Campus Technology Insider Podcast November 2021
Listen: Digital Transformation in Higher Ed: What It Means and Where to Start
00:13
Rhea Kelly: Hello and welcome to the Campus Technology Insider podcast! I'm Rhea Kelly, editor in chief of Campus Technology, and your host.
The digital transformation of higher ed has been going on for years, but the current pandemic has brought that process into laser focus — and accelerated digital efforts perhaps like nothing else could. Institutions are going through deep shifts in culture, workforce and technology, enabling new educational models, transforming operations, and even changing the whole value proposition of a higher education. Yet at the same time, digital transformation is so expansive it can be difficult to define, and even harder to manage. For this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Betsy Reinitz, director of enterprise and IT programs at EDUCAUSE, about what digital transformation means, how to start a Dx journey, the biggest obstacles to Dx and more. And by the way, in the course of our conversation Betsy mentions several useful online resources to help institutions engage with Dx — I've included links to those in the episode description. Here's our chat.
Hi, Betsy, welcome to the podcast.
01:29
Betsy Reinitz: Hi Rhea, thanks for having me.
01:31
Kelly: So I'm really excited to talk all things digital transformation. You know, digital transformation is one of those things that I think everyone kind of understands what it means; they understand that it's important; it's a big part of the EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT issues for the coming year. But then if you ask me to articulate a definition, I find it really hard to nail down. So how do you answer the question, What is Dx?
01:55
Reinitz: Yeah, that, it is kind of a hard one. But I'll start with the EDUCAUSE definition. So several years ago, we worked with a number of people in the higher ed community, think about what Dx means for higher ed specifically. And this is what we came up with as a formal definition. We define it as the process of optimizing and transforming the institution's operations, strategic directions and value proposition to deepen coordinated shifts in culture, workforce and technology. There are a lot of words there. But I think the really important bit is that, this emphasis on institutional change, which we think of as a, as a hallmark for Dx, and that's really a tall order, of course, to think about institutional change. So we like to describe it as a series of iterative journeys that build on each other. So each of those journeys would be focused on addressing a specific strategic goal or challenge or need that the institution has. And it's a series of journeys, because you might need to start with some foundational work before you can really start making major changes. So for example, you might need to align your IT governance better with institutional strategy, so you can be sure that you're making good decisions. You do that, and then you move on to the next journey. And each journey builds on the one before. So the definition that we use really involves around intentional institutional change, made possible through strategic shifts in culture, workforce and technology.
03:20
Kelly: Obviously, I think Dx is something every institution sort of has to define that journey for itself. So what's the best way to, to approach that figuring out what your journey is going to be?
03:32
Reinitz: Yeah, it's a, it's, it's, it's another really hard one. And it's not so much that they're going to define Dx for themselves. But you're absolutely right that they're going to need to decide, define their approach and their own journey. And every, every journey is going to be a little bit different. The, that idea of transforming the institution, moving closer and closer to strategic goals is something that really depends on what that goal is going to be. And so I think, coming, doing a lot of work to, to first, think about the strategy that you're, the, the strategic goals the institution is aiming for. And starting there as a way to think about it. One way to think about it is that Dx gives institutions a way to work on their value proposition. So for example, what is it about that institution that makes it different from others? Why would students go there, for example? They're trying to differentiate themselves from other institutions, so the, the purpose and context for Dx is going to be different across different institutions, as they work towards their own strategic aims and try to address their own different challenges.