Campus Technology Insider Podcast August 2022
Listen: The Revolution in Higher Education Will Be Led Through Data
00:08
Rhea Kelly: Hello, and welcome to the Campus Technology Insider podcast. I'm Rhea Kelly, editor in chief of Campus Technology, and your host.
It's one thing to talk about innovation, but another thing to actually make it happen. Driving actual change is all about timing — having the right idea at the right moment, according to Phil Komarny, chief innovation officer at an institution known for innovation: Maryville University. And that moment is now: Phil sees COVID as a catalyst for utilizing data to revolutionize higher education and the student experience. In this episode of the podcast, we talked about the potential of verifiable credentials, why graduation should not be the end of a student's learning journey, helping students make the most of their own data, and more. FYI: A couple of brief spots in this episode have mild adult language. Here's our chat.
Hi Phil, welcome to the podcast.
Phil Komarny: Hi Rhea, great to be here.
Kelly: So I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your role as chief innovation officer at Maryville University, and kind of what does it mean to be a chief innovation officer in higher ed?
01:25
Komarny: Well, that's a great question. I think it's, it's different wherever, wherever you ask that question. I think innovation inside of the higher ed vertical is looked at in many different ways. A lot of people love to talk about innovation; little, a lot of people don't do it, though. I think Maryville is all about action, or thinking about how innovation can take our, take our university to that next level. So my job is really helping, you know, our teams really understand how to implement technology in more of a collective fashion, so we can all be a part of that change. And I think innovation at Maryville is all about, is all about change, is all about positive change that's going to reach more and more students. So I'm really inspired by the university, the president and the team there. So much so I left a really great job, I was, loved my work I was doing at Salesforce as their chief innovation officer, or vice president of innovation. And really saw innovation happening at Maryville, so really want to be involved in some actual change. And Maryville really sees innovation as change, not as theater. So they want to see things actually happen, not just talk about all this innovation and all this work we may or may not be doing, but really put something into the world that can reach a lot more people. So really proud to be there.
02:50
Kelly: Yeah, you know, I interviewed President Lombardi for this podcast, I think last year, and man, he is really inspiring. And what you said about, you know, talking about innovation and not doing it, it kind of made me think of, we did a digital transformation survey recently. And that was one of the big complaints that people had when they're, we were, we were asking questions about, you know, how far along is your institution and its digital transformation. And there were a lot of complaints about, you know, we talk about things and we don't do them. So it's kind of a parallel, there.
03:24
Komarny: It is. I see it across, I mean, from a previous vantage point at my former employer, seeing that for many sectors. I think education and government are the two, well healthcare is another one, those three are really kind of resistant — they have like corporate immune systems to change, a lot of times, where there's a lot of things in place that are there forever, and they've been there forever, and we're never going to change them. Some things are great to do that with, but a lot of things, and those three sectors really block and stifle a lot of innovation, where it becomes innovation theater, where we think about things and we talk about it, but we actually don't affect the change. I am not interested in that type of innovation personally. And neither is Maryville. So that's why it's a nice fit, and I think we're going to do some really interesting work here in the next year or two.