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A comprehensive report on information technology governance in higher education, this report begins with the history of higher ed IT, review then current trends and issues, and carries forward to recommendations for leadership, including boards of trustees, for managing IT going forward in the 21st century. While slightly dated (>10 years), it is a complete work that covers topics relating to IT governance and emerging technology. The publication date (2003) is a milestone for issues in higher education: before the global financial crisis which significantly impacted campus funding from 2008-2012; before Nokia introduced mass market smartphones in 2006, and before the release of the Apple iPad in 2010, which was a pivotal point in educational technology adoption. The perspective of the authors in this report are significant because of the time period from which they speak to us now, a decade later. That decade has been rich with innovation and change; this report makes an interesting point of reference. Were the authors on the right track? did their ideas come to fruition? What, in their report, can we still use and apply today in IT governance?

This case study details the definition of an IT problem (too many projects backlogged) and the realization of a larger systemic problem (adopted technology not meeting needs of users) which led to a deep analysis of campus systems, stakeholders, and IT governance. The case is an example of a user community hungry for technology and hopeful that technology will solve their problems and an IT organization willing to support more technology use. The solution was IT governance, a process to more carefully evaluate user needs and proposed solutions and balance that with existing infrastructure and long term strategic planning. Value here is in the title: not often does higher education admit to failure and this is part of my thesis - that failure must be part of the culture in order to manage emerging technology effectively. CIOs and other campus leaders must be willing to acknowledge that something isn't working, admit failure or defeat, and move on. This must be done quickly - in an agile environment. The value here is that this case study illustrates my theory.

Both an examination of the history of higher education and a review of popular instructional methods from the days of Aristotle through to day, this paper introduces a meek "call to action" by the authors. They charge that change is needed and they outline the reasons why in a thoughtful and gentle way, an approach that is very different from Clay Christensen, and encourage exploration of emerging technologies to manage that change. Their approach is less threatening than others (like Christensen) and rather than claim that technology is the driver of change, they simply detail the history of education and conclude that it is simply time to change because of who we are in our modern global society. The authors include models on new governance in higher ed that embrace technology to improve teaching and learning and they outline issues about which they feel institutions should be most concerned. Although gentle throughout, compared to Christensen, they drive home the same point: if institutions don't begin changing to meet the needs of today's learners, today's workplace and today's uber-connectedness they will fail to meet their missions.

From the non-academic side of the issues, this article outlines emerging technology trends in business. The article solidifies arguments for technology awareness, adoption, implementation and support in higher education because it supports the theory that technology adoption in education is not the same as educational technology adoption. IT governance is about the technology that higher professionals need to do their jobs - to run the business of higher ed. General project management principles apply, as well as general awareness of consumer technology trends because, after all, higher ed professionals are consumers and the university is a consumer and a B2B partner with vendors and services for mobile tech, cloud technology, hardware and software, and more.

MIT - center for information systems research research. Some interesting topics on governance of IT in systems. Some good policy application.

Malcolm Read talks about the benefits of collaboration not just on higher education community, but on information and communications technology (ICT) community as well. He also highlights the role of the virtual environment in enhancing collaborative research, and the impact of cloud technology on research, teaching and learning, and higher education management. ICT infrastructure has benefitted from the growth of collaboration research, facilitated by the World Wide Web. The usage of the virtual environment for virtual research has not been without its challenges, one being that the technology tools and applications usually require specialist support, and has high overhead costs, which are usually borne by the researchers themselves. Read argues that it is time for a new profession of research technologists to emerge with the skills to support collaborative research, identify generic approaches within the field of research, provide the required training, and provide maintenance of related infrastructures. Another alternative would be to heighten the professionalization of personnel who service the e-learning environment. On cloud computing, Read believes that the wealth of information available through the cloud is a valuable resource to administrative computing in the sense that it offers a cheaper data storage option. Of course one of the most obvious benefits of the cloud, is that it offers access to web 2.0 operations such as blogs, wikki and of course emails. The way each institution uses cloud technology however, will differ according to their individual needs, a point that should be taken into consideration if an organization should opt to design processes in collaboration with other institutions. Read sees virtualization as a solution to the problem because it can be used on any single computer, to run different applications, making it shareable between institutions. One concern here however is that of data security and duration of service. The crux of th

The New York Times dubbed 2012 "the year of the MOOC" and throughout 2013 universities and colleges of every size and shape scrambled to make sense of the phenomena of massive open online courses (MOOC). Some institutions gambled big on MOOCs, thinking that the massive online format would ease crowded classrooms and cut down the cost of paying faculty (adjunct and otherwise) to teach hundreds of students the same required content. San Jose State was one such institution, taking the risk of placing freshmen into a MOOC for a basic math course, a project which had disastrous results. In this article, Georgia Tech explains how they intend to continue applying MOOCs to solve campus problems, citing the San Jose State case as an example of what not to do. GA Tech announced in 2013 that they were going to offer a master's degree via MOOC, one of the first credit bearing MOOC-to-degree programs in the country. While MOOC interest has waned since the start of 2014, GA tech continues their work, with a waiting list of applicants ready to jump into the next MOOC-to-degree cohort. This articles serves as an example of managing emerging technology and GA Tech leadership is a group of individuals to monitor as the next few years roll out. Does the program continue? Do graduates succeed? Can the school sustain the program? Does the school launch addition programs following that model? Do other schools make a similar attempt? Any research that comes of the GA Tech endeavor will be interesting.

Using Diana Oblinger's framework outlined in her book "Game Changers", university IT staff outlined their 4 year strategic plan. CIO Theresa Rowe welcome comments at rowe@oakland.edu