Building minds, not widgets: technology for the business of learning

Over the past decade, CIOs in both the corporate and academic worlds have focused on creating an IT infrastructure that supports a variety of business processes through networks, mail systems, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It is clear that to enhance productivity and increase market share, IT must go beyond general business support to a model that improves core product design and quality. Such a shift should occur at institutions of higher education as well. IT provides a competitive advantage only if it improves learning effectiveness while containing the labor costs of instruction. Successful CIOs in higher education are those who can transfer corporate experience to a teaching and learning culture. Key stakeholders n this case, the provost, department heads, and faculty - judge them for their direct contribution to the key university differentiator, the quality of the graduating students. This is a formidable challenge, but one that CIOs must undertake if IT is to reach its full potential in a university setting.