As they look to the future, college leaders have to take in a variety of perspectives. What big changes should they be making over the next few years? All over the college campus, everyone has different priorities. Faculty need more resources for their department, CIOs are focused on supporting BYOD on campus, presidents want to improve their school rankings, and academic officers are prioritizing innovation of the curriculum. Today, we’ve taken a look at some of the improvements that are on the top of college students’ wish lists.
Increased Use of Student Data
Higher-ed experts anticipate that predictive analytics will be a major tech trend in 2017, and students couldn’t agree more. Surprisingly, 98 percent of students want their schools to use their personal data to create an optimized college experience, according to an Ellucian survey. They are positive that their schools can create meaningful changes based on their data within the next 10 years. As colleges begin to harness more data – their graduation progress, enrolled courses, financial, and even healthcare – they can offer additional support in scheduling advising sessions, joining student organizations that fit their interests, suggesting course registrations, and applying for housing.
Bigger Focus on Career Outcomes
There’s been a long discussion around the value of the college degree. And while students are confident that higher education will improve their lives, they believe its primary purpose should be to improve the employability in the real world. For the colleges and universities they attend, they have one specific piece of advice: foster an entrepreneurial environment. Several student groups feel strongly that their college courses should be designed by industry experts, not just academics, who can better prepare them for jobs at their companies when they graduate. They look forward to the future growth of opportunities that will enrich higher education, such as mentoring, certifications, work-based learning, entrepreneurship, and managing change and personal growth.
Better Classroom Technology
Students’ dependence on technology is continually rising. As technology plays a very active role in their daily lives, students are becoming dissatisfied with the technology offerings in college classrooms. Nearly one in five students expressed dissatisfaction with the technology in their classroom, which has doubled since 2015, according to a recent survey by Wakefield Research for VitalSource. Many feel that their grades and success in their college courses would be significantly improved with better classroom technology tools, including online courses, digital collaboration tools, and homework that included video and other interactive elements.
