Ironincally, the last time I was in Australia, I was first exposed to Campus (then Ucroo). This time, as I head back to the land down under, I go as a member of that very team. What a journey it has been.
Back in 2013, I was asked to speak at a summit of leaders from all over the world. The government of Australia was putting on a conference essentially asking a lofty question: “How can we fix higher education?”
I spoke about education technology and the lack of brain science used in every day teaching, also including the lack of neural approaches in ed tech. But I heard some very eloquent presentations about Mindset, curriculum, and content from some notable and distinguished professors and speakers. That was when I heard a presentation by Deakin University – a HIGHLY innovative institution – demonstrating various ed tech systems and tools they were experimenting with, so as to impact overall, holistic student success. One of those tools was this little startup product (and company) called “Ucroo.”
I was so taken with the nature of such an interoperable system allowing people to connect not only with platforms through single-sign-on / full authentication, but more importantly allowing all users to connect to one another and to do it across any modality, that it was one of the first things I showed to my new team at Saint Leo.
And to those who understood both pedagogy and technology, it was a slam dunk. Luckily we had a CIO who understood that ed tech was not simply about his team’s ability to control it, about cost savings, nor about licensing. It was about usage, efficacy, and he also agreed with my take on interoperability. He got it immediately. Others on the student success side did too. Despite years of sitting in the shadow of Academic Affairs, this tool would help every department gain insights into the whole student, not just the academic student. This was a bridge. It was glue. It was connective tissue between the various, siloed, disparate parts of a highly bureaucratic and political organization.
Beyond a portal, more than mobile, and a hyper-connected community system all in one…
So that connective platform became the backbone of the “ecosystem” we called “Lions SHARE.” But more importantly, it showed others just how powerful a strategic, intentional usage of non-academic / non-cognitive systems could be. Students connected to each other and to things beyond their coursework, impacted their success IN their coursework.
So, as the sun set on my time in Florida, it was really powerful to come on with that team and help other schools do what we did, but even better, bigger, and cheaper. There is a reason our company tripled in new partners we have brought on and will likely triple again this year.
All of this is coming back to me as I head to Australia once again, this time in a Senior Management role helping craft this hyper-connective tool. And as we have grown and flourished, we get to innovate even bigger and broader while still trying to fix many of the same issues and problems that are prevalent across higher ed. But unlike a lot of other platforms and tools that were hocked my way, our platform is being built by people who get those problems and know how to fix them, having lived them out for years. I dare say that might be our magic…our secret sauce.
And in the meantime, I get to work with some young and energized people who are hungry to talk and learn about culture, context, process, innovation, and more. I get to add my vision and my cultural considerations, alongside my seasoned academic colleagues as well as the entrepreneurial leaders, to generate both platform and service considerations that people are genuinely craving. It’s…well, it’s exciting.
So, as I touch down in Melbourne in about an hour, I just had to reminisce. This is where a lot of things were set in motion and I had no idea at the time. I have always said that Australia is one of my favorite places – the people, the scenery, the culture – all of it has always been so welcoming and enjoyable. But now Australia holds an even more prominent place in my heart.
I hope you get to visit “Oz” at some point. It might just change your life.
Good luck and good learning.