Today, Inside Higher Ed has a great well-researched and well-written piece about a trend that will change the face of IT departments on most campuses in a few years: “When emailed is outsourced.” (Don’t forget to share it with your IT folks!)
In his article, Andy Guess, Mr. Technology at IHE, gives a very good overview of this trend and hints what’s to come with the help of Adrian Sannier, CTO at ASU:
Once colleges get used to the idea of allowing an outside technology firm to handle their e-mail services, there’s no telling what else they’ll be receptive to. Already, “software as a service†has been catching on in the business world and in higher education, as institutions realize that they can more easily (and more cheaply) manage basic functions by using Web-based software that’s hosted externally.
[…]
“I believe that this move by universities toward outsourcing, if you will, their e-mail, that represents the beginning of a sea change, a change in university information technology from … direct provision of services to becoming agents of value-added applications, emerging technologies to the core business of the universities, which they haven’t really been in for a long time,†said Adrian Sannier, the university technology officer at Arizona State University.
Later in the piece, Sannier gives an example of future possible developments in higher ed applications:
One example Sannier cites as a possible future capability is the application of Amazon.com-like profiles to university Web sites. Using students’ stored preferences and previous coursework, for example, a custom-made engine might suggest classes to take and allow users to share their recommendations with others. That idea represents a way to potentially streamline the hassles of the course registration ritual, he suggested.
Interesting.
What about using some of this data to build a delicious-like web based catalog/search of courses, where students could tag and evaluate the courses they take and share this information with their peers? You know, some kind of social course cataloging.
What do you think?
I may be biased, as I work higher-ed IT, but a “few years” sounds very ‘pie in the sky.’ With hosted software you typically give up some amount of control. Be it configuration or customization, those are things that are hard for “us” to give up, especially when it comes to non-commodity services. E-mail is now a commodity service with most students already using one of the big two that provide hosted e-mail (Google, Microsoft).
Until your LMS becomes a commodity, and really, a LMS is right at the core of what we do (educate), you aren’t going to want to outsource it. Are you going to outsource your professors? If yes, why are you even an institution?
Think of all the non-commodity services on your campus that makes you who you are. Those are the things that will never work in an out-sourced environment, or at least the kind that exist today (and for the next 5-10 years probably). That’s why you are there. That’s what your institution should focus resources on.
This is another example of how “Higher Ed Web Development Will Get Flattened”. I predict this will happen sooner than most people think.
For anyone interested, see http://markagreenfield.com/category/highedwebflat/ for more information on this topic.
Point taken re: a few years, Patrick.
Mark, thanks for sharing the link. The article definitely reminded me of your presentation at HighEdWebDev in October.