Already, more than 50 percent of respondents utilize web services for key organizational functions, including:
• Providing information to prospective students
• Delivering news
• Accepting applications
• Providing content
• Supporting access from mobile devices
Respondents identified breadth of services and security as the most important aspects of their websites. Seventy-nine percent considered security risks to be somewhat or very high. However, reliability is not a concern for higher education institutions – 73 percent indicated they were happy with their institution’s ability to handle web traffic, even at peak times.
More than 80 percent of respondents indicated using cloud services, mostly for digital content and learning management systems. Seventy-five percent of those currently not using cloud are looking to do so, mostly for storage.
Ninety-percent of respondents identified online or blended learning to be somewhat or very important and 95 percent plan to increase their online learning tools in the near future.
“Competition is increasing for higher education institutions today as they struggle to keep and, ultimately, graduate quality students,” said Tom Ruff, vice president of public sector for Akamai. “But digital learning applications offer a great opportunity to increase and improve services, particularly in the cloud.”
The survey, sponsored by Akamai and conducted by the Center for Digital Education, included responses from 139 higher education officials gathered electronically in January and February 2015.
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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