5 WAYS TECHNOLOGY AND IOT WILL EMPOWER THE CAMPUS OF THE FUTURE

By Rajiv Shenoy

CTO, ApogeeCTO

P E R S P E C T I V E I

2CTO PERSPECTIVE I

This rising generation is inextricably tied to the

internet and social media—long before even applying

for admission. They completed standardized tests and

researched competitive application criteria online, and

proactively reached out to and interacted with current

and prospective classmates in Facebook groups and

Instagram stories. In fact, 96% of college students have

some form of smart device and 80% feel distressed

without internet.

Faced with being outpaced by technology—and pressured

to stay relevant, manage costs and deliver healthy

financials — institutions are rethinking and evolving

their strategies and approaches to technology. Many are

turning to partners in innovation to show them exactly

how the digital media age can serve as the reinvigoration

– not disintegration – of higher education.

As Chief Technology Officer at Apogee, higher education’s

largest managed technology services provider, I feel

fortunate to be in a unique position to work with our

regional management teams on a daily basis to help

address challenges and collaborate with over 400 higher

education institutions and several hundred prospects.

In the first half of this year, Apogee leaders spoke with

more than 200 of these higher education decision

makers and reviewed over 200 strategic plans. One

clear takeaway is this: technology and IoT are playing an

increasingly mission-critical role that will make or break

universities as they strive to find better ways to educate

future generations. This CTO Perspective highlights our

insights, and looks at how Wi-Fi is a complex utility that

serves as a foundation to campus technology, and how

tech-savvy leaders can empower their campuses for

the future.

Throughout its illustrious history, higher education has been a stepping-stone to

the future, a mark of success to come. But a sea change is taking place! The digital

media age has ushered in a generation of college students so technologically

advanced that schools are struggling to keep pace. Many of these digital natives,

dissatisfied with their campus experience, wonder if higher education is necessary

for success. They cite innovators and college dropouts like Gates and Zuckerberg

and view education as an unaffordable means to antiquated career “ends.” They’re

creating their own markets, learning from each other on digital platforms and

picking up new trends faster than they can be consolidated into a lesson plan.

3CTO PERSPECTIVE I

This blended digital—in-person experience will

not only provide more personalized learning for

students but also more freedom for institutions to

orchestrate a dynamic learning environment. Fewer

resources will be needed as learning operations

are pushed into the cloud. Rather than managing

infrastructure, IT professionals will be designing

student learning experiences directly through

applications. And most importantly, education will

become more accessible, personal and affordable to

diverse demographics.

With this new learning environment, the regional

walls of higher education will come down–making

it possible for students to learn remotely or in

immersive environments, while also having access

to on-campus resources when needed. Residence

halls and on-campus housing will become more

central to the institution’s goals. As Living-Learning

Communities proliferate, the technology within

them will become mission-critical. Students will

not only stream Netflix and entertainment content,

but will also rely on the internet to stream class

lectures, interact with each other when working on

assessments and projects, and educate themselves

outside of the traditional classroom setting.

The “blended learning experience”—one which

combines online and offline—will be the new

learning process to engage students. Online

students want more of an in-person experience

and in-person students want more of an online

experience. We are seeing this trend not only in

higher education, but globally, as massive online

only companies like Amazon are venturing into the

brick and mortar space through the acquisition

of firms like Whole Foods. In time, our consumer

experience will be blended – a seamless oscillation

between online and in-person.

THE BLENDED LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS FOSTERING STRONG

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

1

4CTO PERSPECTIVE I

Admissions in colleges and universities

will dramatically change in the digital age.

At this moment, though, the admissions process

remains largely unchanged from what it was

30 years ago. Prospective students can research

a college website and chat with peers and active

students, but not much else at a deeper level.

Admissions officers noted the on-campus visit

process as follows:

NEW ADMISSION PROCEDURES

ARE DEVELOPING BECAUSE OF IOT

AND PERSONALIZED OUTREACH

2

They’d have freedom, flexibility and security to

tour campus in their own way. Universities, in

turn, could use important analytics to understand

what interested students during their visit. If the

visitor spent 30 minutes in the gym, the head of

recreational sports could email a 5-day visitor pass

to that student to truly experience the facility. Or, if

the visitor spent time in the Mechanical Engineering

department, the department head could reach

out for a lunch and learn. Utilizing technology to

personalize the admissions process – abstaining

from a deeper privacy rights discussion – will create

the more individualized, hyper relevant experience

modern students have come to expect in their day-

today digital interactions.

But what if interested visitors could register their smart device on campus Wi-Fi and embark on a self-guided campus tour, using their Bluetooth enabled smart phone to access various buildings?

Students come to the welcome center, listen to an admissions officer speak of the history of

campus, embark on a guided tour from a current student, and then fill out an exit survey.

5CTO PERSPECTIVE I

The consumer application of this is quite fascinating.

Say Facebook Live streams your favorite college

football game, but you miss it. You can go back to

Facebook and watch the entire game on demand.

Now, with Reactions, you can also do a search and

get a heatmap from the game as to how people

like you reacted. You can check where people like

you “loved” the play – and see the team score a

touchdown. You can create your own highlight

summaries – essentially replacing less individualized

highlight reels on SportsCenter or ESPN.

This translates into higher education quite nicely.

Instead of the same Facebook Reactions, institutions

can utilize “I understand, I do not understand, I’d like

an example,” etc. Students can then react to a one

hour lecture and a dashboard can be created for

the professor. The professor can see who watched

the entire lecture – but did not react. Well, why

didn’t they react? Perhaps they were distracted.

Or, the professor could see that 30 students didn’t

understand titrations and, in turn, can create an in-

person TA session on titrations. For students who

“understood” the titrations lecture – well, did they

get it right on the exam? If not, why?

The truly exciting prospect of the IoT for higher

education is that the more data we can capture

about the different interactions happening

continuously, the more we can improve practically

every aspect of the institution’s engagement with

all parties involved. This will only help students

succeed – better preparing them for their futures

post-graduation.

Earlier in 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Live with

reactions. Facebook empowers their users to upload live

streams of whatever the user would like to showcase. In

turn, their friends and followers can interact with reactions

to the live stream – they can Like, Love, Laugh, Wow, Sad

and Angry each segment of the live stream. Once users

react during Live, a timeline and heatmap is on demand

letting users interact with the data once the show is no

longer live and now on demand.

One of the biggest potential benefits enabled

by the IoT is a 1:1 journey that is personalized

and unique to each student—from the

recruiting and enrollment processes, in which

communication can be tailored to who students

are and the decisions they make, to the

orientation process and ongoing engagement.

Higher education can significantly benefit from

the latest advances by Facebook, Amazon and

the streaming industry in this area.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING IS IMPROVING

RETENTION AND STUDENT SUCCESS

3

6CTO PERSPECTIVE I

Cloud computing—moving data

and programs from local servers to the

internet—is transforming the way institutions

do business and serve constituents.

And higher education is no exception.

CLOUD SERVICES ARE DRIVING MEASURABLE

OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES

4

results in the ability to better process and utilize

data, facilitate information sharing, and most

importantly drive effectiveness and efficiency

across the enterprise.

The cloud also offers the ability to serve not just

educators and administrators, but students. Those

students come to campus with their own devices

and expectations about how and when they

want to use them. Now, IT departments must

provide greater interoperability between campus

and student platforms; 24/7 access to secure,

reliable networks; and the ability to create, deliver,

and share content campus-wide on any number

of devices.

Cloud computing removes typical IT constraints and

gives colleges the capacity to handle IoT technology.

So not only do they meet the digital demand, higher

education institutions will boost their competitive

edge in innovation, allowing them to develop

curriculum that encourages active learning. By

removing typical IT constraints, the cloud allows

colleges to do what they do best—teach.

There’s a massive trend on campus today in moving

old processes and systems into the cloud. In the wake

of budget restrictions, cost reduction strategies and

new efficiencies are increasingly sought after by higher

education institutions. Increasingly demanding requests

and service delivery times have made these considerations

even more pressing. The cloud can further their objectives.

Many institutions still use legacy or customized

technologies that are resource-intensive to maintain and

upgrade. But these solutions are not agile enough to meet

the needs of today’s high-tech education environment. To

meet these new demands, many colleges and universities

are transitioning to a model where operational applications

such as ERPs, CRMs, student information systems, and

even learning management systems are in the cloud. This

7CTO PERSPECTIVE I

For years, the population of post-secondary

students kept growing, the government provided

ready and easy access to student loans, and

people were willing to pay higher tuition rates

because the promise of a degree was so strong.

The belief was that a college degree was a golden

ticket to a good job, a steady income and

living the American dream.

TECHNOLOGY & IOT ARE MAKING HIGHER

ED MORE AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE, AND

PERSONALIZED

5

Today, that trend is no longer necessarily the

case. Enrollments have been steadily declining,

mostly due to demographic shifts and perhaps a

countercyclical nature of higher education. One of

the biggest means to combat this decline has been

to offer tuition discounts, but that mainly benefits

the top quartile in socioeconomic status.

Increasing access and student success as well as

affordability, are the keys to survival for the higher

education industry. And it is here where technology

and IoT, when utilized correctly, will have

profound outcomes.

First, through the efficiencies created, higher

education will become more affordable. The

expensive overhead and inefficiencies we currently

face will become more automated and lean –

reducing the costs. Resources will instead be

reassigned to delivering a better campus experience.

Part of accessibility is increased access to a quality

classroom experience. One of the benefits of the

new technology is it means more learning styles

can be adapted. Take online learning. Its interactivity

will provide greater access to the future of blended

learning. Students will learn wherever and whenever

they like and will venture onto campus for a deeper

dive into areas they need help.

Technology and IoT also give institutions the means

to personalize the learning experience, and this

personalization will only lead to better outcomes.

Professors will have more information to cater their

teaching to each individual student rather than

generic, one-size-fits-all approach. Students will

be more skilled and prepared for life outside of

campus. The personal attention they receive

will ensure they are receiving the best education

they can.

8CTO PERSPECTIVE I

To prepare for this movement, institutions must invest in

the foundational components already present today—

internet and Wi-Fi. These are complex commodities that

are better managed on a recurring basis rather than a

“one and done” initiative. Creating a predictable funding

model for innovation, and having a network scalable

enough to handle the fast pace of technology innovation

is the critical first step to achieving the campus of

the future.

Concerns of data security, personal identifiable information

and lack of staffing are top-of-mind for many institutions;

however, success in alleviating such worries can be

achieved in strong partnerships and collaboration by teams

who truly understand higher education and the ethical

tenets of technology. These teams should include not only

IT but the Provost, CFO and student body president as well

as technology providers and trusted partners.

While this type of sea change can be daunting, the

resourceful, forward-thinking and collaborative university

has much to gain by seeking out strategic partners who

understand higher education and the benefits that

technology and IoT can deliver to their constituents and

to their mission. When done correctly, universities will be

equipped and prepared to exceed student expectations

well into the future in sustainable ways.

While higher education institutions face a lot of challenges,

our experience shows that university leaders who embrace

technology and IoT will ultimately see more efficiencies,

reduce operating costs and most importantly enhance

student success.

9CTO PERSPECTIVE I

ABOUT APOGEE

As higher education’s largest provider of managed technology

services, Apogee helps colleges and universities transition to

and excel in today’s digital era. Its comprehensive Managed

Campus Suite includes network services that connect the campus

to enhance learning outcomes, video that transforms the way

students learn, and new digital engagement technologies that

captivate students and drive meaningful engagement. Partnering

with Apogee enables schools to derive greater return on their IT

investments and increases student satisfaction while achieving

budget stability and predictability.

apogee.us

By Rajiv Shenoy

CTO, Apogee

rshenoy@apogee.us