While no one expects higher education to have a crystal ball and predict the future, IT and administrative leaders must be prepared for worst-case scenarios. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that while many colleges had some business continuity plans in place, the formality and maturity of those plans left much to be desired.
While other campuses may have a room with a dozen computers set aside for esports, Ottawa University, located in Ottawa, Kan., provides its esports team with a fully outfitted arena in its Larry D. Peters Auditorium. The university set up the stadium with a state-of-the-art video production system and broadcasting capabilities, in addition to stocking it with computer power through a build-out with Horizon AVL and CDW.
The arena supports the university's goal of training students for careers in esports after graduation.
Women remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, arts and math areas of the workforce. Nationally, despite increases in women pursuing degrees in STEAM areas, statistics from the National Girls Collaborative Project continue to show low carryover for women into the workforce in these areas.
Textbook publishing company Pearson announced it will be taking all future updates to its existing textbooks online before releasing them in print, the company announced.
Hewlett Packard Enterprises has donated $10.5 million in research equipment for a state-of-the-art computer engineering school at Texas A&M University, according to a recent announcement from the Texas A&M Engineering Experimen
Aerohive has announced two new artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to help universities reach their maximum networking potential.
Demands on higher education networks have skyrocketed as current and incoming students use more personal devices than ever before. According to the Pew Research Center, 53 percent of students use tablets and 94 percent of college-age students have a cell phone.
Google has partnered with colleges around the country to offer students its entry-level IT Professional Certificate Training, Inside Higher Ed reports.
Augmented and virtual reality is beginning to come into its own as a functional education tool, but there is still substantial room for growth.
Universities are finding digital signage and interactive whiteboards to be a helpful tool in engaging students in new and creative ways.
While using a digital whiteboard has many of the same benefits of a traditional one, professors and students are excited at the extra benefits, including video conferencing, collaboration and content sharing, according to Phil Hill, a founder of the higher education consultancy MindWires.
The University of Washington is leveraging IoT for better energy efficiency, in part through its Compliance IoT Risk Mitigation Task Force, co-chaired by Chuck Benson, assistant director for IT, facilities services.
“We were spending about a million dollars a month on electricity, but we didn’t have the detailed information we needed to closely manage consumption,” says Norm Menter, energy resource conservation manager, facilities services.
