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Since 2002, the New Media Consortium has partnered with experts in the field of educational technology, including the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), to conduct a Delphi study and generate its annual Horizon Report on emerging trends in educational technology. The report, widely considered a respectable analysis of issues and a guide to addressing those issues, is disseminated with a Creative Commons open license for public distribution and consumption. Key themes in the NMC Horizon Report include: Infrastructure, leadership, organizational strategies, teaching and learning, curricular content, and assessment (pg. 4). The framework of the report includes sections on policy, leadership and practice (pg. 6). The report includes references for further reading on every issue presented. The references are evidence of the research conducted by the panelists involved in developing the annual report. Trends are also described as short term, mid term or long term trends, helping the reader estimate the impact of the trends on existing campus IT issues and initiatives. Some of the trends in the 2014 report support trends identified by EDUCAUSE and Gartner, while others are unique. Social media is an issue in the NMC report, but not the others, while assessment strategies using student data and technology are common among all three. The Horizon Report is unique in its daring presentation of topics that challenge conventional thought about higher education. The report predicts a significant threat to higher ed coming from online learning and emerging models of formal education. The report also highlights the power and impact of data - from learning analytics to predictive instructional models - that seem to transfer authority from professors to technology and technologists. There is a lot to consume in the Horizon Report. Analysis can be augmented with blogs and conference proceedings which review the report in part or in whole. Reading the report and supporting re

Published in a technology review journal through Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a marriage of technology and higher education is present. The intended audience is those interested in technology, as well as the world of higher education.  Although the article is titled The Crisis in Higher Education, a real sense of crisis is only found in the last few paragraphs.  Carr spends the majority of the article describing recent advances that have been made in technology influencing higher education. Two separate innovations and advances will soon combine in the future to bring online and technology-assisted education to a new level: massive open online courses (MOOCs) and software programs that collect data and analyze student learning behaviors in order to offer individualized teaching and tutoring.  While MOOCs, offered through organizations such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX, are testing the best way to present information to large groups of students located all over the world, they are also collecting learning behavior data at the same time. Software programmers are using their own data, combined with the data from MOOCs, to help develop more intuitive programs to aid in online learning. Critics argue that online classrooms cannot compare with conversations in on-ground classes or the relationship between a faculty member and a student on campus. The future of higher education is unknown, but Carr believes technology is leading the way. One of the main concerns regarding the adoption of new technology is campuses will rush into using it without researching the best options and ways to implement.  

Historical perspective of the higher ed CIO. Examines the role of the CIO approximately 10 years after the job gained a foothold. Important for context on the topic of the role of the higher ed CIO. Information includes survey data about the responsibilities and job duties of the developing role. Value lies in the literature dating back earlier than the date of this publication for more information and a deeper historical perspective. Of note, even then CIOs were concerned about their place within the organization and their professional growth as well as being able to manage campus IT in the future with considerations for rapid growth and adoption by all campus users and commercialization of computing resources. These concerns are present today, in current literature suggesting that ongoing research and inquiry is necessary to ensure the health of the profession. Additionally, the struggle to maintain adequate footing in both the administrative and the academic side of the college was present then as it is today, suggesting that the CIO is truly unique in comparison to other "C" level positions.

This video archive presents a point/counterpoint debate of the challenges and opportunities afforded a campus CIO. Issues discussed include: the cost of and shrinking budgets for campus IT; service and support for students and faculty users; managing emerging technology, such as Second Life virtual worlds; and professional development for CIOs. Both panelists agree that a CIO needs to be both a strategist and a plumber, but this agreement is not reached until the conclusion. Value in this resource are the issues presented and frank and sometimes humorous discourse between the two CIOs. The debate occurred when campuses were battling increased use of technologies by all stakeholders and decreased budgets due to the global economic crisis. The viewpoints reflect that challenging time and serves as a basis for evaluation of CIO ability to manage effectively in a crisis when technology use cannot be curbed by budget cuts.

Prezi for presentations

Joshua Kim, the Director of Learning and Technology for the Master of Health Care Delivery Science program at Dartmouth College, often writes for Inside Higher Ed. In this article, Kim shares ten questions posed to him by Rachel Hanel, a student and employee at Kaplan University. Hanel presented ten questions to Kim based on his experience with learning management systems (LMS).  Kim believes higher education institutions should based their LMS selection off of the quality of the product, the quality of the company, and the size of the user community, not just price. Kim also points out the direct and indirect costs associated with each LMS must be evaluated before making a decision. Students are looking for an LMS utilized by faculty members, while faculty members have a wide range of requests from an LMS, making the selection of a LMS for a college or university difficult. A few products and services to watch break into the LMS market over the next few years are Instructure Canvas, OpenClass, and Coursekit, in addition to Moodle and Blackboard, whom already hold most of the market share. According to Kim, institutions should put education first when reviewing LMSs. College and university personnel, specifically those looking to switch or add a LMS, are the intended audience. 

The article focuses on the 2012 ECAR Undergraduate Technology Survey results and its implications on higher education. Steven Kolowich, a technology reporter for Insider Higher Education, discusses the results throughout the article, explaining the significant jump in student demand for technology within coursework. ECAR is the research arm of Educaause, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the use of technology in higher education.  The 2012 survey results indicate a spike in student technological demands within the world of higher education. 47% of students in 2010 believed their professors were effectively using technology, which jumped to 68% in 2012. Students are enjoying the use and presentation of technology in the classroom more than ever before.  Of the 10,000 students to participate in the survey, 49% want to see professors use the learning management system more, 57% want to use more open educational resources, 46% want more videos used in coursework, and 55% want more game-based learning. A surprising 70% of the students claim to have used one or more ebooks during their college career. While students want to use more technology within their courses, the students also indicated they desire more training on each technological service or program. Brief instruction at the beginning of a course is not enough.

Brad Jennings, a Louisburg College employee, and education technology enthusiast, created a video on how to use the Open Learning Initiative. The video is targeted towards higher education instructors and educating faculty members in incorporating the Open Learning Initiative in their courses. The Open Learning Initiative assists students in learning course material through an online site, collecting data on student learning styles, and adapting how information is presented for each student. The courses are self-paced and allow students to master material at their own speed. Jennings navigates the Open Learning Initiative website, explaining the three log-in options: instructors, independent learners, and academic students. An instructor can create an account, and then log-in to create online courses for free. There may be small maintenance fees associated with a few select classes, but the Open Learning Initiative team offers to waive the cost if it prevents a student from enrolling. The additional costs are typically $10 to $15. The instructor would download the Course Builder application, build their course, and house it on the Open Learning Initiative cloud for free. Once the course has been created, students can log on to the Open Learning Initiative site and enter the course key to view the material. 

The author of this article is the Assistant Dean of Academic Administration at the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. This article focuses on the benefits of lecture capture for in-class and online students. The author states that this tool changes classroom sessions for those in traditional classes and replaces classroom lectures for online courses. Increasing the interactivity in lecture captures can improve student engagement and learning outcomes as the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education is similar to good practice in lecture capture. This system captures video of the instructor, two whiteboards, and any information displayed on the instructor's computer, including PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and other software. The author mentions in a study of 29,078 in-class students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which used lecture capture to augment their classroom experience, 82 percent of the students would prefer a course in which lecture content is recorded, and 60 percent were willing to pay extra to have this technology available to them. Students cited the benefits of: making up for a missed class, watching lectures on demand, improving retention of class materials, improving test scores, and reviewing material as a complement to in-class interactions. To improve actual learning outcomes, the author suggests that instruction using lecture capture should include interactive discussions and activities and that successful course lecture capture requires a well-planned strategy. She encourages administrators to: provide a lecture capture system, define policies for use, and train faculty and students. The author cautions that faculty are educators and need to concentrate on the content and presentation, warning that they should not be expected to become technical experts. The article concludes that data which demonstrates significant increases in student learning will be a motivating fact

This video provides a brief overview of the report, with clips that illustrate the topics presented in the 2014 report. The introduction explains how the report is organized which makes this video useful for people who are not accustomed to reading the report. It also highlights the changes to this year's report, which is useful for long time readers of the report.

This article explores the gap between expectations of faculty and students by focusing on defining the online "student". The author looks at practitioner interviews to identify "ways of talking" about students and Annemarie Mol's (2002; 1999) concept of enactment to understand who students are and how they behave in the interactive spaces of online learning. The author's argument is that understanding the category of "student" in multiple ways offers faculty a way to approach the "potentially disorienting spaces" (Bayne and Ross, 2007) of online teaching practices. Online learning presents a different environment of interaction and engagement for teaching and this article states that in order to be effective, teaching online students requires new strategies for engagement. Some of the strategies outline developing a community of learners, treating students as customers, and considering students in the context of their digital generation. This article is helpful for those who are teaching an online course or considering how to design an online offering. The author is a curriculum and academic developer for LaTrobe University in Australia.

This article explains the need for e-portfolios, how they can be used as a tool, and several examples from colleges who have successfully implemented them with students. The author makes connections to the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) survey, suggesting that e-portfolios may be associated with high-impact practices to improve engagement and retention. This new way of documenting evidence of learning and learning outcomes considers students as able to exercise their voice in presenting and representing their learning, with a focus on reflective learning. The author argues that since pedagogy and curriculums are changing, the way we assess students should also change to reflect this shift. This article would be most helpful for faculty and faculty development centers looking for concrete ways to implement and maximize the use of e-portfolios. The author is Vice President for Quality and Assessment at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC & U) and writes from an assessment perspective.

In this article by Dan Carnevale, Michael Zastrocky, vice president for academic strategies at Garner Inc, talks about the impact of intellectual-property laws on digital archives, and the use of technological devices such as the iPhone for learning purposes in colleges. Even though proponents of digital libraries are wary of intellectual property laws and the propensity to present road blocks to building digital libraries, Zastrocky thinks the issue is complicated and still has a long way to go before it will be resolved. His stance on the use of devices like the iPhone for learning is also not optimistic. The challenge for IT leaders is in building frameworks that support personal tools that are constantly changed or up-graded. Zastrocky, whose company does technology research and information analysis, reveals that many educators are not enthusiastic about the drive to incorporate technologies into college course work. He states however, that learning whether in the virtual or traditional classroom, hinges on the instructor. This article was written in 2007, and was probably for the benefit of technology leaders in higher education wishing to gauge the educational communities response to technological trends.

Satish Patel, ICT coach at Umea University, describes the processes involved in designing net-based courses. Through this video, he provides a comprehensive break down of steps to take from rationale, to delivery. Patel is of the opinion that just as poorly written essays are the result of poor structural foundation or lack of understanding of teacher expectations, so are poorly taught courses the fall out of course design expertise. Course design should begin with the consideration of time and space requirements, along with learning goals. Course work can be delivered in numerous constructs of time and space, but planning should take into account the syllabus and any challenges associated therein. He recommends that teachers ask themselves what the rationales are for selecting certain tools such as wikki, blogs, etc., to determine if there may be roadblocks such as prior student preparation, and time. The next step is alighting on an ICT blend. Tools should be matched with tasks and intentions. Based on John Brigg's model of constructive alignment, Patel states that the challenge lies in figuring out how to get students to learn what teachers want them to learn. In other words matching intentions with activities, deciphering how learning objectives will be examined and related to students. Patel's preferred format for course design is a table that outlines objectives, assessment measures, practice opportunities, and presentation tools. He recommends incorporating verbs from Bloom's taxonomy into the table. The final step is conferring with an ICT specialist to recommend appropriate tools.

This article written by Jennifer Natsu, is focused on the way learning trends have shifted to accommodate the learning styles and preferences of the present generation of students. Twenty-first century students live a connected world where they constantly communicate and share experiences through applications such as Facebook, twitter etc. Many colleges have noticeably adapted their pedagogic methods to accommodate these trends by using similar technologies to engage students. Duke University for instance, uses a "virtual hall" to engage in conversations with students in other parts of the world as well as CEOs. Harvard physics students adopt a discussion model, facilitated by small groups. This in essence, is the face the new age of education where passive learning is being replaced by more dynamic models of teaching and learning. Jennifer Natsu is a frequent contributor to e-campus news, reporting on developments in higher education.