EDUCause IT Issues 2021: The ‘Restore’ Scenario
EDUCause’s report on the most pressing IT issues for higher ed next year, Top IT Issues, 2021: Emerging from the Pandemic, presents readers with the three scenarios facing most higher ed institutions right now: Restore, Evolve, and Transform. Today, as part of our ongoing series on the report, we’re focusing on the first scenario, Restore.
Higher ed institutions that are facing what the EDUCause report describes as the ‘Restore’ scenario aren’t currently looking to use the pandemic to make massive structural changes to the way they operate. Instead, they need to focus on restoring the financial health of the institution to its pre-pandemic state. By doing so, they’ll be able to continue offering their students the quality education they’ve come to expect, while also adjusting to some of the pandemic’s effects on how that education experience is delivered.
According to the report, the top five IT issues prioritized by institutions finding themselves in the Restore scenario are:
-Cost Management
-Online Learning
-Financial Health
-Affordability and Digital Equity
-Information Security
As you can see, the pressing issues for these institutions are split fairly evenly between finances and the move toward an online educational experience. Tackling both of these problems together may seem impossible, as expanding digital equity and access generally requires new tech—and new tech is expensive.
Fortunately, N2N’s turnkey cloud integration platform, Illuminate, is up to the task.
When it comes to the issues of cost management and financial health, Illuminate has a clear and obvious benefit to institutions looking to get the most of their technology stack while staying within tight budgets. Illuminate can integrate all the different tools, platforms, and databases on campus—without the need for hiring custom coders or using in-house IT resources. The integration is fast, easy, and affordable, and tools can quickly be added or removed as needed.
Illuminate allows institutions to leverage their existing resources in an affordable way, and to be efficient in managing their infrastructure, as well. While it can sometimes seem like building custom integrations in-house is the smartest route to take, it all comes down to the question of free beer vs. free puppies, where custom integrations are the equivalent of free puppies, in that they seem free upfront, but end up costing a significant amount in care and upkeep on an ongoing basis.
On the educational side, Illuminate also places institutions in an advantageous position, allowing them to easily add the apps and data sources they need to create greater digital equity across the student population. Whether the goal is recruiting students, helping them enroll, expanding access to online resources, or supporting student success, adding the right app or platform to your existing SIS setup has never been easier – and Illuminate’s new Student Success Module, Lighthouse, was developed specifically to give your institution the data necessary to identify and guide at-risk students, to help them stay on track and graduate on-time.
So, if your institution is facing the Restore scenario and you’re concerned about how you can manage costs while expanding digital equity and online learning, contact us at 1(888) 651-3309 today! We’ll be happy to talk you through the benefits of Illuminate for your campus.
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