Strategic Directions

EDUCAUSE strategic directions provide guidance for the association as it works to maximize its value to member institutions and the profession. EDUCAUSE continually refines its strategic directions to remain relevant to current needs and issues in higher education technology.

As approved by the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, the association provides programs, activities, and resources focused on:

• Knowledge creation and dissemination
• Collaboration and community
• Analysis and advocacy
• Career and leadership development
• Experimentation
   

EDUCAUSE seeks to:

• Be responsive and member-focused
• Proactively surface emerging trends and synthesize information
• Take a leadership role on important community issues
• Help members be change agents on campus
• Be an agile and focused organization
   

2013 Strategic Directions

Beyond ongoing projects and continuous improvement of existing programs, EDUCAUSE has identified three areas for major focus in 2013.
 

Connected Learning as a Game Changer

Connected learning—socially‐mediated resource discovery and learning support that reaches across and beyond the academy—has captured the attention of higher education. MOOCs, for example, hold the promise of rewriting the rules for scale, delivery, brand recognition, and learning. Institutions are exploring their implications for developmental education, degree completion, credentialing, and pedagogical innovations that may improve large classes. Policy changes associated with connected learning might be game‐changers, as well, such as state authorization regulations or credit hour guidelines. Connected learning involves enterprise systems, learning technologies, new models, as well as federal, state, and campus policies. New models and new companies are expanding the range of options for institutions. EDUCAUSE will analyze the landscape to help members develop a more coherent view of connected learning. Through publications, professional development opportunities, and special gatherings the goal is to extend EDUCAUSE’s game changers and futures activities into this realm.
 

Enterprise IT Initiatives

Enterprise is the largest single component of IT. While Enterprise IT may have been relatively slow to change in the past, mobility, cloud computing, analytics, and the approaching end‐of‐life of major systems signals that Enterprise IT is entering a period of rapid change for the future. In 2013 we will lay the foundation for a visible, credible, and coherent Enterprise initiative that brings together new, redesigned, and existing activities (e.g., in ECAR, CDS, policy).

Understanding Enterprise IT begins with understanding today’s environment. To do that, we will build Core Data Service (CDS) into the premier higher education IT benchmarking service. Expanding CDS from its current base will require improved data quality, reliability, and validity as well as an improved user experience through better tools, survey design, and education. A strong CDS will enhance EDUCAUSE’s ability to support higher education Enterprise IT and other areas.
 

Foundations—Improvement and Innovation

The majority of EDUCAUSE activities are foundational—either the core products and services members expect or the foundational elements of our enterprise (e.g., IT, marketing). EDUCAUSE will continue to improve its programs and products as well as to improve communication and collaboration so the association is as efficient and effective as possible. In 2012 EDUCAUSE began several large and demanding new projects, such as the web redesign, that will continue. We will continue improvement of other programs (e.g., Institutes, growth of online programs) and sharpen our focus on internal project management and information technology. The growth of the association is built on continuous improvement of existing programs, as well as on strategic innovation.

Strategic Directions FAQ

EDUCAUSE Values

Our community's values shape EDUCAUSE's strategic directions and actions. EDUCAUSE is developing individual value statements in consultation with members and community leaders. Here we provide a brief overview of what each value means, why our community considers it important, and how it guides our service to members and higher education.

The list of values will gradually change as new statements are completed; the list should never be considered exhaustive. We are working to highlight the core values that truly define EDUCAUSE rather than trying to capture all of the values that motivate our community.

Openness

EDUCAUSE values sharing, collaboration, and open access to knowledge and resources, and thus supports technologies, applications, and approaches that foster openness. Embracing openness as a core value commits EDUCAUSE to helping both its institutional and corporate members engage the topic on a sustained basis, with the goal of maximizing the flexibility and creativity with which members can advance their missions.

• EDUCAUSE Value: Openness

Innovation

As the higher education technology association, EDUCAUSE embraces the value of innovation. EDUCAUSE understands not only the importance of innovation to higher education but also the supporting role that technology can play as a tool for innovation in the learning, discovery, and engagement that colleges and universities offer. Together, all of us in the EDUCAUSE community strive to produce innovations that will advance higher education's mission of creating, transmitting, and preserving knowledge.

• EDUCAUSE Value: Innovation

The Common Good

EDUCAUSE values the leveraging of knowledge, approaching complex issues together rather than separately, and thus supports the use of information technology—as a tool, a discipline, and a mindset—to foster the common good in higher education and society. EDUCAUSE works to enable higher education IT leaders and professionals to advance the common good across their campuses, their communities, and the world at large. Along with the EDUCAUSE values of innovation and openness, this commitment is expressed by how EDUCAUSE members help to achieve it—through "uncommon thinking for the common good."

• EDUCAUSE Value: The Common Good

Collaboration

EDUCAUSE values collaboration for integrating diverse talents and experience, avoiding duplication, and sparking innovative ideas for serving the common good, and thus supports the use of information technology to foster collaboration.

• EDUCAUSE Value: Collaboration

Community

EDUCAUSE values community for the relationships, commitment, and collective action it catalyzes, and EDUCAUSE thus supports the development and adoption of technologies, applications, and approaches to foster community.

• EDUCAUSE Value: Community