Dive Summary:

• David F. Carr, Editor of InformationWeek Education, spoke with university CIOs about their role, the future of universities and their worst fears at the Consero Higher Education Technology Forum in San Diego.
• An unnamed CIO spoke off the record about the threat of MOOCs, saying, "Coming from the liberal arts college sector, if we're going to think of outsourcing that, what is left? We're outsourcing not just our core mission but our bread and butter -- putting it out there. So are we contributing to a disruption that's going to disrupt us right out of existence?"
• Pam McQuesten, VP and CIO at Southwestern University, believes online learning will become mainstream whether or not universities are a part of it; to survive, she says universities must "identify the part that makes us different" while CIOs need to identify "where technology may help us achieve this strategic goal."
• Andrea Ballinger, associate VP and chief technology officer at Illinois State University, said higher education leaders have known the advent of online learning was imminent for a while now, noting the "University of Phoenix was provoking us into thinking about that model." Ballinger stated that if universities don't want to go extinct, then "I don't believe we can keep doing the exact same things we have been doing."

From the article:

"... Pam McQuesten, VP and CIO at Southwestern University, said she believes university leaders recognize the inevitability that there will be 'fundamental, massive change in some way over the next 15 years, tied to technology,' even if they can't foresee quite how it will play out. The phenomenon of the MOOCs -- massive open online courses typically offered for free -- is just one manifestation of the disruptive potential. 'I'm using the MOOCs as a way to think about that and start the conversation over what promise does it bring, what fears does it bring,' she said.

One of the exciting aspects is a change in focus toward using technology to advance the central educational mission of the university, McQuesten said. Until recently, administrative and academic computing were often managed separately, and administrative computing tended to be treated as more strategic to the business of the university, she said. 'Academic computing really wasn't strategic for our institutions, and now it is.' ..."