EDUCause IT Issues 2021: The ‘Evolve’ 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 second scenario, Evolve.
Institutions facing the Evolve scenario are focused on adapting to a new set of norms within higher education. The pandemic has strained budgets while accelerating the growth of online education, and students, professors, and administrators are all relying heavily on their school’s digital infrastructure to keep things running smoothly. That means ensuring that students can not only access remote learning options, but that they can be successful in those situations, as well. The pandemic has clearly demonstrated that problems like limited internet access and economic insecurity can have detrimental effects on student learning, and these institutions are concerned with student success as much as they are with their budgets.
According to the report, the top 5 IT issues prioritized by institutions in the Evolve scenario are:
-Student Success
-Equitable Access to Education
-Online Learning
-Information Security
-Financial Health
What stands out here is how closely related the top three concerns are. Creating equitable access to online learning, while making sure those online options are as effective as their in-person equivalents, has a direct effect on student success. Of course, information security is always important for any organization handling sensitive personal data. And finally, financial health, while coming in at number five, is what ensures that concerns higher on the list can be dealt with in the first place.
If your institution is looking at a similar situation to the Evolve scenario, know that N2N’s Illuminate platform is positioned to help you address these issues.
When it comes to student success and online education, there is no one application or platform that will ensure these goals are met. Every higher ed institution uses a number of different tools to get students access to the information, learning opportunities, and educational resources they need to be successful. Unfortunately, as the need for digital infrastructure grows, it’s easy for an institution to wind up with a patchwork system of tools that consumes a massive amount of time and resources to hold together.
Illuminate helps to solve this problem, allowing schools to easily integrate all the applications, platforms, and databases they use, without using internal resources or having to outsource the creation and maintenance of those integrations to custom coders. The integration is fast and affordable, allowing institutions to add and remove tools as needed. That emphasis on ease and affordability gives institutions flexibility when making decisions during an uncertain and difficult time—making it an excellent choice for those who are working to adapt to our new reality as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Illuminate’s new Student Success Module, Lighthouse, goes even further, giving administrators access to the data they need to catch at-risk students early and guide them to the course choices and degree path that will give them the highest chances of success.
If your institution is working to Evolve in response to the challenges of 2021 and you’re focused on enhancing online learning and student success, 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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