When a solution is needed by a college and a provider has that solution, shouldn’t the rest be easy?
The Strangest Keynote Situation I’ve Ever Experienced
When I was with eCollege, we always heard from integration partners which schools were truly ahead of the curve and which ones simply had a good marketing story, but were in fact awful to work with. Likewise, we would hear which companies were great to work with and which ones were not. That even translated to a company’s values or ethical practices. But embarrassingly, I did not include vendor referrals as part of my research. I solely relied on college / university recommendations. And at this point in my career, having worked on both sides of the fence as well as sitting on committees like the CWiC Executive Advisory Board, we all know that there are thousands of failed technology initiatives which have little to do with the technology and everything to do with the implementation. Yet I contacted school after school, both the solid and the weak, asking if they recommended a vendor.
Grow Up and Knock It Off!
Higher education is broken. I’ve talked to educators and administrators from the most famous institutions on the planet. All of them have horror stories of how impossible it is to overcome the baggage, the traditions, the paradigm that is higher education. Not the Ivy Leagues, not the most innovative community colleges and not even the for-profits who were designed to do exactly that. The system is broken and at this point it’s hard to find anyone or any way to fix it.