Higher education has become an online service industry. Students submit – and colleges accept or deny – applications online. Parents pay tuition on the web. Schools post curricula and students select courses and manage their college experiences via portals. Professors publish websites listing syllabuses, assignments and office hours. Classes, tests, and research can all be conducted online. Online services are now a necessary and expected part of campus life.
And students are more web-savvy than ever and demand access to technology. Recent survey results from IBM and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion show:
• 93 percent of students own a laptop
• 97 percent have a profile on a social networking site
• 99 percent own a cellphone
• Seven in 10 view technology as “the future”
• 50 percent want to improve their technology skills before graduation.
From the university side, The Campus Computing Project’s 2008 National Survey (of 527 U.S. colleges and universities) showed:
• 16.5 percent have an official presence on MySpace
• 16.7 percent have a public wiki
• 31.9 percent of universities have an official presence on Facebook
• 55.6 percent have a campus portal
• 93.8 percent agree or strongly agree, “Technology has improved instruction on my campus.”
Admittedly, embracing Web 2.0 can cause occasional academic and administrative challenges. For instance, online services like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter can potentially disrupt classrooms. And, according to the Campus Computing 2008 survey, 12.9 percent of campuses reported student security incidents linked to social networking sites, up almost 10 percent from 2006. Add the fact that 46.2 percent of universities experienced a hack/attack incident on the campus network, and it is no surprise that the Campus Computing survey found that 20.3 percent of institutions consider upgrading/enhancing network and data security to be the single most important IT issue confronting institutions over the next two to three years.
However, online tools and services can also provide more data, choices, information, and insight for campus faculty, administrators, and students alike. The web can be the catalyst for more convenient, personal, and timely interactions and communications among administrators, faculty, and students. And Web 2.0 applications can also offer a cost-effective and efficient alternative to overbooked schedules and over-utilized resources including professors, alumni, courses, events, and facilities.
For example, students can be challenged or find insurmountable many aspects of campus life, including:
• Understanding what courses are available based on chosen major(s)
• Seeking financial aid
• Paying bills
• Getting jobs on campus
• Registering for classes
• Meeting with professors or industry professionals aligned with the college or university
• Obtaining grades
• Completing coursework
• Finding out about relevant events
• Feeling part of the campus community.
Simultaneously, higher education institutions must respond to escalating costs; decreasing budgets; changing student requirements (for the first time in six years enrollment in computer science majors jumped up according to the Taulbee annual survey conducted by the Computing Research Association); and increased competition for qualified students. As noted above, technology is prevalent and has been for awhile within the educational environment with varying rates of adoption. However, less than 50 percent of institutions are employing Web 2.0 technologies, according to Campus Computing.
TimeTrade Systems has years of experience working with higher education institutions of varying sizes—such as Harvard, Columbia College of Chicago, North Carolina State University, Brigham Young University, and University of Arizona—to provide web-based scheduling for a broad range of student activities and services. There are many areas within the campus that can be impacted quickly with the application of innovative web-based technologies. Below are just a few examples. The common link among these examples is that they all enable some level of self-service to students, provide better access to guidance and open up the full range of resource possibilities.
