Most Colleges Lack Technology Planning

By Scott W. Wright

MIAMI — Nearly two decades after microcomputers debuted on college campuses, most schools still lack comprehensive, cohesive plans to reap technology's many benefits.
That conclusion, from a new survey released here in late October, could serve as a jarring wake-up call to top college administrators and technology gurus, experts say.
The survey findings, based on information from 571 schools, provide an annual update to a nearly decade-old project that documents technology's impact on America's colleges and universities.
"Without question, technology has become a pervasive part of the campus environment and college experience," says Kenneth C. Green, director of the Campus Computing Project.
Green, a visiting scholar at Claremont Graduate University's Center for Educational Studies, discussed his findings here at the League for Innovation in the Community College's 14th annual conference on information technology.
"Students of all ages and fields come to campus expecting to learn about and also to learn with technology," Green says. "Yet across all sectors of the higher education landscape, institutions continue to struggle with key aspects of IT [information technology] planning and infrastructure."
For instance, the survey found that fewer than half of the institutions had an IT strategic plan. Only 40 percent have an IT curriculum plan. Only 40 percent have an instructional plan for using the Internet. Less than 33 percent plan to use the Internet for their distance learning efforts. Only 25 percent have a policy on who owns Web-based instructional resources designed by faculty.
"Campuses are doing more with technology and they are doing it better than in the past," Green says. "But the real challenge at most institutions is to improve resources and services given both rising expectations and exploding demand."
The survey reveals once again that folding technology into the coursework fabric on campus ranks as the top IT concern among college and university administrators.
More than 33 percent say assisting faculty in integrating technology into teaching and learning is the single most important issue confronting their institution.
Other technological-worries? More than 26 percent cited providing adequate user support. Slightly more than 17 percent identified financial planning for IT. And about 4 percent listed Y2K — the computer world's upcoming problem with the year 2000 — as their major concern.
"Many campuses now buy, rather than build, most of their core academic and administrative software," Green says. "Consequently, campus officials are no doubt expecting their software suppliers to provide solutions to potential Y2K problems."                            

Copies of the "1998 National Survey of Information Technology in Higher Education" can be ordered from the Campus Computing Project,
P.O. Box 261242, Encino, Calif.
91426-1242 or via the Web at
 <www.campuscomputing.net>.
The cost is $35.