Colleges and universities need to stop ceding their independence in the name of tech and innovation—here’s how to do it.
Outsourcing and technology adoption are booming in higher education, as student demographics change and learning models evolve. There’s an inherent challenge: as the complexity of delivering personalized, student-centered education increases, institutions run the risk of ceding their independence to outside entities in the name of innovation.
Facing pressure from policymakers and accreditors to show movement on outcomes and a tangible return on academic investments, colleges and universities have an imperative to test and scale new approaches to improve outcomes, casting a hopeful eye to solution providers and experts.
As technology becomes a more entrenched component of efforts to improve student outcomes, relationships have grown testy. Institutions feel beholden to consultants, software vendors and services firms instead of the most important stakeholders: students.
The risks and tensions involved in outsourcing are well known to higher education, and institutions would do well to remember that tech is ultimately the vehicle for supporting students, not the master. But many in higher education see a third path between “buy” and “build”. The future of private sector-higher education collaboration will be most beneficial to businesses that can help us build—and then go away.
The Innovation Opportunities That Can Support Insourcing
Online Learning: Online education is often stereotyped as a field dominated by private businesses that run online programs on behalf of institutions on a revenue share basis. In truth, the migration of learning experiences to online and blended courses is a powerful example of how the higher education sector is adapting in the market and fueling innovation from within its own ranks.
When access to web development and digital marketing services were scarce commodities, institutions relied on multi-year revenue-share agreements required by online program management (OPM) firms as a necessary part of launching online programs. This model placed aspiring online providers at a disadvantage by diverting resources from the institution to outside developers.
Today, colleges and universities looking to move their programs online are getting closer to launching their online initiatives internally, even if they aren’t prepared to fully go it alone. As technology and design services have become increasingly commoditized and available at much lower prices, institutions are able to develop and launch online initiatives with growing independence.
Online education leaders are instead focusing on co-developing skills and technology in ways that generate equity and intellectual property for the institution. Over time, institutions are slowly, but surely, starting to unshackle themselves from entangled relationships with outside entities.
(Next page: 2 other innovation opps ripe for insourcing)
EdTech Development: Strangely enough, a false narrative exists that says technology + innovation is a purchased good that comes from outside the campus walls, but higher education is itself responsible for incredible advances in consumer technology, life sciences and countless other inventions that would have been impossibilities without faculty and institutional research.
Despite their research and human capital prowess, universities haven’t historically focused on using their research capabilities to improve their own capacity. The cobbler often has no shoes, but that may be starting to change.
Some leaders are doubling down on this tradition of investing in institutional research and applied technology and inviting financiers to join them with a seat the table. We’re beginning to see institutions become incubators. For example, Penn State University recently launched the EdTech Network, a partnership between members of the university community and leaders, inventors, and entrepreneurs in education technology. Rather than pitting the administrators and entrepreneurs against each other, this model invites them to work together, drawing on academic and private sector resources alike to improve student outcomes and benefit the institution. Penn State is offering office, manufacturing, and research space for partners to co-locate on campus. Students and faculty are piloting new technology the Network has already engaged a number of leading companies, investors and others since it launched in August 2015.
Student Support: The college student population and—the obstacles to success they face—are increasingly diverse. At Excelsior College, most of our 38,000 students are working adults enrolled in online and competency-based programs, nearly half are active duty military or veterans, and roughly an equal number self-identify as minority.
At the same time, the technology available to support contemporary learners is evolving rapidly. Keeping up with these changes is a Sisyphean task for institutions—always seemingly out of reach.
Rather than tapping outside partners to provide complementary services, a growing number of colleges and universities are building out their internal capacity to provide high-quality student support. InsideTrack, for example, provides training, technology and analytics infrastructure so that institutions can eventually operate their own sustainable coaching programs independently. With their support, Excelsior opened a student success center in January 2016, and InsideTrack’s footprint will steadily reduce to a minimal, support-only role.
These new financial models show how universities can drive an ambitious technology agenda without relying on outsourced services. Ironically, we tend to view the private sector as the source of innovation for higher education and not the other way around; but today, a growing number of institutions are insourcing innovation from outside organizations, to accelerate progress, reduce risk, and remain independent.
Of course, there are limitations to what higher education can accomplish without outside help, but embracing discovery, invention and creativity lies at the core of what higher education is supposed to do. As technology enters a more mature phase of adoption in higher ed, institutions are finding ways to leverage private sector innovation and expand their internal capabilities—the best of both worlds.
Glenn Braddock is the Executive Director of the Student Success Center at Excelsior College and Dave Jarrat is a Vice President at InsideTrack.
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