Global Higher Education Sector Technology Spending to Exceed $38.2B in 2016
February 25, 2016 | Gartner, Inc.Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Higher education leaders have shifted focus from reducing costs and driving efficiencies toward using technology to enhance competitive advantage and support emerging business models — and ultimately, the institution's main missions of education and research, according to research from Gartner Inc.
Jan-Martin Lowendahl, vice president and distinguished analyst for Gartner said that for institutions to thrive in the increasingly competitive education ecosystem, they must become more innovative and it is often technology that will underpin that innovation.
"Higher education is still mostly considered a conservative and slow-moving industry, with the majority of innovation coming from outside the traditional education IT organization," Lowendahl said. "However, it is only a matter of time until all this innovation will impact the institution and, ultimately, the CIO."
Worldwide, higher education sector spending is forecast to grow 1.2 percent to reach US$38.2 billion in 2016, according to Gartner. Higher education institutions in Australia will spend A$1.7 billion on technology products and services in 2016, up 4 percent from 2015. In New Zealand, technology spending in the higher education sector will total NZ$268 million in 2016, an increase of 4.1 percent over 2015.
Gartner has identified the top 10 strategic technologies for the higher education sector in 2016 and provides recommendations to education CIOs and IT leaders regarding adoption and benefits. It is not a list of what education CIOs spend the most time or money on, rather it is a list of strategic technologies that Gartner recommends higher education CIOs should have a plan for in 2016.
1. Adaptive Learning
Institutions are increasingly looking to adaptive learning to help solve the challenge of providing scalable personalized learning. Adaptive learning dynamically adjusts the way instructional content is presented to students based on their responses or preferences. It is increasingly dependent on a large-scale collection of learning data and algorithmically derived pedagogical responses. It takes two major forms: (1) textbooks, where algorithms are packaged with content from a publisher for an end user; and (2) platforms, where end users add their own content to an adaptive learning environment.
2. Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics involves extracting an analytical model from multiple sources of data to predict future behavior or outcomes. Predictive analytics are seen by higher education leaders as a key part of strategies to improve student success and save money through improved retention. A majority of the higher education analytics tools currently on the market claim to use predictive analytics, but there are relatively few tools that truly implement predictive analytics.
3. CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is now a widely recognized tool for tracking and managing relationships with constituents, including prospective and current students, parents, alumni, corporations, benefactors and other friends of the institution. CRM systems have two primary objectives — automating and improving student-centric business processes, and gathering data to produce analytics to improve institutional decision making. CRM technologies can be implemented to support all phases of the student life cycle — recruitment, enrollment, engagement, retention, alumni, career services and continuing education.
4. Exostructure
Exostructure strategy means acquiring the critical capability of interoperability as a deliberate strategy to integrate the increasing numbers of partnerships, tools and services in the education ecosystem. When done right, an exostructure approach enables institutions to leverage services from the cloud, rather than having to bring them inside the campus walls. Enabled by standards, it can allow the institution to adapt faster. With the increasing interdependencies in the education ecosystem, Gartner sees it rising in importance for at least the next decade. The future belongs to exostructure rather than to infrastructure.
5. Open Microcredentials
Microcredentials in the form of various badges or points have existed for some time in digital social environments in general, and in learning environments in particular. A key problem is that these environments are proprietary, which makes it difficult to display achievements outside of them. The aim of open microcredentials is to remedy that problem. For education institutions, issuing open microcredentials is a low-cost, high-value, technology-based capability that will provide more value and motivation to students. Open microcredentials is still relatively immature as a technology, but it is gaining traction in the education community. Gartner sees it as a clear strategic technology with a relatively small investment involved, thereby making it a low-hanging fruit with good ROI.
6. Digital Assessment
Digital assessment refers to the application of digital technologies to create, administer, report and manage tests and examinations. It is an increasingly important aspect of online learning as it feeds into a number of growing areas such as analytics, adaptive learning, competency-based education and new regimes of scrutiny, transparency and accreditation. Many institutions are making increasing investments in new assessment technologies. Often the impetus for these investments is coming from disparate parts of the organization, driven by different assessment needs. Assessment tools are becoming a critical aspect of achieving personalization at scale.
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