Education Policy, Business and Technology

3 Ways IT Is Impacting Student Success

Campus Technology: Over the past several years, student success initiatives have burst onto the scene as academic officials have sought to respond to pressure to improve retention and graduation rates. Philanthropic groups such as the Gates Foundation and state legislatures have made student success a point of emphasis. Many universities don't have the technology infrastructure to respond to the needs of these new programs, which raises the question of the CIO's role in designing solutions.

Why should CIOs be proactive on the issue of student success? "It is important to be engaged in things that are important to the overall mission of the university," said Scott Winslow, practice manager at EAB, a consulting firm and technology platform provider. Winslow recently led the research for a report about optimizing IT's role in student success (see "4 IT Priorities for Student Success" below). "In many cases CIOs and their teams aren't viewed as strategic partners on campus," he said. "They are viewed as keeping the lights on." Student success is an area where they can contribute to longer-term institutional goals.

Read article