Business as Usual

By Steve Kolowich. DENVER -- The idea that colleges should be more data-driven has some traction in executive circles. But few campus technology officers think their institutions are making smart investments in technology tools that would realize the promise of “Big Data,” according to a new survey from the Campus Computing Project. Only 23 percent of technology officials in the project’s annual survey rated their institution’s investment in technology resources aimed at “data analysis and managerial analytics” as “very effective.”
That is a cold water bath for proponents of Big Data in academe, many of whom occupy other leadership positions. Presidents and provosts, in separate surveys conducted earlier this year by the organization (in collaboration with Inside Higher Ed), assessed the effectiveness of data-related technology investments more favorably. The technology officials also gave low ratings to their I.T. infrastructures for “data warehousing” and “digital dashboards/ERP analytics.” (Most, though, gave “networks and data communication” good marks.) More...