programs in the U nited States—59 in are already starting to take shape. As a push to define cr edentials in commonl y Michigan alone—with a wide v ariance in more diverse credentials landscape has understood terms: by the knowledg e and cost, credits, program length, and finan - evolved, the push t o create a mor e con- skills that each carries. This new effor t, cial support. What’s more, even thoug h nected and na vigable system has gained which is linking pr eviously disconnected all of the programs require the same final steam, opening the way for technological actors, can b e best understood via a new assessment to move on to a medical assist- forces to prevail. Connecting Credentials platform for ing career, some of the pr ograms count IT professionals understand the power these actors to learn and sh are from each toward an associate’s or bachelor’s degree of credentialing in revolutionizing higher other. Rather than a separ ate set of defi - but others do not . That’s a lot of v ariation education, and they know i t has implica- nitions for eac h credentialing pathway, and, as McC arthy pointed out, “a lot of tions for every p ostsecondary provider, there will be a universal taxonomy to con- difficult decisions to make before starting especially four-year colleges and uni ver- nect all cr edentials. This will tr ansform training for a job wi th an average annual sities, the pr edominant postsecondary today’s highly fragmented system into salary in Mi chigan of $2 7,000—or about players. They’ve seen how online systems one in w hich all typ es of p ostsecondary $13 an hour.”1 have made car eer advancement possible credentials can be easily understood and As this example illustrates, additional by enabling learners to constantly renew compared. clarity about what various types of creden- and acquire skills and knowledge. The connecting pla tform will b e tials mean w ould help mak e the s ystem
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26-37 Feat 2-Merisotis.indd 28 4/19/16 11:27 AM more navigable for all learners. A more about 40–45 percent of Americans have at credentials. Think, for e xample, about connected system also makes it much eas- least an associate’s degree or high-quality apps such as Yelp and Travelocity, which ier for employers, who struggle to under- postsecondary certificate.2 To alter that have enabled users t o quickly mine da ta stand what credentials signify in t erms of paradigm, we must ensure that our post- about dining and tr avel accommodations the skills and knowledg e a pr ospective secondary credentialing system is viable. in a one-stop source. Similar innovations hire brings t o the job . Although college The most tangible impact of b etter could allow users t o explore various cre- degrees are indicators of p ersistence and connected credentials will b e on the dentials pathways. Work on suc h initia- academic success, they do not t ell those system at large. With a nomencla ture to tives is under w ay. George Washington who are hiring much about the qualifica- ensure that credentials can b e related to University, for e xample, is colla borating tions that candidates carry. Candidates each other, technology can be unleashed with Workcred and Southern Illinois with other nonde gree credentials might to build out a fully interconnected system. University to build a firs t-of-its-kind have skills better suited for specific posi- And higher education, as a r esult, will online resource enabling users to see and tions, but the lack of common defini tions look dramatically different. compare the v alue and meaning of v ari- makes it difficult for emplo yers to have ous credentials. The project—supported confidence in those credentials. The System of the Future by Lumina Foundation—uses information These changes will also wield h uge Although it’s hard to envision exactly how from institutions issuing cr edentials to benefits for the U.S. economy. America the postsecondary landscape will look in aggregate data into one source. faces a pr essing need for t alent: workers five years, two fundamental shifts o ccur- Second, as these innov ations enable with the skills and knowledg e to fill 21st- ring today provide us with a glimpse. students to better navigate their options, century jobs. By the end of this decade, 65 The first is the effor t to give learn- the digital résumé push is emp owering percent of all job s will require an educa- ers tools for seamlessl y navigating their students to showcase to employers what tion beyond high school, yet today only options for pursuing p ostsecondary they know and can do —while allowing
Our goal of advancing the Moving forward together. future of higher education is shared by our corporate Platinum Partners. We thank them for their unparalleled support.
To learn more about these partners, visit educau se.edu/Corporate-Partners.
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Credentials Reform Strengthening Higher Education Together Our corporate members play a critical role in helping higher education deliver on its mission. EDUCAUSE thanks our 2016 Corporate Partners for their continued support! employers to better understand what can- needed—and now p ossible— is h aving a ties seeking to get ahead of the up coming didates are bringing t o the mar ketplace. digital passport to showcase learning and creative technology disruption should Traditional—and in many cases still paper- accomplishments throughout a lifetime. focus relentlessly on three things: (1) mea- PLATINUM PARTNERS based—transcripts controlled by hig her suring progress based on learning, rather education institutions have been the Opportunities for than on time spent in a classroom; (2) pro- primary vehicle for conveying academi c Higher Education ducing high-quality learning out comes; accomplishments, but in t oday’s quickly At first blush, these changes could seem and (3) off ering learning opp ortunities evolving credentials landscape, there’s a like a jar ring threat to traditional higher throughout a student’s lifetime. need for a more dynamic way to showcase education institutions, but colle ges and prospective hires’ qualifications. Several universities have a unique opportunity to Progress Based on Learning approaches are tackling this need, r ang- thrive under the new par adigm of higher To thrive in the higher education system of GOLD PARTNERS ing from online tools that enable degree- education delivery. To seize the opp ortu- the future, colleges and universities must holders to securely own and tr ansmit nity, campus leaders mus t reorient their systematically measure what students have their college transcripts to platforms that approach in light of two new realities. learned and must base students’ advance- empower users to post detailed informa- First, in a system of connected creden- ment toward a de gree on the acquisi tion tion about online courses or training pro- tials, it will b ecome increasingly evident of knowledge and skills. Ins titutions also grams they’ve taken to advance their skills that degrees bestowed by colle ges and must move a way from the cr edit-hour- and learning. universities are one of man y pathways based model that links pr ogress to time One of the leading innov ations in to an educa tion beyond high school, spent in the classr oom—increasingly a this movement is digi tal badges, which an education that today is essenti al to vestige of an antiqua ted system that lacks C denote specific skills and knowledg e in obtaining a high-quality job. Learners are currency in the newl y connected creden- order to more clearly convey candida tes’ likely, in time , to become more focused tials world. M Moving to learning-based mea- Y Higher education institutions surement sounds lik e a da unting, funda- CM mental overhaul, but i t can b e achieved will be less able to rely on brand MY legacy, campus facilities, and smart in many different ways, ranging from SILVER PARTNERS CY marketing campaigns. enhancements to the tr aditional col- lege/university model to more dramatic CMY
shifts toward measuring pr ogress based K qualifications. Learners can earn badg es on whether credentials will lead them t o solely on competency. Although the latter through courses pr ovided by tr aditional a promising career pathway and to be less approach more closely represents what colleges and uni versities, but other enti - concerned about who is pr oviding the the future will ent ail, institutional lead- ties—including employers, nonprofits, credential. That will increasingly level the ers should keep in mind th at any change and government agencies—also can issue playing field of comp etition among the toward a learning -centered system is a BRONZE PARTNERS badges. In addition to course-based learn- various credentials providers: colleges positive step. Three examples illustrate ing, badges can capture tangible measure- and universities, unions, employers, cod- different approaches to learning-based ments such as e xperience. A vet erans ing boot camps, cultural institutions, and measurement. group, for e xample, offers badges for more. servicemen/women to demonstrate the Second, with learning at the center of McKendree University knowledge and skills they’ve gained in the how credentials are defined and ev alu- Without moving full y away from the armed forces. And imp ortantly, badges ated and with technological tools enabling credit hour, some colle ges and uni versi- can be bundled int o robust categories unprecedented transparency about learn- ties across the United States are working of expertise. Someone wi th a bachelor’s ing outcomes, what will ma tter above all to better assess s tudent learning and degree in political science might also earn else in the new s ystem is whether provid- are adapting their pr ograms and f aculty enough badges for a specialization in ers can help s tudents gain knowledge, development accordingly. A h andful of project management to demonstrate value skills, and a bilities. Higher education models—such as the Degree Qualifica-
to a prospective employer. institutions will b e less a ble to rely on tions Profile (DQP) supported by Lumina We also thank over 280 additional corporations that support our mission. All of these tools facilitate a new learn- brand legacy, campus facilities, and smart Foundation and the Liberal Education ing paradigm in which students build marketing campaigns. T o compete for and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative their reservoir of knowledg e and skills students in the ne xt era of postsecondary from the Asso ciation of Ameri can Col- through a lif etime of learning e xperi- education, they will need t o demonstrate leges & U niversities—map out the k ey ences. A colle ge transcript doesn’t sum results. competencies that graduates need for up a student’s learning; rather, what’s In this new er a, colleges and universi- 21st-century jobs. This gives institutions a To learn more about these partners, visit educause.edu/Corporate-Partners.
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Strengthening Higher Education Together Our corporate members play a critical role in helping higher education deliver on its mission. EDUCAUSE thanks our 2016 Corporate Partners for their continued support!
PLATINUM PARTNERS
GOLD PARTNERS
C
M
Y
CM MY SILVER PARTNERS CY
CMY
K
BRONZE PARTNERS
We also thank over 280 additional corporations that support our mission.
To learn more about these partners, visit educause.edu/Corporate-Partners.
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Credentials Reform
roadmap they can use to navigate whether Without being anchored to the credit it applies to the degree they’re seeking, and ANALYTICS they are preparing students with the right hour, students can accelerate the pace of how best to demonstrate their learning . knowledge and skills. their learning and mor e quickly earn a Someone with years of work experience Colleges and uni versities are using degree, thereby saving on tuition. Given in office management, for instance, might these models to improve their programs this, it’s telling that College for America’s be able to demonstrate knowledge in and ensure that students emerge better primary enrollees are midcareer work- administration, supervision, and technol- ON ANALYTICS? prepared for the futur e. In Illinois, for ing adults, recruited to attend the col - ogy. Students then g o through a formal, example, McKendree University under- lege—and often paid t o do so —by their thorough process to show how their expe- took a seven-y ear initiative to better employers. But this mo del could, and rience translates into competencies and to assess student learning out comes and likely will, be expanded to serve a broader appeal for credit hours accordingly. link its new assessment s ystem to faculty audience. Meanwhile, more than 350 PLA does not fundament ally disarm development. The university adopted other institutions are similarly pioneering the status quo, but it marks an important seven learning out comes based on i ts competency-based approaches. step toward enabling colleges and univer- mission statement and then adapt ed If it seems insurmountable for a tr adi- sities to divorce themselves fr om time- those learning outcomes based on other tional college or university to enact this in-classroom as the centr al measurement Benchmark your IT organization's preparedness for analytics and your institution's models of assessing s tudents’ skills and kind of systems-changing approach, con- of advancement. It also r epresents an knowledge, such as the DQP and LEAP . sider College for America’s organic evolu- important shift t oward placing learning progress on strategic initiatives with EDUCAUSE analytics services. As one result of this exercise, McKendree tion. SNHU, a traditional campus-based, at the center of the college experience and decided to add a capstone experience in fully accredited institution serving 4,0 00 awarding students based on w hat they all fields of study and is working to create students per year, spawned an online col - know and can do. It thereby helps connect C faculty-development experiences tied to lege in the 1 990s that now enr olls more degrees—and the ins titutions bestowing CORE DATA SERVICE BENCHMARKING SERVICE BETA M the capstone. Though not a fundamental than 50,000 students. That online delivery them—to the emerging connected creden- Inform your business intelligence activities Develop action plans for and measure progress shift, the moves at McKendree represent a model, in turn, g ave rise t o College for tials system. Y with core metrics on your IT sta ng, financials, on your institution’s strategic initiatives with step in the right direction toward focusing America—showing that it’s possible for CM on learning and improving approaches institutions to adopt successful nontr adi- High-Quality Learning Outcomes and services. capability reports and maturity indices focused MY accordingly. tional models over time t o better accom- In a s ystem where learning is the k ey on analytics, e-learning, information security, and modate students’ and employers’ needs. metric, the ability of colle ges and univer- CY student success technologies. College for America sities to produce high-quality learning CMY
Other institutions have made more revo- Empire State College outcomes for students will be measurable K lutionary changes to fundamentally alter Another bold shift in learning measur e- like never before. To that end, institutional how they measure students’ advancement ment has been pioneered by Empire State leaders not only will have to better assess toward a de gree and unmo or themselves College, a 35-site network that is par t of students’ learning and ena ble them t o from the cr edit hour. The preeminent the State University of New York (SUNY) progress accordingly but also must double example is College for America, the nation’s first accredited Leaders should be thinking critically about institution awarding degrees how to deliver the structure that provides based on comp etency, rather the best outcomes for students—whether than time spent in a classroom. online or campus/experience-based. The program is off ered through a bri cks-and-mortar institution, System and serves pr edominantly adult down on off ering quality programs that Southern New Hampshire University learners. Empire State puts learning at the produce strong results for students. (SNHU), but is not anc hored by the tradi- center of student advancement, but rather Exactly how colle ges and uni versities tional markings of a uni versity: courses, than move entir ely away from the cr edit will do this is less clear -cut—and will vary classrooms, and pr ofessors. Instead the hour, Empire State has embraced a system widely among ins titutions. There’s con- program is pr ovided solely online. Stu - called prior learning assessment, or PLA, sternation and ongoing debate about how dents can earn a degree in as little or as to better capture the r eal learning s tu- much of a role online learning will play in much time as it takes them to demonstrate dents have gained from their experience, the future college/university ecosystem. the requisite knowledge and skills t o including jobs, military service, volunteer What seems inevi table is th at it will pla y educause.edu/core-data educause.edu/benchmarking establish mastery of 1 20 competencies. engagements, and independent study. some role. Rather than getting bogged More than 3,000 students have enrolled Through PLA, students work with down in the potential threat from technol- in College for America since its inception mentors to determine whether their ogy to the long -standing lecture model, in January 2013, and more than 300 have experience-based learning is appli cable institutional leaders should b e focusing received degrees.3 for translation into college credits, whether their efforts on thinking critically about ENHANCE DECISION MAKING
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ANALYTICS ON ANALYTICS?
Benchmark your IT organization's preparedness for analytics and your institution's progress on strategic initiatives with EDUCAUSE analytics services.
C CORE DATA SERVICE BENCHMARKING SERVICE BETA
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CMY student success technologies.
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educause.edu/core-data educause.edu/benchmarking
ENHANCE DECISION MAKING
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Credentials Reform 2016 EDUCAUSE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENTS
how to deliver the structure that provides ongoing capability-adding becomes the in educational equity by better meeting all the best outcomes for s tudents—whether new normal. This will create an unprec- students’ needs so th at they can success - MAY JULY online or campus/experience-based. edented level of innovation and creativity fully complete their degrees. As a b onus, In many cases, it will be some hybrid of at colleges and uni versities, which will the forthcoming changes will inevitably Enterprise IT Summit Leadership Institute both. For example, campuses can utiliz e have to compete with a r ange of other make higher education more affordable. July 18–22 adaptive learning pr ograms that act as providers to offer courses th at are rele- These changes will r eap positive May 2–4 virtual teaching assistants, enabling the vant, engaging, and cost-effective and that rewards for all of us —students, parents, New Orleans, LA Austin, TX teacher—whether delivering a classr oom produce quality outcomes for all learners. employers, and the economy as a whole. lecture or an online course —to convey Society benefits from a better-educated instruction in w ays that better meet s tu- An Imperative to Change populace in both tangible and intangible dents’ specific learning needs. T hese pro- If colleges and universities want to con- ways. In fact, the market and nonmarket OCTOBER grams work much like standardized tests tinue to succeed economically, they must value of gr owing the U.S. talent supply JUNE Annual Conference such as the SAT or GRE, which adapt their adapt and comp ete. They must make has been quantified at around $7 trillion. Leading Change Institute questions based on students’ performance changes that will allow them to be better The shift in p ostsecondary creden- October 25–28 June 12–17 on the first few questions. Or institutions equipped for thri ving in hig her educa- tialing and the needs of the 2 1st-century Anaheim, CA might use flipp ed classrooms, where lec- tion’s era of t echnological revolution. workforce will revolutionize higher edu- Washington, DC tures are delivered online and students use But there’s also a ma jor societal benefit cation. Colleges and uni versities have in-person classroom time for discussion to the for thcoming connected creden- vast potential to be positive agents of Learning Technology and dissection of their learning. tials system and the related unleashing of this change, and IT leaders can b e major Leadership Institute Ongoing Simply put, in a learning-centered, influencers in dri ving the tr ansforma- C June 27–July 1 outcomes-based system, higher education tion. But higher education leaders must EDUCAUSE Live! institutions will not have time for debates seize the opportunity now—or risk being M Austin, TX
Y Webinar Series over preserving the old w ay of doing left behind. n Management Institute things. They will need to focus on enhanc- CM EDUCAUSE Learning ing quality and leveraging whatever tools Notes June 27–July 1 MY necessary to achieve excellent results. 1. Mary Alice McCarthy, Beyond the Skills Gap: Austin, TX Initiative Online Courses Making Education Work for Students, Employers, and CY Communities (Washington, DC: New America, Learning Opportunities October 2014), 3. CMY 2. Anthony P. Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and throughout a Student’s Lifetime K Jeff Strohl, Recovery: Job Growth and Education As the move to digital résumés under- Requirements through 2020, executive summary scores, in the revolutionized higher edu- (Washington, DC: Georgetown Public Policy cation system, students will build their Institute, Center on Education and the Workforce, 2013), 1; A Stronger Nation through knowledge and skills over a lif etime. No Higher Education (Indianapolis, IN: Lumina longer will an int ensive period of learn- Foundation, 2015), 2, 5. ing on campus —or even an ad vanced 3. Paul Fain, “Measuring Competency,” Inside Higher Ed, November 25, 2015; “Interview with Yvonne degree experience beyond that—be technology to create a learning-centered, Simon, Chief Learning Architect for College of enough to allow for a lif etime of career student-controlled system: an education America,” Online Education.com. advancement. The 21st-century workers beyond high school will be accessible to 4. See Lumina Foundation, Today’s Reality. will need to continually build and gr ow many more people, not just a select few. © 2016 Jamie Merisotis. The text of this article is their reservoir of comp etencies and Consider that a growing number of licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- will do so thr ough a mix of courses, job new college students are older, work- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International experiences, seminars, and more. In the ing, and raising children. An increasing License. Keep growing. next era of the workforce, employees will number also are first-generation, minority need to continually retool and learn new students who traditionally have not been skills and information. served well by the U .S. higher education Jamie Merisotis (president@ For a comprehensive list of upcoming events, including Colleges and universities have ample system. Today only 23 percent of b lacks luminafoundation.org) opportunity to benefit from this par a- and 15 percent of L atinos have at least webinars, please visit educause.edu/events. is president and CEO of digm shift. By offering educational an associate’s degree, compared with 40 Indianapolis-based Lumina opportunities that are relevant to learners percent of w hites.4 The higher educa- Foundation and the author of across the spectrum of experience, from tion system of the futur e—with its greater America Needs Talent: Attracting, first-time degree seekers to midcareer transparency, focus on outcomes, and eas- Educating & Deploying the 21st-Century Workforce workers looking to add a new skill, ins ti- ier navigability—will help to close these (2015). tutions can b e positioned to thrive as long-standing race- and class-based gaps
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2016 EDUCAUSE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENTS
MAY JULY Enterprise IT Summit Leadership Institute May 2–4 July 18–22 New Orleans, LA Austin, TX
JUNE OCTOBER Annual Conference Leading Change Institute October 25–28 June 12–17 Anaheim, CA Washington, DC Learning Technology Leadership Institute Ongoing C June 27–July 1 EDUCAUSE Live! M Austin, TX
Y Webinar Series Management Institute CM June 27–July 1 EDUCAUSE Learning MY Austin, TX Initiative Online Courses CY
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Keep growing.
For a comprehensive list of upcoming events, including webinars, please visit educause.edu/events.
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38-45 Feat 3-Dahlstrom.indd 38 4/19/16 11:27 AM Appreciating a MULTIGENERATIONAL Higher Education IT Workforce This article is drawn from the recent research by the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) on the evolving IT workforce needed to support contemporary models of IT service delivery and the emerging world of analyt- ics. The research provides a general picture of the state of the IT workforce, as well as exp lores the roles, competencies, and career trajectories of incumbent (and aspiring) senior-most leaders in information technology, security and privacy, data, and IT architecture. The research will define professional competencies and lay the foundation for tools that can guide professional development and career planning.
By Eden Dahlstrom
ccording to a s tudy published last year by the Pew Research Center, the United States recently passed a milestone in the U .S. workforce: there are now more Millennials in the workforce than any other g enerational group (see figur e 1).1 Millennials were born between 1981 and about 1997, Generation Xers were born between 1965 and 1980, and Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.2 The youngest members of the Millenni al Generation are just now enteringA the workforce, and the oldes t members are growing their careers. The youngest Boomers are in their p eak productivity and wage-earning years, whereas the oldest members are retiring from the workforce. Gen Xers are situated firmly in the middle.
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ONLINE COURSES Appreciating a Multigenerational Higher Education IT Workforce
Why do generational cohorts matter?3 FIGURE 1. U.S. LABOR FORCE BY GENERATION, 1995–2015 After all, they ar e stereotypical charac- teristics attributed to a gr oup of p eople Personalized who happen to be born within about Learning twenty years of one another. Like most July 6, 13, 20 other stereotypes, these cohor ts tend to Implementing be based on a sli ver of truth, and fr om a Universal Design practical perspective, the oversimplified for Learning in generalization of tr aits allows us t o cre- Higher Education ate mental shortcuts and categorize an June 8, 15, 22 otherwise complex world. To use my own example, I am a Gen Xer, and I have eight direct reports: two are firmly defined as Millennials, two are on the Millenni al- Note: Annual averages plotted 1995–2014. For 2015 the first quarter average of 2015 is shown. Due to data limitations, Silent Mobile in generation is overestimated from 2008–2015. Gen X cusp, and the remaining four Source: Pew Research Center tabulations of monthly 1995–2015 Current Population Surveys, Integrated Public Microdata Series Higher are entrenched Gen Xers. I report to a (IPUMS). Education Boomer. I interact with all three gen- PEW RESEARCH CENTER Reprinted with permission. August 10, 17, 24 erations on a daily basis, as do most of you reading this article. Understanding a little bit about the core work-related values of FIGURE 2. ECAR WORKFORCE SURVEY RESPONDENTS BY GENERATION C a multigenerational workforce can help M optimize the work environment, leverage Teaching natural generational attributes, and maxi- Y in Blended mize productivity. In addition, we can’t CM stop the hands of time: all of us will move Learning MY on in our car eer paths and will eventu - Environments More ally retire to enjoy our golden years. One CY May 11, 18, 25 to come day a Millenni al will h ave my job, and CMY
presuming stability of the position, a Post- K in 2016 Millennial will have the job after that. As more and mor e Millennials are integrated into higher education work teams, an understanding by Gen Xers and Boomers of the ne xt generation of IT workers and leaders—and Millennials’ understanding of the cur rent genera- tions—will help colleges and universities of 2015, the over all U.S. labor force was surveys don’t appeal to Millennials or maintain business continuity during the composed of 34 percent Millennials, 34 there is an under representation of Mil - generational transition. Millennials bring percent Gen Xers, and 29 percent Boom- lennials in the higher education IT work- a fresh perspective to the t able. Their ers.4 For comparison, the r ecent survey force. A r ecent Computing T echnology youth can infuse ener gy into teams, and by the EDUCA USE Center for Anal ysis Industry Association (CompTIA) study, Dial Up Professional Development in 2016 their lack of entr enchment in the w ays and Research (ECAR) reported 12 percent Managing the Multigener ational Workforce, things have always been done can help Millennial respondents, 47 percent Gen points to the latter. Only 19 percent of 18- others embrace transformative innova- X respondents, and 4 1 percent Boomer to 24-year-olds in that study say they are For an in-depth, project-based online learning experience, ELI Courses have you covered. tion opportunities. In the firs t quarter respondents (see figure 2).5 Either ECAR interested in an IT career.6 This isn’t very Register for any of these upcoming online courses. promising for memb ers of the hig her education IT community, who will need he oversimplified generalization of to backfill p ositions vacated by r etiring Find all ELI events at educause.edu/eli/events. traits allows us to create mental Boomers and career-building Gen Xers. Tshortcuts and categorize an otherwise For the Millenni als who are part of complex world. the higher education IT w orkforce, a smaller percentage (44%) r eport that working in higher education (as opposed EDUCAUSE LEARNING INITIATIVE
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ONLINE COURSES
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Appreciating a Multigenerational Higher Education IT Workforce
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to another industry, business, or sect or) with student loan debt and joblessness demic excellence (ranked 18th).9 is very imp ortant, compared with their (or underemployment). ECAR found some g enerational dif- Gen X (51%) and Boomer (55%) counter- The recent ECAR survey took a closer ferences when IT staff were asked to rate parts. It is possible that this is a function look at the higher education IT workforce their agreement with statements about of Millennials’ age (e.g., still exploring by generation. More than one in four what is most important for keeping them in career opportunities) or their lack of (26%) of the Millennials who participated their current IT position.10 The following is BUILDING YOU UP years in the work- in the ECA R workforce survey s aid that the top 5 list for Millennial IT staff: place (e.g., not they “probably will or definitely will” seek yet vested in the employment outside of their ins titution 1. I have had opportunities to learn and stability value- in 2016. This was higher than Gen X IT grow in the past year. proposition that staff (22%) and much higher than Boomer 2. Someone at work cares about me as a IS OUR BUSINESS typically comes IT staff (17%). Regardless of w hether or person. with higher edu- not Millennial IT s taff are planning t o 3. At work, my opinions count. cation careers). stay or go in the next year, the following 4. I have the materials and equipment I We oer three dynamic Institute experiences designed to enhance your higher ed IT management and Or it could be an five aspects are most important for keeping need to do my work well. indicator that the them at their current institution: 5. My personal career goals are attainable. leadership skills that are in demand now more than ever. things Millenni- als value aren’t 1. Quality of life The first three items also app ear on Choose the right fit for you: well represented 2. Work environment the Gen X and Boomer IT staff top 5 lists, in higher educa- 3. Occupational stability though in a different C tion IT workforce 4. Benefits order. Staff in b oth jobs. Millenni- 5. Boss/leadership the Millennial and M Management Learning Technology Leadership Program als are ambitious the Gen X genera- Y & Dates Institute Leadership Institute Institute and entrepreneurial—Mark Zuckerberg Quality of life was the top issue for all tions value having CM June 27-July 1, Austin, TX June 27-July 1, Austin, TX July 18-22, Austin, TX is their p eer, after all. Millennials want IT staff, regardless of their g enerational “attainable” personal MY work/life/community balance: they category: more than nine in t en respon- career goals, and work to live, they w ant their w ork to dents said this w as very or e xtremely Millennials uniquely CY
CMY be meaningful, and they w ant to be important. Work environment, occu- value having the Experience 7 3–5 3–5 10+ acknowledged for their successes. pational stability, and b oss/leadership materials and equip- K Needed Years Years Years How well do we foster these ambitions were also on the “ top 5 list” for all g en- ment to do their jobs among members of our w orkforce, and erations.8 Benefits were not on the t op well. Boomer and how much flexibility do we h ave at our 5 list for Gen Xers or Boomers; this item Gen X s taff place “ I institutions to better do so? W hereas was beat out by “my colleagues” for those have coworkers who Current CIOs and some managers and some ins titutions two groups. ECAR didn’t provide opera- are committed to Coordinators, managers, Leaders in academic IT/ Target CISOs or those are better than others at creating a work tional definitions for these i tems, so doing quality work” and assistant directors teaching and learning Cohort actively interviewing environment that appeals to Millennials, quality of life, work environment, and benefits and “I am hig hly in higher ed IT with technology for those roles higher education could undoubtedly for one p erson might mean something motivated to perform my duties” on their do more to attract and retain a Millen- different for the ne xt. More important top 5 lists. nial workforce. External factors also than trying to unpack what these things What about skills? Millennials say the pose challenges to attracting young tal- mean for Millenni als is seeing the r ela- following are important for success in # per ent to the hig her education workforce. tive comparison of these items to factors their current IT position: Institution One One One Economic circumstances may have that institutional leaders t end to think per Institution per Institution per Institution tarnished the nobility of hig her educa- matter to employees, such as monet ary 1. Ability to communicate effectively tion for young professionals. Careers in compensation (ranked 9th by Millenni - 2. Ability to manage complex projects higher education might be particularly als), geographic location (ranked 15th), 3. Strategic thinking and planning unattractive to a g eneration burdened and reputation of the institution for aca- 4. Ability to manage process 5. Ability to use data to make decisions, plan, manage, etc.11 Register or apply now at educause.edu/institute. ow well do we foster ambitions among members of our workforce, and how “Ability to communicate effectively” much flexibility do we have at our and “Strategic thinking and planning” H made the top 5 lists for each generational institutions to better do so? cohort. Millennials’ top 5 list uniquely EDUCAUSE INSTITUTE
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Appreciating a Multigenerational Higher Education IT Workforce
y welcoming various generations into Notes 1. Richard Fry, “Millennials Surpass Gen Xers as our IT organizations, we can both the Largest Generation in U.S. Labor Force,” Fact mentor and learn from one another. Tank, Pew Research Center, May 11, 2015. B 2. Members of the post-Millennial generation are not yet in the workforce, and the Silent (born between 1928 and 1945) and the Greatest (born includes project and process manage- thing to learn from me, their Gen X man- before 1928) generations are typically retired ment, whereas Boomers and G en Xers ager, about building so cial capital (i.e., from the workforce. Pew notes that the youngest list ”Managing relationships” and ”Abil- managing relationships and influencing Millennials have not yet been defined by a definitive chronological endpoint. ity to influence others. ” Millennials’ others). 3. The Pew Research Center generation categories interest in pr ocess is pr obably more a Millennials are more critical of are used throughout this article as a convenient function of their current situational themselves than other generations: they way to speak about the multigenerational workforce. ECAR acknowledges, however, that roles and r esponsibilities in the w ork- describe themselves as self -absorbed, young professionals are particularly sensitive force (managing pr ojects vs. managing wasteful, greedy, and cyni cal at higher to their generational label, as indicated in Pew Research Center, “Most Millennials Resist the ‘Millennial’ Label,” September 3, 2015. 4. Fry, “Millennials Surpass Gen Xers.” 5. D. Christopher Brooks, Eden Dahlstrom, and Jeffrey Pomerantz, “The IT Workforce in Higher Education, 2016,” EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, March 28, 2016. 6. CompTIA, Managing the Multigenerational Workforce (October 2015). 7. Gabrielle Jackson, “Forget the Career Ladder, C Millennials Are Taking the Elevator,” HuffPost Business, May 12, 2015. M
8. These lists are based on the sum of “Very Y important” and “Extremely important” survey response options. There were no differences in CM list items or order when ECAR calculated mean values of the 5-point Likert scale of these items MY
by generation. CY 9. The value proposition of working in higher education, including benefits such as paid time CMY off and occupational stability, attracted many Boomers and Gen Xers to the industry but has K eroded steadily in the 21st century. 10. All of these items were negatively correlated with people) than a fundament al difference rates than Boomers or Gen Xers. Perhaps survey respondents seeking a new job. That is, respondents who agreed with these statements in core values. As y oung professionals they are just more self-aware of and hon- are not seeking new jobs in 2016. This ordered gain more “people management” and est about their shortcomings than other list is based on the sum of “Agree” and “Strongly leadership responsibilities, the r elative generations. Millennials rate themselves agree” survey response options. SAVE THE DATE | OCTOBER 25–28, 2016 11. This ordered list is based on the sum of “Very position of r elationship management highly when it comes t o being idealis- important” and “Extremely important” survey and influence will lik ely match that of tic, entrepreneurial, environmentally response options. There were few differences in their more experienced counterparts. conscious, and tolerant. Add being self- list items or order when ECAR calculated mean Join the best thinking in higher education IT values of the 5-point Likert scale of these items Regardless of the r eason for g enera- aware and honest to that list, and we have by generation. in Anaheim, California, October 25–28 for tional differences (whether due t o situ- a solid base of c haracteristics for future 12. Pew Research Center, “Most Millennials Resist ational circumstances or core values), it IT managers and CIOs in the higher edu- the ‘Millennial’ Label,” September 3, 2015. the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. 12 is important to recognize that diversity cation IT workforce. © 2016 Eden Dahlstrom. The text of this article is of perspectives and e xperiences can For a g eneration that is oft en criti- licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- enhance the w ork environment. Gen- cized for being overscheduled, sheltered NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Registration will open June 2016. erational differences don’t need t o be by their parents, and not allowed t o fail, License. in competition. Rather, they should Millennials reveal workplace values that complement one another. Circling back are similar to those of their B oomer and educause.edu/annual-conference Eden Dahlstrom (edahlstrom@ to my personal experience, the las t top Gen X colleagues. As for the differences educause.edu) is Chief 5 list shows me th at I h ave something between the generations? They provide Research Officer for the Data, to learn fr om my Millennial staff who opportunities for us all to learn and Research, and Analytics (DRA) value working smarter and not h arder grow. By welcoming various generations unit at EDUCAUSE. (i.e., managing pr ocess and using da ta into our IT or ganizations, we can b oth to make decisions) and they h ave some- mentor and learn from one another. n ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Growing an IR and IT Garden
s I write this column, spring is almos t here. A an unsuccessful project does not have to lead to a complete few buds ar e fighting the winter cold t o start failure if learning has resulted from it (and if the unsuccessful the blooming process, while others are waiting parts are not repeated). What methods have been successful in a little bit longer to sprout. The environment reframing an unsuccessful situation or challenging project into can affect the development of the fledg ling a more favorable outcome? How is this different for individual Aseedlings, fostering growth or h ampering development. versus group projects? Similarly, within every colle ge/university campus, diff erent interactions in the envir onmental landscape can define the Regularly Watering the Plants connections between the Institutional Research (IR) and the Although watering on a r egular schedule is an essenti al part Information Technology (IT) offi ces. These relationships of the gardening process, other aspects of watering can impact may have been forged through the specialized language com- how much water the plants actually receive. Watering with a fire monplace in each area, based on pr actical applications and/ hose or watering at high noon in the middle of summer both or technical expertise. Or they may have resulted from shared may be ineffective at supporting budding plants. Similarly, ver- reporting structures that can frame the lens shaping the inter- bal and nonverbal communications are important parts of the actions between the areas. Just as sunlight and water are key campus collaboration process and can b e shaped by how and complements to the growth of plantings, the IR and IT offices when the communication is delivered. In her article “Effective need to collaborate, since each has a complementary role that Communication: Not As Easy As It Seems,” Kathy Lang notes is critical to the other. five questions for guiding communication.1 Thinking through communicating messages and considering others’ perspectives Past Does Not Define Future before sending messages can aid individuals in delivering them Every relationship has a his tory, just as all g ardeners have to effectively, rather than with a fir e hose. What are some other start with their first planting. Some pathways are positive jour- successful tips for building eff ective communication within neys that flourish fr om the b eginning, whereas others h ave and between areas? lengthy stories full of rocky tumbles. Past relationships do not Regularly celebrating successes and gi ving credit where need to dictate all future interactions. This can apply to both credit is due can be integral parts of building relationships and positive and challenging relationships. If there is a constructive communicating effectively. Projects are not done in a v acuum. existing relationship, effort and energy need to be expended Acknowledging the assis tance of others can r esult in gr eat to continue the r elationship, and these int eractions can b e strides being made in building (or repairing) relationships and positive models for other areas on campus. If ther e is a strong trust. How have others navigated acknowledgments that may relationship between the IR and IT offi ces, how was this part- not have been as well r eceived as they wer e intended? How/ nership created and how h as it been sustained? What else is why did this happen? What are some other, well-received ways needed to continue to grow this relationship? of celebrating success? Despite all of the leaps forw ard in agriculture, no miracle Reporting structures can influence the na tural interactions elixir or seed will gr ow in an y/all circumstances. Likewise, between campus areas. The IR and IT offi ces may not always campus offices are built with people, who are fallible. As a report through the s ame reporting structure. What impact result, miscommunication, frustration, and e gos can g et in does reporting structure have on building and maint aining a the way of a cons tructive professional working relationship. strong IR/IT relationship? How have others b een able to cre- Higher education is not a ut opia in w hich everyone always ate and sustain interoffice relationships and break down silos? agrees. Competing resources and limited time to accomplish How have these practices been integrated into sustainable and projects can result in less-than-ideal interactions. When a dis- regular operations, rather than a one-time project or only with connect between the IR and IT ar eas emerges, it can be chal- specific individuals? lenging (but not imp ossible) to overcome. Acknowledging past frustrations can be the first step in mending or r ebuild- The Higher Education Landscape ing relationships. If there is an ineff ective relationship, what Many different issues affect our understanding of a landscape. tools or tips can b e utilized to rebuild the connections and In gardening, this can b e seeing how wea ther patterns, soil collaboration? composition, and insects can affect the growth of the plants. Another danger is falling into the trap of feeling that a proj- In higher education, this can b e recognizing trends that can ect was a failure if it did not w ork out according to plan. But lay the gr oundwork for p otential future issues, pr ojects, or
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 48 4/19/16 11:27 AM By ELIZABETH CLUNE-KNEUER
to specific sectors, such as community colleges?
Outside of the Comfort Zone Engaging in knowledg e and learning communities outside of functional areas can bring ad ditional resources and information. Attending confer- ences beyond the mainstream vendors or functional-area specialized confer- ences can hig hlight notable topics as well as challenges that other areas face. Funding for travel is something man y offices may find challenging to obtain. Although some time and effort may be required to apply for gr ants, they can be an excellent way to stretch compet- ing resources and to obtain additional funding. I w as fortunate to have been awarded the Di ane Balestri Memorial Scholarship to attend my first EDU- CAUSE Annual Conference in the f all of 2016; my interest in a strong collabo- ration with information technology had been sparked when I had worked closely with the IT offi ce at a previous institution. Additionally, social media
Dominic Bugatto © 2016 can be a great (low- or no-cos t) way to supplement resources. LinkedIn and collaborations. Understanding the broader aspects of emerging Twitter are two platforms with strong learning communities, higher education trends, initiatives, or new reporting require- many times wi th LinkedIn groups and T witter chats con- ments can help both the IR and the IT offi ces see the impact structed with cross-functional practitioners. from a cross-functional perspective. This creates a better out- What other conferences or social media resources can assist come than if either single area approached the project as a silo. in continued professional development outside of immedi ate An example that those of us connect ed with community functional areas? How can groups, both in person and through colleges (irrespective of our primary r oles at the ins titution) social media, create positive environments to reach out and need to be concerned with is student retention and completion welcome others who may not typically attend or engage? efforts. One person starts this process by planting the seed of enrollment. Taking this first step to enroll (or re-enroll) in col- Conclusion lege can be a very scary or overwhelming process for students The relationship between the IR offi ce and the IT offi ce has and/or their families. There are many different discussions, on many different aspects that can influence how strong this gar- state and national levels, about reducing the barriers to educa- den can grow. Spring is time for r enewal and growth. Whether tion to increase retention and completion, and these can h ave the IR and IT offi ces have strong existing connections, or ar e an effect on the t echnological infrastructure at institutions as just starting an emerging relationship, or are working to rebuild well as the r eporting from data that is collected. A collabora- a strained one, planting a seed is always where this starts. n tion between the IR and IT offi ces can impr ove institutional efficiencies regarding what information is tracked and where it Note is stored in database systems. Additionally the IR and IT offices 1. Kathy J. Lang, “Effective Communication: Not As Easy As It Seems,” can partner in “translating” the technical (and sometimes very EDUCAUSE Review 50, no. 5 (September/October 2015). complex) systems, processes, and limi tations for the g eneral campus community. Elizabeth Clune-Kneuer ([email protected]) is director of Institu- What are other emerging higher education issues that can tional Research & Reporting at Prince George’s Community College. impact both the IR and IT offices? What are issues that pertain © 2016 Elizabeth Clune-Kneuer.
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 49 4/19/16 11:27 AM E-CONTENT [All Things Digital]
The HathiTrust Research Center: Exploring the Full-Text Frontier
any readers of EDUCAUSE Review are familiar on one or more books, but not research in which a researcher with the HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL), reads or displa ys.” Operationally, the HTR C defines non- which was featured in an E- Content column consumptive research as that in which no action or set of actions by Jeremy York and Bri an E.C. Schottlaender on the part of users, either acting alone or in co operation with a couple years ago.1 However, readers may not other users over the dur ation of one or mul tiple sessions, can Myet be aware of the r esearch counterpart to this mass-scale result in suffi cient information gathered from a collection of digital library: the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC).2 In this copyrighted works to reassemble pages from the collection. column, we want to help readers better understand the HTRC mission—a mission th at supports new knowledg e creation Current Tools and Methods through novel computational uses of the HTDL. Currently the tools of the HTR C can be broken into four dis- tinct categories that build off each other in terms of usefulness Birth of a Research Center to the scholar: In the original Google Books Settlement Agreement in 2008,3 funds were to be set aside t o create a r esearch center that would 1. The HTRC Workset Builder (HTRC-WB) enables scholars to enable researchers worldwide to accomplish data-mining and utilize a faceted browsing interface to build unique collec - analysis on texts in the public domain and under cop yright in tions from within the HTDL collection. T his is par t of the a manner that was secure and compliant with appropriate U.S. overall HTRC Portal. copyright law. This did not happen, because the court rejected 2. The HTRC Data Capsule (HTRC-DC) is the heart of the plat- the agreement in 2011. However, the HathiTrust Board of Gov- form, providing scholars with a unique Virtual Machine ernors believed in this pub lic good and announced a r equest (VM) and data enclave that is supported by cyberinfrastruc- for proposals to build such a center in 2009.4 In 2011, the HTDL ture at Indiana University to run analysis on the content of announced that Indiana University Bloomington and the Uni- the individual worksets created by scholars.6 versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would run the HTRC 3. The HTRC Solr/Lucene API allows scholars to work directly with under an agreement with the HathiTrust Board of G overnors the Solr/Lucene index of the HTDL corpus in novel ways. and the University of Michigan. The HTRC has been an active 4. The HTRC Extracted Features Dataset (HTRC-EFD) was production service since 20 14, with tools avail- able to analyze a set of out -of-copyright content equaling around 4.4 million v olumes.5 In 2016, the HTRC plans to enable analysis of the entirety of the 14 million volumes held currently by the HTDL.
Understanding Non-Consumptive Research To understand the tools and methodologies of the HTRC, one needs t o understand the condi tions under which scholars are permitted to access and use the collection. U se of the H athiTrust collection is g overned in par t by agr eements among Google and others w ho digitized the works. Much of the collection is in cop yright, so any use of those ma terials must carefully follow copyright law. Thus the HTRC has focused on non- consumptive research using the digital surrogates. The rejected settlement defines this as “research in which computational analysis is performed
50 EDUCAUSEreview MAY/JUNE 2016 E-Content Editor: Robert H. McDonald
48-C4 Back Dept.indd 50 4/19/16 11:27 AM By J. STEPHEN DOWNIE, MIKE FURLOUGH, ROBERT H. M c DONALD, BETH NAMACHCHIVAYA, BETH A. PLALE, and JOHN UNSWORTH
published in May 2015 and has since been used to create a to enable more productive research for scholars as well as int e- further refined extracted features dataset based on volumes grating its tools and services within a variety of disciplines. published between 1700 and 1922 and including sp ecific information for genre. Conclusion Today’s digital scholars are embracing new opportunities to Bridging the Scholarship Gap explore their disciplines in ways that are enhanced through the The work of the HTR C has enabled a cont extualized usage types of computational analysis that the HTRC provides. None- of the met adata plus the full t ext of the entir e corpus—an theless, the heightened level of int egration and collaboration approach described by many in the digital humanities fields as required to offer these new scholarly services requires a trans- distant reading.7 This type of distant reading scholarship meshes formed working relationship between the academy, the digital well with the one-to-many uses of the completely digitized scholar, and research support units as described in this article. content and met adata of the HTDL . Key concepts for futur e For this r eason, the HTR C is p ooling resources that operate work around distant reading scholarship need to include above any one campus, in or der to create a shared service that options for enhanced metadata improvement and new models can be used by all. n for workset creation within the HTRC platform.8 This work will be useful w hen exploring how t o enhance discovery wi thin Notes the HathiTrust production platform, perhaps by enh ancing 1. Jeremy York and Brian E.C. Schottlaender, “The Universal Library Is Us: Library Work at Scale in HathiTrust,” EDUCAUSE Review 49, no. 3 (May/June metadata with new data on genre, date, or gender of the author. 2014). 2. See Beth Plale, Robert McDonald, Yiming Sun, Inna Kouper, Ryan Cobine, Advanced Collaborative Support (ACS) Program J. Stephen Downie, Beth Sandore Namachchivaya, and John Unsworth, “HathiTrust Research Center: Computational Access for Digital Humanities A critical aspect of having a multiyear funding model for the and Beyond,” JCDL ’13: Proceedings of the 13th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on HTRC includes the opportunities that have been created Digital Libraries (New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2013). through the HTR C Advanced Collaborative Support (ACS) 3. Google Book Search Copyright Settlement (October 2008). 4. “Call for Proposal to Develop a HathiTrust Research Center,” December 7, program. This micro-grant program offers scholars in-kind 2009. development support supplied by the HTR C staff. The devel- 5. See the HathiTrust Research Center Documentation. opment support is sp ecific to the project that is proposed to 6. See Jiaan Zeng, Guangchen Ruan, Alexander Crowell, Atul Prakash, and Beth Plale, “Cloud Computing Data Capsules for Non-Consumptive Use of Texts,” the ACS program by the sc holar and includes assis tance in ScienceCloud ’14: Proceedings of the 5th ACM Workshop on Scientific Cloud Computing migrating code to work on the HTR C compute platforms as (New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2014). well as in developing advanced worksets and other types of data 7. This concept was coined by scholar Franco Moretti in his book of the same name: Distant Reading (New York: Verso, 2013). enhancements. The first round of ACS awards was announced 8. Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller, Kevin R. Page, Pip Willcox, Jacob Jett, Chris Maden, in January 2015. As w as evident a t the thir d annual HTRC Timothy Cole, Colleen Fallaw, Megan Senseney, and J. Stephen Downie, UnCamp in 20 15, the A CS program has encouraged many “Building Complex Research Collections in Digital Libraries: A Survey of Ontology Implications,” JCDL ’15: Proceedings of the 15th ACM/IEEE-CS strides ahead in use of the HTR C platform in disciplines as Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (New York: Association for Computing diverse as English literature, language topic modeling,9 literary Machinery, 2015). theory, and economics. 9. Jaimie Murdock, Jiaan Zeng, and Colin Allen, “Towards Cultural-Scale Models of Full Text,” HTRC ACS Technical Report (December 2015).
A Scholars Commons Outreach Approach J. Stephen Downie ([email protected]) is professor and associate dean The HTRC is w orking to extend the p edagogy of i ts tools and in the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Informa- services through an innovative partnership between the Schol- tion Science and is co-director of the HTRC. Mike Furlough (furlough@ ars’ Commons at Indiana University Libraries and the Scholarly hathitrust.org) is executive director of the HathiTrust Digital Library at the Commons at the University Library of the University of Illinois. University of Michigan. Robert H. McDonald ([email protected]) is associate dean for library technologies and deputy director of the Data to These two libraries are partnering to develop ins truction and Insight Center at Indiana University and is a member of the HTRC Execu- models for conducting r esearch consultations to support the tive Leadership Team. Beth Namachchivaya ([email protected]) is integration of text data-mining concepts into scholarly research associate university librarian for research, associate dean of libraries, and and the classroom. This partnership, in conjunction wi th three professor at the University of Illinois and is a member of the HTRC Execu- other libraries, is developing and t esting a set of cur ricular tive Leadership Team. Beth A. Plale ([email protected]) is professor in the School of Informatics and Computing and director of the Data to material for use as “train the trainer” library workshops that will Insight Center at Indiana University and is co-director of the HTRC. John focus on t eaching key concepts in t ext data-mining research. Unsworth ([email protected]) is vice-provost, university librarian, This effort, supported by funding from the Institute of Museum CIO, and professor of English at Brandeis University and is a member of and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian the HTRC Executive Leadership Team. Program, will ena ble the delivery of effective text data-mining © 2016 J. Stephen Downie, Mike Furlough, Robert H. McDonald, Beth Namachchivaya, instruction, based on fr eely accessible training materials, to Beth A. Plale, and John Unsworth. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative graduate students and other groups of scholars. The HTRC aims Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 51 4/19/16 11:27 AM NEWHORIZONS [The Technologies Ahead]
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Call to Action
hat does a di verse higher education The future of the pr ofession depends on ensuring th at IT workforce look like, and why is it current and, mor e important, future leaders know and important? understand the imp ortance of di versity, equity, and inclu - Higher education IT leadership do esn’t sion as well as develop a culture and strategy that continually appear to be particularly diverse. Statistics fosters improvement. This is a matter of extreme importance Wfrom the 2015 Center for Higher Education Chief Informa- and should be valued as much as budgets, strategies, gover- tion Officer Studies (CHECS) survey show that 95 percent of nance, and the technologies we deploy and support. responding CIOs identified themselves as “White.” This rep- This year colleagues fr om EDUCAUSE, CUPA-HR, and resents a 4 percent increase from 2014. The CHECS data also search firms that focus on higher education are embarking covers IT leaders considered to be one level below the CIO. on a y ear-long discussion of and s trategy development on Of those who responded, 95 percent identified as “ White.” diversity, equity, and inclusion, to include blogs, articles, The 2015 percentage of these IT leaders who were women webinars, and conference sessions. We are issuing a call t o and who identified as aspiring to be a CIO reached a new low action: What does the community need to do—and do now? of 24 percent, with the highest percentage over the pas t six Some possibilities: years at only 31 percent.1 Similarly, data from the College and University Professional Association for H uman Resources 1. Publish diversity demographics for the hig her education (CUPA-HR) shows that in 2014–2015, only 20 percent of CIOs IT community through a par tnership between EDU- in higher education were women.2 CAUSE and CUPA-HR These statistics for higher education IT leaders, and the 2. Collect data or additional data to continually assess how events that have unfurled across the United States and within we are doing higher education dealing with race,3 should indicate a strong 3. Structure programs to help leaders, managers, and super- need to take action to diversify the overall higher education visors recognize and reduce unconscious biases IT workforce. However, there’s a perhaps even more compel- 4. Develop target development pr ograms for under repre- ling reason: improving organizational performance. sented talent Incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion int o the 5. Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion wi thin our workforce isn’t just “the right thing to do.” These values are community through increased educational opportunities imperative for impr oving decision-making and out comes. such as blogs, articles, research, webinars, and conference Improved organizational performance has been demon- sessions strated repeatedly in the private sector4 and applies to higher 6. Collect, store, and share best practices from member insti- education as well. 5 Additionally, “IT Workforce Hiring and tutions that have positively increased diversity within our Retention: Ensuring adequa te staffing capacity and s taff community retention as budg ets shrink or r emain flat and as e xternal 7. Offer programs that provide the EDUCAUSE membership competition grows” was listed as #4 on the EDUCAUSE 2016 with usable approaches to increase workforce diversity Top 10 IT Issues list.6 Diversity, equity, and inclusion are criti- cal to the recruitment, hiring, retention, and career advance- What can you, as a member of the community, do to help? ment for IT staff in higher education. Now is the time for all of us in hig her education informa- n Educate yourself on the issues. Contribut e to upcoming tion technology to examine who we are as an industry and a EDUCAUSE activities around diversity, equity, and inclu- profession, starting with comprehensive data about our cur- sion. Act! rent demographics. A partnership between colleagues from n Understand the unconscious biases that are prevalent and EDUCAUSE and CUP A-HR could b e critical to answering play a significant role in every workplace situation.7 some key questions: Are we improving? Are we remaining static? Are we heading in the wr ong direction? How can we Finally, what other acti vities do y ou want to see? W hat grow and develop our pipeline? How do we address the lack topics do y ou want to discuss? W hat sessions do y ou want of representation of marginalized groups as staff move up the to attend and participate in at the 2016 EDUCAUSE Annual leadership ladder? Conference? Please let us know in the Comments section! n
52 EDUCAUSEreview MAY/JUNE 2016 New Horizons Editor: Shelli B. Fowler
48-C4 Back Dept.indd 52 4/19/16 11:27 AM By MELISSA WOO and KEITH W. Mc INTOSH
EDUCAUSE is a nonpr ofit association whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of informa- tion technology.
EDUCAUSE Board of Directors
Bruce Maas, Chair Vice Provost for Information Technology and CIO University of Wisconsin–Madison
Tracy Schroeder, Vice Chair Vice President of Information Services and Technology Boston University
Justin Sipher, Secretary Vice President of Libraries and Information Technology St. Lawrence University
Bill Hogue, Treasurer Vice President for Information Technology and CIO University of South Carolina
Mark Askren Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and CIO University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Diane Graves Assistant Vice President for Information Resources and University Librarian Trinity University
Joy Hatch Vice President for Technology Fort Hays State University
Reginald Henry Derek Lea © 2016 Chief Information Officer American Society of Association Executives
Ron Kraemer Notes Diversity and Organizational Success in the Vice President for Information Technology and 1. CIO Roles and Responsibility, 2015, CHECS report. Academic Environment,” College & Research Chief Information & Digital Officer 2. According to Jacqueline Bichsel, director of Libraries 62, no. 6 (November 2001). University of Notre Dame research, CUPA-HR, personal communication 6. See Susan Grajek and the 2015–2016 EDUCAUSE based on presentation material, December 21, IT Issues Panel, “Top 10 IT Issues, 2016: Divest, Edward Leach 2015. Reinvest, and Differentiate,” EDUCAUSE Review Executive Director 3. See Alia Wong and Adrienne Green, “Campus 51, no. 1 (January/February 2016). National Institute for Staff and Organizational Politics: A Cheat Sheet,” The Atlantic, March 4, 7. For an excellent presentation on this topic, Development (NISOD) 2016. view the video “Unconscious Bias @ Work,” a 4. “Global Diversity and Inclusion: Fostering presentation by Brian Welle (Google Ventures). Kay Rhodes Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce,” Forbes Associate Vice Chancellor and System CIO Insights, July 2011; Geoffrey Colvin, “The 50 Best Melissa Woo is vice president for informa- Texas Tech University System Companies for Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics: tion technology and chief information officer Companies That Pursue Diversity Outperform at Stony Brook University. Keith W. “Mac” John Suess the S&P 500—Coincidence?” Fortune 140 Vice President of Information Technology McIntosh is associate vice president and chief (July 19, 1999); Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda and CIO Marshall, and Laura Sherbin, “How Diversity information officer, Digital Instruction and University of Maryland, Baltimore County Can Drive Innovation,” Harvard Business Review, Information Services, at Ithaca College. December 2013; Sherry Kuczynski, “If Diversity, Ex Officio Member Then Higher Profits?” HR Magazine 44, no 13 © 2016 Melissa Woo and Keith W. McIntosh. The text John O’ Brien (December 1999). of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons President and CEO 5. Mark D. Winston, “The Importance of Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International EDUCAUSE Leadership Diversity: The Relationship between License.
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 53 4/19/16 11:27 AM VIEWPOINTS [Today’s Hot Topics]
Why Diverse Teams Matter
wo main cases can b e made for di versity and bers. Additional studies have shown that gender diversity ben- inclusion of women and other underrepresented efits organizations along dimensions of financi al health, pro- groups in informa tion technology: the so cial ductivity, efficiency, employee performance, and innovation.4 justice case and the innov ation case. T he social Even though exactly why and how “p eople diversity” justice case appeals to us with “it’s the right thing translates into “functional diversity” to yield the b enefits in Tto do,” as a h umanitarian call for fairness, equal representation, innovation and productivity is a topic of ongoing investigation, and opportunity, within both academia and indus try. Its ante- such evidence signals us t o rethink competitive strategies for cedents echo from civil rights and feminism, backed by decades recruiting and building diverse work teams. Primarily, it shifts of social progress and research. The innovation case is a mor e the focus from acquiring the best individuals to assembling and recent phenomenon, emerging from best practices and research empowering the most effective teams. In this sense, the strategy that points to the competitive advantages of diverse work teams is akin to that in Moneyball, the book and film c hronicling the along dimensions of innov ation, productivity, efficiency, and paradigm shift in ma jor league baseball: using anal ytics and problem solving. data to move away from evaluating and hiring “star players” and In both cases, the cont ext for an all-h ands-on-deck call t o toward evaluating and hiring eff ective teams. In informa tion action is at once overwhelming and compelling. In higher edu- technology, the emphasis is on building teams for greater func- cation, in 2011 women earned 57 percent of all under graduate tional diversity—that is, diversity of thought. And in this sense, degrees but only about 18 percent of degrees in computer sci- it is worth noting that such a clear plus for the innov ation case ences, which is the lowes t for any STEM field. For women who of diversity and inclusion is fundament ally rooted in its social also belong to one or more ethnically underrepresented catego- justice case, since diversity of thought ultimately stems from a ries (e.g., black, Hispanic, Native American), the number of com- diversity of life experience and identity. puter science graduates dwindled to 4.8 percent in 2012.1 These But recruiting for di verse teams won’t do an y good if we numbers are reflected in industry, where women hold only 26 don’t create environments in which women and minorities are percent of U.S. tech jobs and make up only 19 percent of software retained and can thrive. Currently, women in the tech industry developers.2 Likewise, when Google bravely released its diversity have a quit rate double that of men. A ccording to a report by numbers in the summer of 20 14, it revealed some uncomfor t- the Center for Talent Innovation, 80 percent of U.S. women in able facts: only 17 percent of its IT workforce were women, only SET (science, engineering, and technology) say they “love their 2 percent Hispanic, and only 1 percent black. Other tech giants work,” yet 56 percent leave their private-sector organizations followed Google’s example and also released their diversity data, midcareer. This represents a huge brain drain, not to mention showing similar numbers.3 Meanwhile, the size and influence of millions of dollars in inves tment walking out the do or, most the tech sector in nearly all spheres of modern life has exploded. often to competitors, start-ups, and nonprofits.5
The Best and the Brightest? Unconscious Bias Goes to Work It has long b een assumed th at assembling the b est and the What is the “ secret sauce” to engaging and r etaining more brightest in the r oom will yield the b est and the brig htest women and minorities in information technology? It starts with results. Therefore, searches for the b est talent have, over time, the social processes that inhibit diverse participation. By now, increasingly narrowed the collective sense of who does tech most of us ar e familiar with unconscious bias: implicit associa- best (and who does not) and where to recruit them (and where tions that everyone makes regarding gender, ethnicity, age, sex- not). But these assumptions are now being called into question. ual orientation, etc. These biases can unfairly disadvantage and Scott Page’s landmark 2007 book The Difference makes a disenfranchise people who are members of underrepresented compelling case for the v alue of diverse teams. Through case or historically marginalized groups. Unconscious bias is part of studies and mathematical modeling across a range of organiza- our mental makeup and our culture. However, recognizing it tions (industry, education, communities), he details the relation and raising it to a conscious level allows us to address it, interrupt between diversity of people and strength and functionality of it, and mitigate its potential negative impacts. organizations in t erms of pr oductivity and pr oblem solving. Unconscious bias in the w orkplace manifests in ins titu- Throughout, he demonstrates that diversity can trump a bility. tional barriers that may include the following: Other research has demonstrated that the numb er of women on work teams is a s tronger predictor of a gr oup’s collective n Recruiting practices: biased sourcing of candida te pools; job intelligence than is the t otal IQ of a gr oup’s individual mem- ads that include bi ased language and mess aging; biased
54 EDUCAUSEreview MAY/JUNE 2016 Viewpoints Editor: John Suess
48-C4 Back Dept.indd 54 4/19/16 11:27 AM BY BRAD McLAIN, CATHERINE ASHCRAFT, and LUCY SANDERS
résumé-review processes and interview strategies, includ- Third, retain and advance diverse employees. As pointed ing all-male interview committees out above, recruiting will do li ttle good if r etention is not n Retention factors: unequal pay for equal work; environmen- achieved. And this means c hanging the culture of an or ganiza- tal elements signaling that women and/or other minorities tion—from its policies and pr ocedures down t o the w ays indi- do not b elong, including “ geek-culture” décor and “br o- vidual employees interact—in order to remove the bar riers that grammer” culture; lack of support for competing work and exclude diverse people and the benefits they bring. To enable life responsibilities, including fle x-time; biased annual this scale of change, the National Center for Women & Informa- performance review protocols and criteria that subtly favor tion Technology (NCWIT) h as assembled an indus try reform men and reinforce the dominant culture model for organizations to use.6 Its purpose is to frame a strategic n Advancement: biased and/or hidden advancement processes approach to organizational change that promotes diversity and and criteria that subtly favor majority group members over inclusion and to do so in a way that encourages customization to minorities; lack of eff ective sponsorship for w omen and the specific needs of diff erent groups. This framework empha- minorities; lack of r ole models and p eer-group members sizes a holistic effort that bridges strategic and tactical action. for women and minori ties in p ositions of p ower (a self- Finally, be accountable for change. Organizations must set reinforcing cycle) targets, measure progress, and conduct and appl y research for new ways of addressing these challenges. NCWIT is pr oud to be In addition, unconscious bias can be represented by inter- undertaking, in collaboration with Internet2, a new research proj- personal barriers and challenges: ect to gather and analyze gender diversity data from member orga- nizations. This information will form a baseline fr om which the n Micro-inequities and micro-aggressions: subtle but cumula tive Internet2 community and individual member organizations can slights and e xclusions that occur daily (“Dude, let’s talk assess where they stand and then measure meaningful progress. about it over a beer”) Casting diversity and inclusion as b oth a social justice case n Stereotype threat: the fear of reinforcing negative stereotypes and an innovation case, dispelling the myth of “the best and the associated with an identity category, resulting in behavior brightest,” shifting focus to building and supporting diverse that can signifi cantly affect performance, participation, teams in order to reap their demonstrated benefits for all people and sense of belonging (majority and minori ty alike), and adopting a s trategic change n Tokenism: the expectation that someone represents and can effort that is holis tic in design ar e steps along a pa thway of speak for all others in a sp ecific identity category, often progress with clear and elev ating goals: diversify; innovate; and resulting in women and minorities avoiding participation celebrate the wealth and potential of our differences. n in “women’s groups” or diversity programs n Personality penalties: being labeled as pushy, aggressive, or Notes bossy for the s ame behaviors for which male or ma jority 1. National Girls Collaborative Project: https://ngcproject.org/statistics. Women in information technology reached a zenith in the mid-1980s, at nearly 40 group counterparts are praised percent representation, and again in 2002–2003, but that number has been in steady decline over the past decade. See National Center for Education Solutions Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp. 2. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013 (Occupational There is no single recipe for success in attracting and retaining Category: 15–0000). diverse IT teams. Nevertheless, colleges and universities can 3. Alison Griswold, “Google’s Workforce Is Mostly White and Male,” Slate, May lead the change, for both the professional sector and higher 28, 2014,; Alison Griswold, “When It Comes to Diversity in Tech, Companies Find Safety in Numbers,” Slate, June 27, 2014. education. How? 4. For a detailed summary of much of this research, see Lecia Barker, Cynthia First, educate top leaders and manag ers about the f acts Mancha, and Catherine Ashcraft, “What Is the Impact of Gender Diversity regarding women and other di verse people in informa tion on Technology Business Performance?” National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Research Summary, May 29, 2014. technology, training leaders to recognize and address uncon- 5. Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Laura Sherbin, Athena Factor 2.0: Accelerating scious bias in b oth its institutional and i ts interpersonal Female Talent in Science, Engineering & Technology (New York: Center for Talent forms. Innovation, 2014). 6. The NCWIT IT Industry Reform Model can be found in “Strategic Planning for Second, recruit more diverse people. Hiring s taff that Increasing Women’s Participation in the Computing Industry,” National Center embody a diverse and inclusive environment sends a s trong for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Workbook, April 1, 2010. message. Doing so requires a proactive recruiting strategy that follows from a top-leadership directive to seek out and hir e Brad McLain ([email protected]) is a social scientist with NCWIT. a diverse staff and that does not in an y way lower standards Catherine Ashcraft ([email protected]) is a senior social scien- to accomplish this goal. A review of job ads for language that tist with NCWIT. Lucy Sanders ([email protected]) is CEO may include unconscious bias is also needed, as is sourcing to and co-founder of NCWIT. a wider range of potential candidates in order to change the traditional demographics of IT applicants. © 2016 Lucy Sanders, Catherine Ashcraft, and Brad McLain.
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 55 4/19/16 11:27 AM ERO1pg_MayJune2016_r4.pdf 1 4/9/2016 1:34 PM
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Next-Level Benchmarking: How Do You Measure Up? Learn how the EDUCAUSE Benchmarking Service takes the use of analytics to the next level by helping CIOs and other campus leaders measure progress on campus-wide strategic initiatives. »
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K Video: Reactions to Gartner Faculty Productivity and Social Predictions Media Use Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top strategic Use of social media can boost faculty predictions for IT organizations for 2016 and productivity. Learn potential strategies to beyond. Here are a few reactions from some increase and demonstrate scholarly of higher education’s ed-tech leaders. » productivity using social media and its impact when documenting professional activity. » What’s Your Next Act? Intercultural Training in a When you decide to leave a job in higher Virtual Game education IT, whether through retirement or changing careers, what comes next? How do If certain conditions are met, a massively you plan a new life and take steps to ensure multiplayer online game virtual environment its success? » like World of Warcraft provides a fertile environment for intercultural training. Learn how it works. »
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Next-Level Benchmarking: How Do You Measure Up? Learn how the EDUCAUSE Benchmarking Service takes the use of analytics to the next level by helping CIOs and other campus leaders measure progress on campus-wide strategic initiatives. »
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K Video: Reactions to Gartner Faculty Productivity and Social Predictions Media Use Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top strategic Use of social media can boost faculty predictions for IT organizations for 2016 and productivity. Learn potential strategies to beyond. Here are a few reactions from some increase and demonstrate scholarly of higher education’s ed-tech leaders. » productivity using social media and its impact when documenting professional activity. » What’s Your Next Act? Intercultural Training in a When you decide to leave a job in higher Virtual Game education IT, whether through retirement or changing careers, what comes next? How do If certain conditions are met, a massively you plan a new life and take steps to ensure multiplayer online game virtual environment its success? » like World of Warcraft provides a fertile environment for intercultural training. Learn how it works. »
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48-C4 Back Dept.indd 3 4/19/16 11:27 AM B:8.75” T:8.5” S:8” B:11.125” S:10.375” T:10.875” Should my finance, HR, and student systems help me Absolutely. rise above the challenges facing higher education?
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