IT in higher education possibilities and prospects in an era of economic crisis

This chapter explores explore how information technology might help achieve this transformation to advance higher education, and its prospects for success.. Higher education institu-tion

Chapter 7

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9455-2.ch007

ABSTRACT

A 21st Century Classroom is a learning environment that incorporates current critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration skills into traditional core knowledge instruction Fostering this space will enable students to integrate core subjects and lead to a deeper understanding of global awareness and greater economic, civic, health and environmental literacy Skeptics have argued that transforming higher education, especially to attenuate its cost is something, which we know, but we cannot get it However, information technology is a way to achieve this required transformation This chapter explores explore how information technology might help achieve this transformation to advance higher education, and its prospects for success.

1 INTRODUCTION

Information Technology (IT) means the use of hardware, software, services, and supporting infrastructure

to manage and deliver information using voice, data, and video (North Dakota Information Technology Department, 2014) IT also included the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) IT is an essential ele-ment for endorseele-ment and assessele-ment of courses taught in higher degrees IT also provides support to teachers for communicating with various stakeholder and to students to adapt to new environments Both teachers and students view IT as a change agent for producing a large, positive impact on their camps lives IT provides numerous learning services for both faculty and students Higher education institu-tions (HEIs) must include exchange of knowledge as part of these learning services This exchange of knowledge occurs among faculty, students, and staff that are specialists in their relevant fields of knowl-edge As such, the HEIs as whole can benefit from this pool of specialized knowledge to improve their decision making In order better educate citizens so that they are able to live in an ever more complex

IT in Higher

Education-Possibilities and Prospects in

an Era of Economic Crisis

Amir Manzoor

Bahria University, Pakistan

world, IT resources should be commoditize so that they become mobile and easily accessible Technol-ogy is changing and fusing into higher education at a rapid pace The trend is leading us towards a world where IT will become so pervasive and every HEI will adopt IT to improve higher education Being highly flexible, IT provides us various options about how best to apply it While some choice may be straightforward, other require a careful reflection on the university values that will be expressed by the use of IT The purpose of this chapter is to explore how information technology might advance higher education, and its prospects for success

2 HIGHER EDUCATION

As of 2011, the latest figures available in 2014, the US has a total of 4,599 Title IV-eligible, degree-granting institutions: 2,870 4-year institutions and 1,729 2-year institutions (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012) The US had 21 million students in higher education, roughly 5.7% of the total popula-tion About 13 million of these students were enrolled full-time which was 81,000 students lower than

2010 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013) In 2009, 21.3% of the adult population above 18 years had attended college, but had no degree, 7.5% held an associate’s degree, 17.6% held a bachelor’s degree, and 10.3% held a graduate or professional degree The historical gender gap had practically vanished New England and Colorado had the highest proportion of college graduates, and the South Central states the lowest (Census Beureau, 2012) In 2011, 76.4% of people aged 25-54 in the EU-27 had at least an upper secondary education level, compared to 57.3% of those aged 55-74 Those who had high educational attainment amounted respectively 28.8% and 17.6% Just over one third (34.6%) of the population aged 30 to 34 in the EU-27 had a tertiary education in 2011 (Eurostat, 2013)

Before exploring IT and its potential roles in higher education, this chapter will take a look at some key demographic facts about higher education By 2012, there were around 13 million students study-ing in European universities In USA, the largest group of students was in 2-year colleges (Sedghi & Allen, 2012)

2.1 Students and Institutions

Across the globe, HEIs vary greatly with respect to number of students and type of institutions By 2014, research and doctoral universities in USA accounted for less than 10% of HEIs and enrolled more than 25% of total number of students Most small 4-year and master’s institutions in USA were private and comprised almost 20% of all the institutions (Jackson, 2012) However, these institutions only enrolled 5% of total number of students There were many specialized HEIs (such as business, health, medical, and engineering) but they enrolled a very small number of students While the student enrolment dis-tribution in HEIs didn’t follow the Pareto disdis-tribution (80-20 rule) but it was close 33% of all HEIs in

US enrolled 80% of the total number of students (National Science Foundation, 2014) There are now between three and seven students per computer on average in the EU; laptops, tablets and netbooks are becoming pervasive, but only in some countries Interactive whiteboards are present in schools (over

100 students per interactive whiteboard), as well as data projectors More than nine out of ten students are in schools with broadband, at most commonly between 2 and 30Mbps on average in the EU Most schools are connected at least at basic level (for example, a website, local area network, virtual learning environment) (European Schoolnet, 2013)

2.2 Finances

Private institutions in USA derived twice as much of their revenue from tuition as compared with public institutions However, private institutions derived a very small proportion of revenue from government support In contrast, public institutions were the biggest receivers of government support Private 4-year universities, and US colleges spent around $23,000 per student on instruction as compared with approxi-mately $13,000 per student spent by the public institutions (Jackson, 2012) Though, private institutions enrolled only about 48% of the number of students that public institutions enrolled Such variances in education industry are the driving force behind the structural challenges of future higher education

2.3 Costs and Productivity

Education costs and student debt are rising at an unsustainable rates (Surowiecki, 2011) These cost issues can be considered as an instance of Baumol’s cost disease (Baumol & Bowen, 1993) As Surowiecki, (2011) states “teachers today aren’t any more productive than they were in 1980 … colleges can’t pay

1980 salaries, and the only way they can pay 2011 salaries is by raising prices” (p.3) In a speech (US Department of Education, 2011), US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said “I want to ask you, and the entire higher education community, to look ahead and start thinking more creatively—and with much greater urgency—about how to contain the spiraling costs of college and reduce the burden of student debt on our nation’s students” (p 1) Similar point was made in a discussion among several US College and university leaders and President Obama (Whitehouse.gov, 2011)

It is clear that to address higher education costs and debt problems fundamental changes are needed

IT can play an important role in that change Despite its simplicity and appealing nature, the productivity observation made by Surowiecki (2011), is not complete as it doesn’t take into account the non-traditional education models

2.4 Expectations and Models

Society expectations for higher education continue to rise (Jackson, 2012) These rising expectations come in part from the continuing expansion of knowledge and in part from cognitive challenges The curriculum is only part of these expectations Higher education also expected to provide graduates with reasoning and critical-thinking skills These skills include the ability to make judgments about news, data, arguments, and analysis

One significant achievement of higher education is a vastly more diverse student population This student population has important and positive consequences for our society At the same time, this stu-dent population poses serious challenges because the diverse learning styles and requirements of this population makes this population difficult and expensive to educate

Despite prevalence of traditional campus-based higher education, there exist many non-traditional educational models that are better positioned to exploit technology and overcome Baumol cost disease These educational models include some well-established public institutions (such as Empire State College

in USA and Jawaharlal Nehru University in India), newer public institutions (such as California State University at Monterey Bay, USA and Chanakya National Law University, India), for-profit institutions

(such as the University of Phoenix), multi-state collaborations (such as Western Governors University, USA and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India), and many community colleges (Jackson, 2012) It can be said that these institutions were developed as a response to Baumol cost disease

2.5 Prospects of IT in Higher Education

There exist opportunities in higher education of streamlining administration, reducing duplication of work, and consolidating departments Capitalizing these opportunities, however, is not the cure for Baumol cost disease Higher education needs a fundamental change in its core activities, its organiza-tional structures, and the teaching/learning styles and strategies Making IT central to the teaching and learning process is one way to achieve this change We see many exemplary efforts in this area such as PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations), Apple II, Personal Computer (PC), and MIT’s Project Athena All these efforts aimed to transform higher education by helping higher edu-cation grow, evolve, and gain efficiency and flexibility Still more change is needed in higher eduedu-cation Modern technologies and initiatives (such as social media, virtual environments, and cloud computing) continue to impact higher education The important question here is the nature of these changes Are these changes evolutionary, or transformational? And if higher education needs a transformation, what

is the best path towards this transformation?

3 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Mostly, IT consists of a multilateral array of hardware and software, end- user devices, servers, and networks According to Educause (2014), approximately 5% of the overall expenditure of US-based universities and colleges was devoted to information technology Worldwide IT spending patterns differ with respect to control and institution size Increased institutional spending on compensation and staff training is an indication that HEIs are investing in their workforce The largest part of this spending was

on core organizational systems and services (such as data centers) followed by sending on teaching and learning technology (Educause, 2013)

Role of technology in HEI is evolving and the future role will depend on HEIs priorities of IT spend-ing IT spending focused on enhancing the traditional model would limit the transformational role of IT

IT spending focused on supplementing, changing, and even replacing the traditional model would help HEIs capitalize on transformational role of IT and avoid Baumol disease

3.1 Progress

To date IT has progressed rapidly but in uneven fashion and progress in one area driving others and vice versa For example the rapid growth of communication has resulted in heavy taxing of previously underused mobile networks In the past, excess capabilities of wired Internet resulted in emergence

of services such as YouTube The convergence, integration, and migration of technology are the most significant aspects of technology progress Today’s IT components (i.e servers, networks, and end-user devices) are interconnected and interdependent and increasingly indistinguishable

IT is everywhere in our daily lives End-user devices are small and light enough to be carried every-where Pervasive wireless networks are able to connect these devices all the time Clouds of servers host

an astounding diversity of services, resources, and information This progress in IT has made possible

a rapid and extensive social change to occur The connectivity has also become at least as important as location socially, economically, and politically

3.2 Knowledge Society

IT produces profound and irreversible effects on our ways of working in all areas of the professional, social, and personal life The Knowledge Society makes infinite and extremely varied resources of information, knowledge and learning provision available at any place and any time The possibilities allowing one to participate in social life taking place anywhere in the world are pervasive and engaging Our environment, habits and expectations are changing as a result of such ubiquitous and easy access to these exciting opportunities Higher education has also benefited from these opportunities

The present context poses radical challenges to the educational paradigm HEIs need to come up with new ways to engage students in their learning and prepare them for their future life and contribution to society It is expected of higher education to develop new competences in students with new ways of teaching HEIs need to design and provide active, personalized and collaborative learning environments that could engage students in effective, efficient and rich learning paths and provide them the knowledge and key competences needed by 21st century knowledge societies IT, integrated into these learning en-vironments, can provide great contribute to education systems’ success in facing this complex challenge

To make this happen there are some conditions that should be met First, students must have access to operational infrastructure in the classroom and make best use of it during lessons Second, teachers must have the right competences enabling them to use IT to support engaging teaching and in-depth learning Third, suitable and adaptable pedagogical environments that can be adopted mainstream while being adaptable to different contexts Fourth, good quality learning resources must be available and students’ assessment models must be updated and implemented (European Schoolnet, 2013)

3.3 Looking Ahead

Most scientific predictions about the evolution of technology over the next five years fail IBM (2013a) provided the following five predictions for 2014

• The Classroom Will Learn You: The classroom of the future will learn about each individual

student over the course of their education, helping them master the skills that match their goals The rapid digitization of educational institutions will allow unprecedented instrumentation of the learning process Cognitive computing, or learning technologies, will help us calculate every-thing we can about how each student learns and thrives, then create flexibility in the system to continually adapt and fine-tune what we deliver to that student and how this supports teachers and employers

• Buying Local Will Beat Online: The technology trends will move us back to brick and

mor-tar—but with a difference In the future, retailers will layer increasing levels of engagement and personalization on top of the shopping experience, ultimately merging the instant gratification of physical shopping with the richness of online shopping and making same-day delivery a snap

• Doctors Will Routinely Use Your DNA to Keep You Well: Today, full DNA testing to help

make treatment decisions is still rare But cognitive systems and cloud computing may make this form of treatment mainstream It could be done faster, more affordably and much more frequently

In addition to DNA testing for cancers, we may even see DNA-specific personalized treatment options for conditions such as stroke and heart disease

• A Digital Guardian Will Protect You Online: Security is evolving from being based on rules,

like passwords, to being automatic and made stronger through us just being us This guardian will have your back, trained to focus on the people and items it is entrusted with based on a 360 degree

of an individual’s data, devices and applications It will make inferences about what’s normal or reasonable activity and what’s not, ready to spot deviations that could be precursors to an attack and a stolen identity

• The City Will Help You Live in it: For citizens, smart phones enabled by cognitive systems will

provide a digital key to the city People can have fingertip access to information about everything that’s happening in the city, whether an experience is right for them, and how best to get there Because these learning systems have interacted with citizens continuously, they know what they like—and can present them with options they might not find easily

It appeared that almost 50% of the predictions came out to be true Here are IBM’s 2011 predictions for 2016 (IBM, 2013b)

• Energy: People power will come to life Imagine being able to use every motion around you—

your movements, the water rushing through the plumbing—to harness energy to power anything from your house to your city

• Security: You will never need a password again… The use of your retinal scan or your voice as a

passport to verification will replace multiple passwords for access

• Mind Reading: No longer science fiction… See a cube on your computer screen and think about

moving it to the left, and it will

• Mobile: The digital divide will cease to exist… In five years, the gap will be imperceptible as

growing communities use mobile technology to provide access to essential information

• Analytics: Junk mail will become priority mail Imagine technology that replaces the unwanted

messaging in your life with the next best thing to a personal assistant

These predictions portray a world where the focus of technology is no longer an institution but an individual There will be associated shift in the locus of control and responsibility as well Connectivity, content, and services will now come some providers which are external to one’s location i.e a cloud This is a significant shift from past practices of technology use

4 IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The progress, convergence, and integration of technology has brought a fundamental change in the faculty, students, and higher education institutions This change is something that they have or might be expected to acquire The change continues but progress may be uneven

4.1 Access to IT

4.1.1 Individuals’ Use of IT

A digital divide refers to a divide between those who have ready access to information technology and those who do not With technology becoming more important, an increasing divide would make those already disadvantaged left further behind in technology use In the words of Vargas (2007) from Wash-ington Post, “two Americas online: one that’s connected to high-speed Internet socializing, paying bills, uploading debate questions to presidential candidates on YouTube and one that’s not This is the digital divide”

An assumptions can still be made about individual (especially students) access to IT today According

to Pew Internet (2013) and Heimlich (2013), US Teenagers and most adults had mobile phone According

to National Telecommunications and Information Administration (2012), US households had some level

of broadband Internet access, and at least one Internet-ready computer According to Wormald (2014),

by 2014 every American had at least one authenticated online identity (such as e-mail account, social media account, online banking etc.) and knew how to search on the Internet using a search engine)such

as Google) Most people had a digital camera capable of both still photos and videos, and were aware

of the process of offloading and sharing their photos and videos (Madden, 2011)

4.1.2 Institutional Use of IT

The HEIs, especially in USA, were making good use of institutional information technology, such as student records or learning management systems Electronic interaction within campus communities was commonplace and effective, whether by e- mail, instant message, social media, chat rooms, or other media (Educause, 2009; Jackson, 2012) In general, classrooms were equipped with appropriate technol-ogy and most HEIs provided course and library/reference materials in electronic format Most HEIs had facilities to create video lectures and make them available online (Garfinkel, 2011) The institutional networks operated at bandwidths of at least 10Mbps and many provided wireless networks that oper-ated at 11 Mbps or grater bandwidth The primary costs of IT were the software licensing and technical staffing due to falling costs of computer hardware Cloud technology provided economy of scale and limited the constraints on technology initiatives taken by HEIs (Educause, 2013)

4.1.3 The Future

In future, we can safely assume everyone will have resources (such as devices and accounts) needed to enjoy mobile connectivity that enable them to communicate with anybody Home computers and network-ing is expected to improve at a level where streamnetwork-ing video and simple two-way video interactions will become common A majority or people will become familiar with synchronous social media or messag-ing environments and use them to communicate with other users or groups of users New authentication and monitoring technologies would emerge that help HEIs protect student assessment (including testing and grading) from fraud Server clouds would replace local production servers and data centers There would be increased collaboration among HEIs on key IT applications (such as learning management systems and library management systems) (Jackson, 2012)

4.2 Roles of IT Higher Education

Higher education has one fundamental educational purpose i.e to advance society, institutions, and economy To fulfill this purpose, higher education aims to provide students with social, political, and economic skills and knowledge HEIs can augment students’ human capital in few ways First by enrolment i.e providing students with more choices to seek education beyond high school, second, by instruction i.e unidirectional transmission of knowledge through lectures and readings amplified through classroom, tutorial, and extracurricular guidance, third, by certification, i.e the measurement and documentation of knowledge and skill through some form of assessment, and fourth, by socialization i.e educating students

to become an effective member of society With limited resources and higher efficiency expectations, HEIs face a tough challenge to fulfill their purpose The important question here is how IT can help higher education pursue its goals of enrollment, instruction, certification, and socialization of students

IT can bring evolutionary change or replace existing historically established mechanisms and processes

of higher education In order enable evolutionary change in longstanding mechanisms and processes of higher education, IT can provide four overlapping educational functions It can streamline administra-tion, amplify and extend traditional pedagogies, mechanisms, and resources, make educational events and materials available outside the original context, and enable experience-based learning In order transform or replace the mechanisms and processes of higher education, IT can renew and redefine the social environment and replace the didactic classroom experience (Jackson, 2012)

If used as organizational technology, IT can promote progress in higher education by making adminis-trative processes to become more efficient It can also provide diverse, flexible pathways for communica-tion and collaboracommunica-tion within and across different entities As a learning technology, IT can become an integral part of teaching and learning processes of higher education HEIs already has infrastructure in place to reach, teach, and assess students and to streamline administration This infrastructure includes hardware, software, as well as key organizational processes (such as identity management) These key organizational processes are key to IT success in higher education The important question here is which applications of IT infrastructure can probably provide most help to evolve higher education

4.3 Streamline Administration

Besides administration of human resources and scheduling, administration of HEIs also provides aca-demic resources to faculty and students, performs student experience data collection, description, and indexing IT reduces redundancy, eliminates bottlenecks, and maximizes access

The manual and decentralized systems of student registration and record keeping have paved the way for highly integrated online systems These system enable administration to do more work with fewer staff and hence increase workforce productivity Decentralized and inconsistent distribution and access mechanisms for instructional and research materials (such as course packs and library books) have paved the way for sophisticated library and learning management systems The fundamental impact

of this integration of IT into higher education is reduced transaction costs However, in many cases the increase in volume of transactions stored and processed has greatly offset this reduction in transaction costs Individual HEIs have benefited from economies of scale to significantly control costs With some cost savings coming from collaboration initiatives such as uPortal and Sakai uPortal is a Java-based framework for creating enterprise web portals while Sakai is a community of academic institutions,

commercial organizations and individuals who work together to develop a common Collaboration and Learning Environment Many HEIs are using highly efficient cloud computing services in order adapt their institutional processes to external standards

Purdue University started “Course Signals” initiative that used analytic and data-mining tools to ana-lyze data on student progress and learn (Purdue University, 2013) This initiative clearly demonstrated technology’s role in making academic administration more effective However, low usage of learning management systems (LMS) by institutions was indication of future problems of technology integration

in learning In a bid to support students who used LMS less frequently, Purdue University used LMS login data to locate these students and then provided various academic support services to come up with early interventions The data mining capabilities provided by IT and modern data collection helped Purdue focus its support resources in a much focused and efficient manner Analytics and big data use can greatly improve administration but requires complex policy challenges involving privacy Moreover, many institutions lack the analytic capability and expertise to exploit data they collect already

Hong Kong University (HKU) developed a home-grown IT system for general university administra-tion and management This highly funcadministra-tional and user-friendly system was decentralized and modular

in data management The two significant sub-systems were the student information system (SIS) and the human resource information system (HR IS) These two systems interacted and linked with all other areas of administration and management The SIS managed student data, providing capabilities for enter-ing student records, assessment scores, and managenter-ing many other student-related data needs includenter-ing student admissions The HRIS supported the processes, practices and needs of human resource functions, such as staff selection, recruitment and appointment, performance management, staff development, and career progression and development (UNESCO, 2011)

4.4 Amplification and Extension of Traditional

Pedagogies, Mechanisms, and Resources

Traditional roles and transactions in higher education can potentially be expedited and extended through

IT (e.g by storing and distributing materials electronically and providing a medium for collective in-teractions among faculty and students) Search engines and online learning resources can significantly enhance faculty and student access

These profound effects of IT fall short of transformational Blackboard, Sakai, or Moodle LMSs lectures can be viewed from anywhere but the enterprise remains recognizable IT has the potential to enable true online learning where students can learn without ever entering a university campus In USA, approximately 4% of student population completed their courses through online education and approxi-mately 21% students took at least one course through online education (Gjackson, 2012)

A future can be imagined where students would be able to readily transfer credits, earned at other institutions, to any other institution to fulfill degree requirements In this regard, many pioneering in-stitutions (such as US-based Empire State College and Western Governors University) are providing competency-based degrees that provide self-paced learning and credits can be earned for life experience

In the long run, a future can be imagined where students would be admitted, taught, examined, and granted degrees without having any institutional faculty or course offerings This, in turn, spawn entirely online purely instructional institutions These institutions would find novel ways to use technology for more effective and efficient working

According to Allen and Seaman (2011), these trends imply we need to reevaluate the role and effective-ness of online distance learning This rethinking could meet strong resistance As traditional stand-alone institutions become networked institutions, the university campuses can be imagined to become truly global However extending traditional pedagogy beyond traditional boundaries would meet linguistic, cultural, and stylistic challenged Electronic materials can be made available in diverse arrangements and formats to be accessed by a large population of students having diverse learning styles However, this diversity would come at a cost of reduced teaching effort

The Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) is a part of the Symbiosis group and is a pri-vate distance education provider offering mainly postgraduate programs in various disciplines including management, information technology, education, humanities and law It is located in a large campus

in Pune, Western India It has state of the art infrastructure with world-class facilities such as video conferencing, an e-communication Centre, well equipped laboratories and classrooms, library, audio-visual halls and conference halls All SCDL centers are connected through a virtual private network All activities and operations are carried out mainly in a centralized fashion using innovative ICT solutions SCDL has not only created a large network of study Centers, but it is a pioneer in developing many ICT solutions and facilities to improve the quality, accessibility, delivery and reach of education to thousands

of distant learners SCDL offers blended learning programs combining self-learning material (SLM), e-learning, online learning and faculty-based learning The use of innovative technology solutions has helped SCDL to achieve academic and operational excellence Today, SCDL serves more than 200,000 students from all parts of India and over 40 different countries pursuing various programs through dis-tance learning SCDL has some 150 employees and also uses the expertise of over 400 visiting faculty members (UNESCO, 2011)

Electronic distribution of materials need hardware/software, technical specifications, and protocols These software applications are still evolving and the risk of transience will grow as the pedagogical materials emerge in born-digital form These risks are not simply associated with data inaccessibility With increasing personalization opportunities of educational experience offered by IT, every student’s experience will become different The fundamental problem here would be the recording and measure-ment of that experience

Universities and other institutions of higher learning, particularly in USA, are using social media (such

as Twitter) to enhance the way students communicate with both their tutors and fellow students outside

of the classroom is a key challenge One such example is University of Texas at Dallas (Bart, 2011) Students can follow (and be followed by) the faculty who would post additional links and be available for online discussion Students could tweet with questions, etc All tweets were also embedded in the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE) by way of Twitter Widget HTML embed code Twitter

is a useful tool as it is available on the web as well as through dedicated apps for smartphones and tablet devices Using Twitter, interaction with the tutor increases around formative and summative assessment opportunities, and many other tweets can be informal in nature One of the key benefits is that students can see their teacher was ‘normal’ by way of his tweets, which in turn can make him more approach-able Students can communicated with other students via Twitter, and non-twitter users can still access links posted by the tutor via the embedded widget Universities in UK are following similar practices

To ensure student engagement, UK universities are using online assessment This assessment is some level of formal assessment This is typically worth a small percentage of the overall module mark or contributes to a threshold value that has to be attained in the continuous assessment to pass the course For the latter there is no direct contribution to the overall module mark and the module is marked purely