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Blog Articles

Our original articles cover a wide range of topics, from project guides to in-depth advice, to help you in your Higher Ed IT projects. Feel free to filter by product category or keyword to better find what you’re looking for. If there is a specific topic you’d like us to cover or if you’d like to guest write an article, be sure to let us know!
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How to Innovate Effectively Within Higher Ed IT

The last three years have inflicted unprecedented costs on American higher education institutions, resulting in campus closures, refunded student fees, and a rapid shift to online learning—all as declining state support continues to undermine bu… [Read More...]

Published on November 27, 2022 | Written by Nuno Couto

Saving Millions of Dollars by a Thousand Cuts

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, higher education, particularly at public and/or smaller institutions, faced serious challenges, including declining enrollments, increased costs, expanding alternatives, and decreasing confidence in the value of … [Read More...]

Published on November 2, 2022 | Written by Eric Schnurer

How to Evaluate the Potential of New Programs

It can be difficult to develop budgets for new programs that reflect actual revenues and expenses due to the complexities of including retention rates, discounting and how students progress through a program. Optimal will describe a self-contained… [Read More...]

Published on October 19, 2022 | Written by Lloyd Russow

Data-Based Program Analysis

Challenges to the viability of the US higher education model have grown significantly during the last 5 years. Demographic change especially in the Northeast and the upper Midwest has resulted in enrollment declines that pose serious challenges to… [Read More...]

Published on October 7, 2022 | Written by Dr. Elmore Alexander and Dr. Michael Ginzberg

Decreasing Faculty Workload Without Increasing Instructional Costs

Among the numerous ways for reducing faculty course load responsibility without increasing instructional costs include two approaches: Adopting 4-credit hour course programs and focusing on student credit production rather than course credit gener… [Read More...]

Published on October 3, 2022 | Written by Steven Ralston, Ph.D.

Workday in Higher Ed—Learn From Other CIOs Who Have Implemented It

On April 21st, 2022, the Higher Ed Technology Professionals Meetup group met to learn from other CIOs who decided to proceed with Workday, those researching the options, and even those who went in a different direction. Our intent was to enable an… [Read More...]

Published on April 26, 2022 | Written by Thomas Goldrick

Improving IT Efficiency: Automation & Audit Awareness

On January 27th, 2022, the Higher Ed Technology Professionals Meetup group gathered for the third part of our virtual Meetup series on IT efficiency in higher education. We were joined by Tim Winders, Vice-Chancellor Information Services at Purdue… [Read More...]

Published on February 2, 2022 | Written by Thomas Goldrick

Improving IT Efficiency: Higher Education Personnel

On November 11th, 2021, the Higher Ed Technology Professionals Meetup group gathered for the second part of our virtual Meetup series on IT efficiency in higher education. We were joined by Tim Winders, Vice-Chancellor Information Services at Purd… [Read More...]

Published on November 18, 2021 | Written by Thomas Goldrick

Improving IT Efficiency: Knowing Your Environment & Communicating Your Strategy

A series of hard drives.

Going from good to great is hard. Going from “not so good” to great is even harder. Improving your institution’s IT function can be a daunting task, but with the right tools, knowledge, and expertise, it should be possible to create a better… [Read More...]

Published on October 13, 2021 | Written by Thomas Goldrick

Developing an Institutional Value Proposition

We have argued here and elsewhere that developing institutional consensus on a value proposition is critical to success. This consensus should drive both the assessment of current programming and the development of program growth. Competition in h… [Read More...]

Published on May 18, 2021 | Written by Dr. Elmore Alexander
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